This Mustard Sauce recipe has been in my family for as long as I can remember. Every year, without fail, it would be drizzled over thick slices of ham at the Easter table. My favorite way to enjoy this mustard sauce is of course over ham, but it’s great with many cuts of pork including pork loin, pork tenderloin and smoked pork chops.
Table of contents
Why This Recipe Works
The balance of sweet, savory and tangy is what makes this mustard sauce so delicious and versatile. The ingredient list itself might look a bit curious, but once combined, the silkiness and flavor of the vibrant sauce is undeniably delicious.
This mustard sauce is thickened with eggs and cooked over a double boiler (glass bowl set over a pot of boiling water). You could make this in a saucepan, but to ensure the eggs don’t get scrambled I recommend using a double boiler.
Ingredients in this Mustard Sauce for Ham
- Unsalted butter: the original recipe—from who knows when—for this mustard sauce was written with oleo. We don’t cook with margarine around here, so butter it is. I prefer unsalted so I can control the salt level, but feel free to use whatever you have on hand.
- Eggs: you’ll need to use large eggs (about 50 grams per egg without the shell). If you use smaller eggs the sauce may not set up correctly.
- Sugar: the original recipe for this mustard sauce used regular white sugar, which you definitely can do. I like the depth of flavor turbinado sugar adds, so that’s what I usually use.
- Canned tomato soup: it’s important that you use condensed tomato soup, such as Campbell’s. Don’t use a ready-to-eat canned soup like Progresso.
- Mustard: prepared yellow mustard is what you’re looking for! The bright yellow stuff. I haven’t tested this with Dijon mustard, but adding a few tablespoons of Dijon would be delicious too.
- Vinegar: white distilled is all you need here. No need to use your nice white wine vinegar.
How to Make Mustard Sauce for Pork
- Prepare a double boiler: set a glass bowl over a saucepan partially filled with water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Place the saucepan over medium heat on the stovetop and bring the water to a simmer.
- Melt the butter in the glass bowl of the double boiler.
- Gradually add the eggs to the melted butter, whisking vigorously to avoid scrambling the eggs.
- Whisk in the sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is fully dissolved.
- Add in the tomato soup, mustard, vinegar and water. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture is slightly thickened.
- Serve the creamy mustard sauce warm or cold.
How to Serve Mustard Sauce
- Drizzled over thick slices of baked ham.
- Spooned over roasted pork tenderloin or pork loin. I like to use this recipe for roasted pork tenderloin as a guide—skip the spice rub and season the pork with dried rosemary and black pepper.
- Serve it as a dipping sauce for soft pretzels (a favorite of mine!) Crunchy store-bought pretzels are also tasty with this sauce.
We haven’t tested this, but it should work fine.
We haven’t tried this but it sounds delicious. Add cream once the sauce has been removed from heat.
Mustard Sauce for Pork
Description
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- ½ cup Turbinado sugar or regular cane sugar
- ½ cup condensed tomato soup*
- ½ cup prepared yellow mustard
- ¼ cup distilled white vinegar
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Melt butter in bowl of a double boiler set over medium heat.
- Whisking vigorously, gradually beat in eggs.
- Whisk in sugar and cook, whisking constantly, until completely dissolved, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in tomato soup, mustard, vinegar and water. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, 7–10 minutes.
- Serve hot or cold with ham.
This sauce was not only delicious, but it was easy to make, and added a beautiful color to the plate…I made it for ham, but like Lauren said, it would be great on any pork dish…Thanks again, Lauren for this family recipe!
So glad you enjoyed this one Kelly! We love serving this at Easter—a family favorite for sure!
One suggestion. While the butter is melting whisk the eggs in a separate bowl. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the eggs. Then put it all in the butter to heat and thicken. Doing this eliminates the egg cooking. ♥️