Chinese hot mustard substitutes

This is the actual recipe rather than a substitute, and it takes under a minute plus ten minutes of standing.

Best for

egg rolls and spring rolls, wontons and dumplings, roast pork and duck, dipping sauce mixed with soy sauce

Cold water is not a detail - hot water destroys the enzyme that generates the heat, so a paste mixed with warm water comes out yellow and mild. Give it ten minutes to bloom, and use it within about half an hour because the punch fades fast. A drop of rice vinegar at the end locks in a little more of the heat but makes it slightly tangier than the restaurant version.

Made from the same powdered mustard and blended to be genuinely fierce, which makes it the best jar on a supermarket shelf for this job.

Best for

egg rolls and fried appetisers, pork and ham, dipping sauces, sandwiches

English mustard contains vinegar, so it tastes tangier and slightly sweeter and its heat is more stable than a fresh Chinese mustard's - it will not fade over dinner, but it also lacks that raw, clean, nose-clearing shock. Colman's mixed from powder is closer still than the ready-made jar.

Different plant, same family of pungent compounds, so the heat arrives in exactly the same place - up the nose and gone in seconds.

Best for

dumplings and wontons, cold appetisers, dipping sauce with soy sauce, roast pork

It is green, and it carries a faint sweet grassiness Chinese mustard does not have, so a plate of egg rolls will look and taste subtly Japanese. Most tubed wasabi is horseradish and mustard anyway, which is exactly why the heat translates so well. Add it at the last minute since its punch also fades within half an hour.

The other close relative, and the most likely thing in a Western fridge that hits the same note.

Best for

dumplings, roast pork and duck, cold cuts, mixed into soy dipping sauce

White rather than yellow, and packed in vinegar, so it tastes sharper and more sour and will loosen a dipping sauce unless you press the liquid out. The heat is very close. Stirring in a quarter teaspoon of mustard powder makes it read almost exactly like Chinese hot mustard.

Boosts an ordinary jar of Dijon up to roughly the right heat level when powder alone is not enough to make a full batch.

Best for

dipping sauces, marinades for pork, sandwiches, salad dressings

Still noticeably winey and acidic compared with the clean, blunt heat of Chinese mustard, and smoother on the tongue. Good in anything mixed into a sauce; a little too refined and sour as a straight dip beside fried food.

Listed to explain why it disappoints, because it is the substitution most people reach for first.

Best for

when heat of any kind is all you need, noodles and rice

Chilli heat is capsaicin - it burns the tongue and lips and lingers for minutes. Mustard, wasabi and horseradish heat is a completely different compound that shoots up the nose and vanishes in seconds. So sriracha on an egg roll tastes hot but wrong, and it also brings garlic and sugar. If it is your only option, use it and accept you are making a different dish.