Mustard was my go-to condiment. I loved Dijon and stone grounds Dijon's. However, I lost my taste and smell in 2020 due to Covid-19. When my taste came back everything was fine but my smell didn't return for months. When it did, MANY things have an acrid taste to it. Dijon mustard, Pepsi, Coke, even Iceburg lettuce in different cuts (shredded is fine but in whole leaf I have issues) all taste the same and its so acrid that I can't touch the stuff any more.
Bog standard French's Yellow Mustard still rocks even if the taste is a little dulled due to my new smeller.
So the story is a bitter sweet for me... almost literally lol.
Same taste/smell story! Had Covid March of 2020, lost taste/smell and now most mustards, Dijons and greens (cabbage, iceberg) taste "acrid". This is the first time I've read someone else having this specific taste change. DM me because I'd like to collaborate to find what the common ingredient might be.
Best dijon I have found is called "Maille L'Originale." Got it first in the French Antilles but then found it widely distributed in the US. Highly recommend.
This was quite a fun read - especially the self-deprecating humor and the little vignettes about how and where the author sampled the different mustards - but I was pretty surprised by the narrow selection.
In various parts of Europe there's a strong tradition of very geographically-specific types of mustard - often differing greatly in texture, strength, color and taste in neighboring towns or regions.
Also mustards can be seasonal - here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas, for instance - not to mention that people make their own mustards (also usually based on regional preferences).
>here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas
I have a theory that desserts that are only on holidays really sort of suck or they would have broken out of the holiday and are just getting by on the nostalgia factor - how are these mustards you talk about?
Also can you name some of them? I guess I can always take the train over to Malmö in a couple of months to pick some up to test the quality myself.
When you go to Greenpoint, Brooklyn's Polish neighborhood, there are supermarkets with multiple shelves dedicated to mustard with the slight regional and stylistic variation that you describe. I assume that the narrow selection was based on attempting to recreate Beard's list rather than all of the mustards available to a New Yorker.
I had the same impression regarding breadth. There's local mustards all over the US, which I was expecting more of. I still enjoyed reading it but was expecting something a little different.
Barry Levenson, curator and CMO — "chief mustard officer" — of the National Mustard Museum, says a fit of despair led him to create the museum in 1986.
"My beloved Boston Red Sox lost the World Series," he says. "Decided I need a hobby to get over my depression. That's the morning I began collecting jars of mustard."
And Levenson, a lawyer by trade, quickly saw his hobby turn into an obsession.
"I argued a case at the U.S. Supreme Court," he says. "On my way to the court, I saw this little jar of mustard on a discarded room-service tray. I didn't have time to go back to my room. So I brought it with me and argued — and I had a jar of mustard in my pocket."
I'd also like to add English mustard to that list, most notably the Colmans's brand. I found it odd to not be there but I suppose it's not a thing found commonly abroad? It's ubiquitous in the UK - like French's is the the US. It comes in both a bottle and powdered form, with the later capable of blowing a mans head clean off. Closer to Wasabi from my experience.
I gave a bottle of the stuff as a present to my host when on a rugby tour in Canada. Didn't mention that it's not the type you use on hotdogs (it's generally used as a condiment for a roast dinner with beef, used sparingly). I received a very funny video a week later of them as a dribbling mess.
Mustard snobs would point out that Maille doesn't deserve it's heritage mystique as they haven't used mustard seeds from their historical home of Burgundy for many years. They are all imported from Canada, probably coinciding with the purchase by Unilever(?).
There are tons of different Polish mustard's that are really nice as well. They are very easy to find in the UK. I'm sure that would be the case in the US as well if you know where to look.
You answered my primary question about the article's contents - the lack of lumpy mustard coverage is unfortunate. I find I require my fancy mustards to be composed almost entirely of whole seeds, otherwise a regional ballpark mustard does the job.
Also I will check out karashi, thanks. Is it like wasabi where the traditional preparation is rare but there's a passable industrial simulation universally available?
German Senf mustards (have one running dangerously low in the fridge from Munich) changed my sausage and (some) grilled meat consumption experience.
I still enjoy other types from time to time, east european, dijon with seeds etc. but Senf's mild taste allows me to appreciate meat flavors so much more and it pairs well with practically anything.
Now I prefer it to any other mustard, apart from making sauces paired with white fish.
> * German mustards! Sweet Bavarian senf is obligatory for white sausage (weisswurst).
