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.)
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.
ssl-3|2 years ago
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.)
defterGoose|2 years ago