The instructions for the basting sauce I tried to make called for heating olive oil, butter, Dijon mustard, vinegar, and pepper and then whisking together until smooth.
I heated the oil, added the butter to melt, and then added the mustard. I skipped the vinegar.
When I added the mustard, it turned into tiny clumps and no amount of whisking would get it incorporated. What did I do wrong?
I don't think it was leaving out the vinegar; could it have been that?
Best Answer
The reason that your basting sauce flopped was the recipe was calling for an emulision (basically, a vinegrette) and by leaving out the vinegar you are changing the one of the basic building blocks of the dish. The sauce will require that you add the fats to the mustard as it will clump as experienced if you don't. The mustard in the original recipe is used as an emuslifer and may need to be cut down without the addition of the vinegar. To build a sauce like this, you should start with the vinegar, add the seasonings and any emulisfers (in this case, the mustard) and slowly drizzle the fats into the resulting mixture until all has been incorperated. You will still get a smooth sauce as long as you keep the order even if you leave off an ingredient or two.