What I would give for a real Weisswurst, even in Portland basically impossible to find. There are a few attempts but nothing that comes close to a real Bavarian one.
American? You mean what's widely available in USA?
Sweet/acidic 'mustard' just is not mustard. That is marketing BS, maube catered to youngsters who cannot yet handle spicy food? It is something else than mustard, containing a little bit of mustard, like mayonaisse does. A chararacteristic element of mustard is the fact it is spicy. Therefore, mustard is always spicy. If they specifically mention spicy, it is very spicy.
As long as I get real mustard when it looks like it (mentions mustard), and its mentioned when its spicy (read: more than normal mustard), I am happy. When I get that acidic/sweet crap I am not happy. Its easy to recognize though. The color is lighter than the real deal, and the structure is very creamy.
I just buy local mustard, Zaanse and Groninger. But the structure isn't creamy and you need to mix them before grabbing content else you end up with an acidic leftover in the bottle.
I'm also a mustard lover and appreciate that the author didn't try to rank them - different mustards should be used for different occasions.
I will admit that I found it a bit amusing that this article appeared on the front page of HN with "Where Do Type Systems Come From". Clearly mustard type systems come from James Beard and now Jason Diamond.
Does anybody happen to know anything about the origins of the "Chinese hot mustard" condiment?
It's ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants in the US, but my friend in China tells me that nobody in China actually eats the stuff. I spent a solid weekend researching this, even poring over Chinese language source materials + Google translate with no luck.
Mainly I want to know: is it true that this isn't a thing in China, and when and why did it start appearing in American Chinese restaurants?
When I was touring Moutarderie Edmond Fallot [1] this summer they told us that mustard makers suffered the phylloxera crisis [1] more than the winemakers.
Originally, mustard was made out of the mix of mustard grains and the juice of bordelais grapes. Since bordelais was quite sour, it was not of particular importance to wine production. Once phylloxera hit, winemakers started rescuing important grape varieties and lost all bordelais species.
Since mid-XIX century, mustard is made out of, well, mustard grains, vinegar and water.
I met the owner/operators of thetasteofgermany at the Christmas Market by the National Portrait Gallery just before Christmas 2019. German ex-pats, they were extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and excited to hear I had just returned from living in Germany. They have excellent products on offer---just what I was looking for to make it easy for me to answer the constant question I'd get: "What would you bring back from Germany if you could?"!
If you like Chinese mustard, you ought to try Russian “gorchitsa”, which stands for mustard in Russian. It’s very spicy, probably on a level of wasabi, which ought to be included too, now that I think of it.
I love the idea of honey mustards but dislike that almost all of them are dijons. Admittedly, that's partly in my case to do with a sensitivity issue with eggs and trying to avoid dijons generally, but beyond that I find dijons naturally already tend to be lighter/sweeter to start with and adding honey to that just moves things way over the balance scale to "too sweet" territory.
It's also unapologetically spicy, not just in a very strong mustard tang, but also a very nice balance of a good amount of pepper heat to really counterbalance the front sweet of the honey with some sinus tang and throat heat.
As someone that goes through jars of Colman's and Chinese Mustards somewhat regularly, and loves a variety of mustards for different occasions in my fridge, it's the perfect honey mustard for my tastes and almost exactly what I'd been searching for in a honey mustard for something like years.
I’d love to know how the Trader Joe’s Dijon mustard compares. It’s made in France, cheap/available, and I always thought it tasted better than Grey Poupon
The best yellow senape mustard I ever tried is one I bought at a middle/far east shop almost 20 years back. It was different from others I knew for having a harder consistency, a bit harder than peanut butter to give an idea; I had to apply some force with a spoon in its big jar to cut a piece. Used it to give more flavor to meat by putting it in the frying pan along with oil and other spices, and the result was delicious.
Unfortunately I don't recall the name, the shop changed owner although it still sells oriental spices, but now they have no idea of what product I'm talking about.
Does anyone know if such a type of "hard" senape mustard still exist?
The one called the "Rolls Royce" of mustard, Pommery Meaux, costs $12.49 on amazon.com while amazon.ca has the same item for $58.64. Beyond the exchange rate, this must have something to do with duties or just plain greed.
I used to go to the Napa Valley Mustard Festival every year in the 2000's. I'd taste hundreds of mustards and bring home a year's supply. Granted, they were all local, so you'd miss some classics, but every year I looked forward to getting semi wasted and eating a ton of mustard.
