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Aromatic Mustard

A condiment made from ground mustard, spices, vinegar, and boiled onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Aromatic Mustard

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground mustard, salt, flour, pepper, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon.

  2. Mix in enough vinegar to achieve a smooth consistency.

  3. Add the boiled onion to the mixture.

  4. Let the mustard stand before using.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Mustard + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ground mustard
Provides the main pungent flavor and the body of the condiment.
Flour
Thickens the mixture and helps it hold a smooth, spreadable texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the mustard and vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and moisture, loosening the powder into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Let the mustard stand before using. Ground mustard's heat develops after it is wetted, and resting lets the flavor mellow and blend. Tasting too early can give a harsher, less rounded result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, flour, pepper, sugar, clove, cinnamon, vinegar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, flour, pepper, sugar, clove, cinnamon, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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