Mustard | Hacker News Reader

Mustard

chloelist.substack.com

106 pointszdw74 comments

I love mustard. It's probably my favorite condiment. I use it on sandwiches with any kind of meat. I have used it as a base for a sauce to serve with wild game , and I use mustard powder as an ingredient for my own brisket and pork rub and in a cherry barbecue sauce that I occasionally make. It adds a whole dimension of flavor to balance out any slightly sweet ingredients.

My wife made some mustard a couple months ago and it is delicious. It has a spicy vinegar finish with strong mustard base that almost has me using it like peanut butter which I also love. Her mustard initially was a full-grain, lightly ground spread that looked a lot like the Maille Old Style or the Inglehoffer in the first panel of brands. Very coarse and lightly ground. It was so coarse that I found that the grains frequently formed large balls and rolled off of the bread. The only way to prevent the loss of so much mustard was to use an airy break like sourdough, which I also love, to trap the seeds.

After we had used her whole grain mustard for a while we decided it best to grind it further so that it is easier to layer it in durable layers. Right now it is pretty much the world's most perfect mustard. It isn't as finely ground as the Kosciusko Spicy Brown or the Mister Mustard Original Hot. It looks more like the Batampte Deli Style or the Woeber's varieties. It still has many seeds that have escaped the grinder but they are now firmly trapped in a delicious mush of mustard-yellow paste so that they don't get lost on the plate.

I think it is the world's most perfect mustard now.

Thanks for this article. I think I'm gonna smoke some chipotle, or andouille, or hot Italian sausage or maybe all of those so I have an appropriate meat vehicle to allow the mustard to shine, maybe on a medium dark toasted pretzel bun for the added bread caramelization.

This guy mustards

It's great stuff. My wife also made some excellent spicy-sweet, hot pepper relish using jalapenos, serranos, pepins, thai and hatch chilies. It's all finely diced and the sweetness works fantastically to complement the mustard. It is the perfect way to manage the rich, fatty juices of a grilled or smoked tubular meat product. So much depth of flavor.

Oh I don't doubt you :). I'm a huge spice fiend (jalapeño mustards, horseradish mustards, and spicy browns are my go-to's) but am not such a fan of the sweeter ones.

The pepper relish is similar to cowboy candy which is a sweet jalapeno relish except that we used every variety of pepper that we had grown last year. Each bite gives a slightly different flavor profile and finish. Really good stuff.

Are you really going to wax poetic about the world's most perfect mustard and not post a recipe for your fellow mustard enthusiasts?

Use yellow, brown and black mustard seed and vinegar at a ratio of 1:2 (seed:vinegar).

She used apple cider vinegar and soaked the seeds in a mason jar until they had all swelled so they would grind easily. This will take 2-3 days, maybe longer. Add more vinegar if it looks like it is being absorbed.

To grind, you will spoon this into the blender and you will probably need to add a couple more tablespoons of vinegar and about a 1/4 cup or so of water to smooth it out. Salt it to taste.

The grind is basically done to your personal taste.

It is shelf-stable. Enjoy!

sounds delicious... what's the recipe?

I listed it in a reply to u/83 in this thread. Enjoy!

thank you!

> that almost has me using it like peanut butter which I also love

I'm relieve to see I'm not the only one to spread mustard on bread. (though I do it in part to subsitute butter/cheese on my bread)

It really enhances the flavor of most breads whether you add anything else to it or not. In that way it is a lot like peanut butter or jelly. Great stuff.

I can well imagine doing that with French mustard, or as I do, spooning it straight out of the jar. I certainly wouldn't consider doing the same with English mustard.

"Now that I know so many of the legacy brands are French, the fact that French’s is called “French’s” and describes itself as “American flavor in a bottle” is kind of funny (and American)."