Ironically my favorite go-to is Edmund Fallot. Got hooked on it in France and luckily it is easy to find now that I live 3000 miles from Napa.
I was surprised not to see Honeycup on this list. It's pretty widely available, and many delis/restaurants use it (I think I discovered it at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor). It's sweet, of course, but also has quite a strong horseradish-y bite. It's very distinctive, and some people are really really into it, though I personally only like a little and even then only in the right dish/mood.
I highly recommend anyone reading this to try making their own mustards. I make a couple large batches every year or two (whenever we run out) and jar them up in mason jars and everyone I know raves about them. One batch I made with a growler of hard cider from my local cidery that had been left in my fridge for too long and had gone sour. You can do all kinds of fun things making your own mustard and it's always worth it. Sometimes i'll throw some ginger in for a bit more punch.
My go-to mustard is Nance's Sharp & Creamy. It's not the perfect mustard for everything, but it pairs well with everything! Has enough "sharp" to make it interesting, but not so much that it's obnoxious and detracts from what it's supposed to be complementing. Love it!
[+] [-] zenron|4 years ago|reply
Bog standard French's Yellow Mustard still rocks even if the taste is a little dulled due to my new smeller.
So the story is a bitter sweet for me... almost literally lol.
[+] [-] lesinski|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hammock|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dheera|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] KeplerBoy|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] null_object|4 years ago|reply
In various parts of Europe there's a strong tradition of very geographically-specific types of mustard - often differing greatly in texture, strength, color and taste in neighboring towns or regions.
Also mustards can be seasonal - here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas, for instance - not to mention that people make their own mustards (also usually based on regional preferences).
[+] [-] bryanrasmussen|4 years ago|reply
I have a theory that desserts that are only on holidays really sort of suck or they would have broken out of the holiday and are just getting by on the nostalgia factor - how are these mustards you talk about?
Also can you name some of them? I guess I can always take the train over to Malmö in a couple of months to pick some up to test the quality myself.
on edit: fixed typo
[+] [-] kritiko|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teorema|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] temp0826|4 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julmust
[+] [-] avereveard|4 years ago|reply
My personal favorite is the polish mustard with honey, sometimes I just eat plain bread with it if there's no pashtet around to go with it.
[+] [-] bookofjoe|4 years ago|reply
Barry Levenson, curator and CMO — "chief mustard officer" — of the National Mustard Museum, says a fit of despair led him to create the museum in 1986.
"My beloved Boston Red Sox lost the World Series," he says. "Decided I need a hobby to get over my depression. That's the morning I began collecting jars of mustard."
And Levenson, a lawyer by trade, quickly saw his hobby turn into an obsession.
"I argued a case at the U.S. Supreme Court," he says. "On my way to the court, I saw this little jar of mustard on a discarded room-service tray. I didn't have time to go back to my room. So I brought it with me and argued — and I had a jar of mustard in my pocket."
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823...
[+] [-] dustintrex|4 years ago|reply
* French moutard a l'ancienne ("ancient" style), with mustard seeds left in. Maille's version is my go-to.
* Japanese karashi. Extremely spicy, so a little goes a long way, but a must for some Japanese dishes like oden.
* German mustards! Sweet Bavarian senf is obligatory for white sausage (weisswurst).
[+] [-] Aromasin|4 years ago|reply
I gave a bottle of the stuff as a present to my host when on a rugby tour in Canada. Didn't mention that it's not the type you use on hotdogs (it's generally used as a condiment for a roast dinner with beef, used sparingly). I received a very funny video a week later of them as a dribbling mess.
[+] [-] tweetle_beetle|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willis936|4 years ago|reply
My kin! I scoured the article for "whole grain" and "seed". Nothing. It's so good.
[+] [-] mirsadm|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dayofthedaleks|4 years ago|reply
Also I will check out karashi, thanks. Is it like wasabi where the traditional preparation is rare but there's a passable industrial simulation universally available?
[+] [-] saiya-jin|4 years ago|reply
I still enjoy other types from time to time, east european, dijon with seeds etc. but Senf's mild taste allows me to appreciate meat flavors so much more and it pairs well with practically anything.
Now I prefer it to any other mustard, apart from making sauces paired with white fish.
[+] [-] zwieback|4 years ago|reply
What I would give for a real Weisswurst, even in Portland basically impossible to find. There are a few attempts but nothing that comes close to a real Bavarian one.
