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Mustard

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Re: Mustard

#71

Post by Projectiboga »

keville wrote: post #60
echelon_musk wrote: post #43

> 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 Af…

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

Re: Mustard

#72

Post by _a_a_a_ »

baud147258 wrote: post #58
doodlebugging wrote: post #21

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 ag…

> 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)

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.

Re: Mustard

#73

Post by _a_a_a_ »

sph wrote: post #23

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.

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.

Re: Mustard

#74

Post by sph »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #42
sph wrote: post #23

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)

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

Re: Mustard

#75

Post by pbnjeh »

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.

Re: Mustard

#76

Post by WorldMaker »

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.

Re: Mustard

#77

Post by ssl-3 »

jimbobimbo wrote: post #59

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

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.)

Re: Mustard

#78

Post by Kon-Peki »

stronglikedan wrote: post #47
scelerat wrote: post #29

"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.mccor…

> 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).
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