According to McCormick's (owner of French's Mustard brand) website:

"George and Francis French, sons of R.T. French introduced French’s Classic Yellow Mustard, served over hot dogs at the St. Louis World’s Fair."

https://www.mccormick.com/frenchs/story

So, named for the creators in 1904, not for a specific association with the country.

> Francis French

This is a whole other level, since Francis basically means "French".

Also his name, said aloud, is a tautology. France is French.

France is bacon

It's still a funny / ironic coincidence.

> not for a specific association with the country

St. Louis is in America, so their tagline is accurate.

Interestingly, St Louis was founded by French fur traders and grew into a city by the arrival of all the French that were expelled from Illinois when France ceded territory to the UK at the end of the Seven Year’s War (the Treaty of Paris prohibited Europeans from living in the Illinois Country).

I can't help but think of this Onion article:

https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-w...

> All to say, it’s a perfect condiment and it doesn’t get the love and respect it deserves.

You should have seen the shit show caused by the great mustard shortage of 2022 in France.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/27/france-musta...

I could not eat for 3 weeks at that time

I vividly remember that, even our generous stock ran out!

The brassica plants are one of the foundations of civilization.

The other is the Rosaceae family, which includes: roses, apples, pears, quinces, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, loquats, strawberries, rose hips, hawthorns, and almonds.

I love mustard rather dearly, especially one that is sharp and piquant, horseradish mustards are some of my favorite, although you can't go wrong with a good sweet-hot either. At any rate, I just have to say that prepared mustard is an excellent base for making marinades and rubs as well. If you ever want to make a very simple rub for nearly any cut of meat that is intended for roasting or braising, just mix equal parts molasses and yellow prepared mustard (I just use French's) with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper for every 3 tablespoons of molasses/mustard, and 1 shallot and 2 cloves of garlic finely minced for each 3 tablespoons of molasses/mustard. Whisk together well and spread on, let rest to wet brine for at least 1 hour prior to cooking. You don't need a lot, and it helps to bind the salt and pepper in the meat as does the vinegar help to break down the exterior of the meat to make it more tender, it goes very well on a roast. Score the fat with a sharp knife before applying to help it penetrate deeper. I just braised a brisket flat in my dutch oven this weekend this way, using this as a rub/marinade and cooked down two yellow onions with 1 cup of beef bone broth to make a braise liquid. It was delightful, and the drippings made a good strong gravy.

If you like this and ever find yourself in the Madison, Wisconsin area, be sure to drop by the mustard museum in Mt Horeb (or wait, did it move to Middleton?).

It's this exactly in physical form + tastings. Honestly really cool, and the "Pupon U" T-shirts are appropriately silly (assuming they still do those anyway).

https://mustardmuseum.com/

They say there were commonly three shakers on the average table in the 19th and very early 20th century: salt, pepper, and something else (?). Whatever the third one was we culturally do not remember, it's a fascinating bit of collective amnesia. It was something common enough to be on every table right next to salt and pepper and also so common to not even be worth writing about, just some everyday spice.

Most theories I've read say this lost shaker most likely was ground mustard. This theory suggests we didn't actually collectively lose a condiment, it just changed its most common form from being a shaker like salt/pepper to a "sauce" condiment in a jar or squeeze bottle, which is also why we collectively decided to not bother writing about the change. If true, it's another fascinating reminder of how common mustard has been in our history, so common it wasn't even worth mentioning how common it was when it was sitting right next to our salt and pepper shakers the whole time.

> Classical watches display time, but can hardly do anything else. This limitation is artificial: for instance several people confessed to be often in want of mustard... and what is the point of knowing time if you cannot get mustard?

> The concept of mustard watches comes from this basic observation. They combine the advantages of watches and mustard pots: a quite accurate display of time together with the critical amount of mustard sufficient to cope with emergencies.

https://girard.perso.math.cnrs.fr/mustard/titre.html

As long as it is not English mustard, which is pure violence and no nuance to it.