[+] [-] psoundy|4 years ago|reply
https://www.kozliks.com/
[+] [-] Iwan-Zotow|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rockinghigh|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Fnoord|4 years ago|reply
Sweet/acidic 'mustard' just is not mustard. That is marketing BS, maube catered to youngsters who cannot yet handle spicy food? It is something else than mustard, containing a little bit of mustard, like mayonaisse does. A chararacteristic element of mustard is the fact it is spicy. Therefore, mustard is always spicy. If they specifically mention spicy, it is very spicy.
As long as I get real mustard when it looks like it (mentions mustard), and its mentioned when its spicy (read: more than normal mustard), I am happy. When I get that acidic/sweet crap I am not happy. Its easy to recognize though. The color is lighter than the real deal, and the structure is very creamy.
I just buy local mustard, Zaanse and Groninger. But the structure isn't creamy and you need to mix them before grabbing content else you end up with an acidic leftover in the bottle.
[+] [-] clement75009|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smoyer|4 years ago|reply
I will admit that I found it a bit amusing that this article appeared on the front page of HN with "Where Do Type Systems Come From". Clearly mustard type systems come from James Beard and now Jason Diamond.
[+] [-] vector_spaces|4 years ago|reply
It's ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants in the US, but my friend in China tells me that nobody in China actually eats the stuff. I spent a solid weekend researching this, even poring over Chinese language source materials + Google translate with no luck.
Mainly I want to know: is it true that this isn't a thing in China, and when and why did it start appearing in American Chinese restaurants?
[+] [-] sam_lowry_|4 years ago|reply
Originally, mustard was made out of the mix of mustard grains and the juice of bordelais grapes. Since bordelais was quite sour, it was not of particular importance to wine production. Once phylloxera hit, winemakers started rescuing important grape varieties and lost all bordelais species.
Since mid-XIX century, mustard is made out of, well, mustard grains, vinegar and water.
[1] https://www.fallot.com/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight
[+] [-] c6400sc|4 years ago|reply
https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/mautner-austrian-hot-musta...
[+] [-] evanb|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VincentEvans|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scns|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bserge|4 years ago|reply
It has a strong initial "kick" then the taste is pretty mild.
Like, English, French, German mustard taste and wasabi "sticks" for a longer time.
[+] [-] Miiko|4 years ago|reply
> Zakuson Gourmet Mustard
The actual name is "тещина горчица" = "mother-in-law mustard", it's not for the weak of heart indeed ;)
[+] [-] Iwan-Zotow|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] WorldMaker|4 years ago|reply
I love the idea of honey mustards but dislike that almost all of them are dijons. Admittedly, that's partly in my case to do with a sensitivity issue with eggs and trying to avoid dijons generally, but beyond that I find dijons naturally already tend to be lighter/sweeter to start with and adding honey to that just moves things way over the balance scale to "too sweet" territory.
My favorite relatively recent discovery was a Kentucky honey mustard that is not at all a dijon! https://www.kentuckysmokingrill.com/product/grand-reserve-sp...
It's also unapologetically spicy, not just in a very strong mustard tang, but also a very nice balance of a good amount of pepper heat to really counterbalance the front sweet of the honey with some sinus tang and throat heat.
As someone that goes through jars of Colman's and Chinese Mustards somewhat regularly, and loves a variety of mustards for different occasions in my fridge, it's the perfect honey mustard for my tastes and almost exactly what I'd been searching for in a honey mustard for something like years.
[+] [-] mrpippy|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] squarefoot|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cf100clunk|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marban|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] SavantIdiot|4 years ago|reply
Ironically my favorite go-to is Edmund Fallot. Got hooked on it in France and luckily it is easy to find now that I live 3000 miles from Napa.
[+] [-] jimmygrapes|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] notacoward|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yial|4 years ago|reply
https://foodmatch.com/products/listing/ingredients/ingredien...
[+] [-] davibu|4 years ago|reply
Look a the recipe: 150 g of seeds of brown mustard, 10cl of vinegar, 30cl of water, 10g of salt
Nothing really fancy, even my son could do it.
The same applies to homemade mayonnaise, 10 times better than the industrial one.
[+] [-] scrumbledober|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MagnumOpus|4 years ago|reply
In 99.9% of cases the answer is "no" and procuring ready-mixed mustard is more convenient, cheaper, less messy and time-saving.
[+] [-] bookofjoe|4 years ago|reply
https://food52.com/blog/22456-we-taste-tested-8-mayos-and-li...
[+] [-] bserge|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taylodl|4 years ago|reply