SC - mustard history

[Terry Nutter]

Hi, Katerine here.  Linneah writes:

>Any comments on the recent article by Edythe Preet ( LA Times syndicate) that 
>said:
> 
>"In the Middle Ages, mustard was a fixture on every table.  It disguised the rank 
>taste of spoiled food and camouflaged the immense amount of salt used to 
>preserve meat.  The small seeds, crushed into powder, were mixed with the 
>leavings of wine - grape must.  Hence the name for this mixture is much the 
>same in most European languages...  When made by those who did not have 
>access to wine, mustard powder was mixed with vinegar.  Honey was often added 
>to minimize its sharpness."

Most of this is complete garbage.  They didn't eat spoiled food; and they 
had several techniques to leech the salt out of preserved meat (and fish).
Must is not "the leavings of wine".  It is reduced grape juice.  You see
it at some processes of vintning; but it was also made directly from grapes,
with no fermentation, as a sauce.  Mustard was not made with must; the name 
is the name of the plant.  Mustards could be made with either wine or
vinegar or both; or for that matter, with neither.  But people with no
access to wine were unlikely to have access to vinegar either.

What is true: mustard sauces were common and popular.  They were generally
made with a wine or vinegar base, and often sweetened (though in the recipes
I am familiar with, sugar and sweet spices are more common than honey).

>I like mustard but I don't often see it at feasts.  Was it really as ubiquitous as the 
>above makes it sound?

It was a common sauce.  There are surviving recipes for it, and lots of
mentions of it.

Cheers,

- -- Katerine/Terry