French Dijon mustard is the safest bet. I quite like the American ones I can find in Britain because they're more mellow so a bit more versatile. Not sure about Indian mustard sauces, but they certainly use a lot of mustard seeds.

It sounds like you're simply using too much. Like Marmite, English mustard is best used in extreme moderation.

(Disclaimer: even though I live in Norwich UK, there are occasions where I'm more than a little partial to American mustard. I just try to keep it a secret)

You know what they say: too much mustard gets up your nose!

Good advice, also for Marmite which I still haven't been able to appreciate.

I like your "pure violence" comparison. As the other guy says, trick is to use it sparsely. Think of it as salt to be used by the pinch rather than sugar to be used by the spoonful.

I feel called to mustard jihad against ketchup

The author seems more interested in the packaging than in the mustard per se.

That they can put English mustard side by side with Dijon mustard suggests so.

From the subheader:

> Unbox Inbox is a weekly newsletter packed with packaging inspiration and observations

I'd say that is as much evidence as you need that the writer may have packaging as a focus.

Ah, thanks, I hadn't noticed that. I thought the article was about mustard, and was disappointed that it had so little to say about mustard as such.

If you find yourself in SF, do yourself a favor and go to Sam Wo and order the BBQ pork rolls. The mustard sauce served with them is potent and delicious.

"No ketchup here. Only mustard!" -Edsel Ford Fong

If your local supermarket doesn't sell mustard in one kilo plastic buckets[1], you may not use enough of it. :P

[1] https://haendlmaier.de/fileadmin/Files/Produkte/Diva-Senf/Mi...

Sure, but we only use Bautzner here: https://www.gls-eberlein.de/images/product_images/popup_imag...

If you enjoy the overpowering taste of extremely cheap vinegar Bautzner is the mustard for you.

I too love Mustard usually I use Colman's.

Now for my big pet-peeve, people using mayonnaise on Ham sandwiches and Hamburgers. Where that came from I do not know. but they should be sent to a reeducation camp :)

FWIW, most of my family uses mayonnaise in that manner, I do not know who got me onto mustard as a child, but someone must have :)

Trader Joe's Dijon mustard is heavily underrated for the price

> Mustard as a spice is one of the earliest on record, appearing in Sanskrit manuscripts around 3000 BCE

Citation needed.

Wikipedia [0] has this to say:

> Sanskrit generally connotes several Old Indo-Aryan language varieties. The most archaic of these is the Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rigveda, a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from what is today Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northwestern India.

I'm interested to know what this manuscript source is that's older than the Vedas.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit

Looks like everyone's riding on a single reference to this 1968 paper that makes the 3000 BCE claim: https://eurekamag.com/research/014/507/014507621.php

That happens more than it should. The Six Foot rule during the pandemic was based on a slide from a conference presentation in the 50s, citing a 1930s tuberculous study and wasn't relevant to viruses. A Medical researcher got onto this early as "social distancing" wasn't working and she had trouble finding any credible source and found the 1930s paper and then started following citations back into the 1950s to one slide. It was just repeated on and on with no continuation of the actual source citation.

[edit] here is a link to the original NYT article from June of 2020 https://archive.is/ZuSyc

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwu...

Archive link for research and education. https://archive.is/z14Ia

Wikipedia [0] also has this to say (emphasis mine):

According to the Saskatchewan Mustard Development Commission, "Some of the earliest known documentation of mustard's use dates back to Sumerian and Sanskrit texts from 3000 BC".

This site (which does not give evidence for the claim) is cited for this quote: https://web.archive.org/web/20160325032401/http://www.saskmu...

Perhaps it was a mistake when copying and pasting. Although, I do think it is important to note that it's not important what Wikipedia says. It matters what the sources say & if they are actual scholarly sources (and not just some type of marketing copy)...

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_plant#cite_ref-3

This is just delightful, but is no one else bothered by the honey bear mustard bottle?

I wonder if that is intentionally tongue in cheek.

Also: don't you think the bear has a mildly evil frown?

Is it honey mustard?

As a child I once ate an entire jar of the German stuff that comes in a little stein in a couple of days just to have the tiny glass. It was like the toy in a cereal box except for odd children.

Happily surprised to see some obscure (from a US POV, anyway) Scandi brands featured, but somewhat disappointed that Japanese mustards don't feature. Like wasabi, a little bit goes a long way.

https://int.japanesetaste.com/products/sb-foods-karashi-sauc...

There is a mustard museum in Wisconsin. "Museum" is perhaps a bit of a misnomer, but very alliterative. They sell and ship a number of unusual varieties. Ordered my friend's husband some for his birthday -- no complaints.

Let me see...

I think this is it:

https://mustardmuseum.com/

No affiliation. I think I learned of it via a public television broadcast, or something similar.

I'm a newcomer to mustard. I discovered why I love Uno's Pizza Classic Beyond Burger so much. They put Ketchup on the top bun and Mustard on the bottom. I've now adopted that for at home when I eat Chick Burgers and it really pops. I've eaten french fries with it but I just never got the memo about how it is both a condiment and a spice before now in my fiftys.

This guy tried 30 common mustards and picked out the best [0]. I find myself nodding in agreement at his picks--hard to beat a bottle of trusty ol' Gulden's in the fridge.

0: https://www.insidehook.com/food/30-best-mustards-tried-summe...

We have a local variation of mustard that has only recently become popular nationwide. My dad is a diehard fan and I always found it amusing how he made sure he brought a few bottles every time he went to the US. He really didn’t want to be without it, but it also apparently intrigued some americans who supposedly really liked it.

Does anyone know what the Soviet mustard is made of? The one that burns you like sulfuric acid.

Probably horseradish which, incidentally, is also a member of the mustard/cabbage family. If you make mustard from scratch you will note that raw mustard seeds have a very horseradish-like flavor as well.

I've never had Soviet mustard (and my time machine is broken), but it might be just... mustard.

For fun, combine some ground mustard seed and water in a dish. Mix it up into a runny paste, and taste some right away: It'll be vaguely mustardy, and also somewhat boring.

Then set it aside at room temperature and go do something else for 10 or 15 minutes, and taste a tiny bit of it again. It will be like fire -- a seriously-intense, sulfurous heat that tickles the corners of the sinuses that you didn't even know you had.

It's an enzymatic reaction, similar to what happens with fresh pulverized horseradish root, and it gets stronger over time.

And just like with horseradish: To stop it at a given level of intensity, just add an acid.

(Those who mix ground mustard directly with vinegar and thereby skip the part where it is allowed to bloom with water, are completely missing an entire world of what mustard can be.)

A trip to Middleton, WI, is in order! https://mustardmuseum.com/

It kind of blows my mind that most people around me eat steak without a good Maille or Grey Poupon mustard. Thanks for this list, I'm gonna explore!

Huh, I’ve never thought to try mustard with a steak, will have to give it a go next time!

I'm allergic to milk, so I substitute with yellow mustard for cheese steak subs. It works really well for adding the depth of flavor and moisture melted cheese provides. (In my opinion.)

suggesting mustard as a cheese substitute is so profoundly, fundamentally wrong i am not convinced you are a human

Love mustard.. I relish the sharp tanginess, the spicy kick, and the complex flavors that mustard brings to every dish.

Makes my nostrils tingle just reading it

I like to add some mustard to a bowl of chili, it adds a tangy taste that's quite nice.

I do the same when I make stew. Take a large loaf of home-baked sourdough bread, and take a slice out of the center part.

Spread a THICK amount of Grey Poupon Dijon mustard on it, and throw that in the pot.

I buy Dijon mustard because it does not have added sugar, or is not supposed to, anyway.

If it doesn't say "sweet", it probably doesn't have sugar.

Try a spicy brown for contrast.

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