[Sca-cooks] Re: Making mustard

[Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise]

>   Is mustard period?  and 
> what are thoughts about it?
> =======================
> 
> Jadwiga! Paging Mistress Jadwiga!

*waking up from the post Northern Lights nap* Wah? Oh. Mustard. Right.
Sharon already posted the link, but basically mustard is the medieval 
equivalent of our use of ketchup. It goes on pretty much anything and is 
used extensively to correct humors and brighten foods up (such as, for 
instance, dried cod, brawn, etc. etc.)

For those who feel like discussing it, I'll post my theoretical musings 
here (from the handout):

Mustard sauces are among the most mentioned sauces in period food texts 
and cookbooks, both medieval and Renaissance. Mustard seeds also show up 
in late period pickle recipes and in recipes where an extra 'bite' is 
wanted.

Mustard was cultivated and eaten in Ancient Rome, and was known in 
France at the time of Charlemagne, and in England and Germany by the 
12th century (1100's). The Christian Bible speaks of one who has 'as 
much faith as a mustard seed' being able to 'remove mountains'; when you 
consider that the tiny black mustard seeds grow into 6-foot-high plants 
sturdy enough for birds to nest in them in a single summer, you can 
understand why! The yellow mustard plants you see in fields in the 
spring are a relative of mustard, Brassica Sinapstrum, also called 
charlock.

Rosetta Clarkson, in Green Enchantment: The Golden Age of Herbs and 
Herbalists, says that some monasteries actually had a monk called the 
'mustardarius' whose duties included mixing the mustard sauce for the 
community. Mustard sauce could be used on meat or on fish, and in the 
days when you ate fish three times a week at least, and people ate a lot 
of cold, pre-roasted meat, no wonder it was popular! Le Menagier de 
Paris suggests mustard sauce with wild boar, beef tongue, and lots of 
different fish, including eel, shad, loach, lampreys, cod, stockfish, 
and whiting. Anne Wilson, in Food and Drink in Britain, says, "Mustard 
was eaten with fresh and salt meat, brawn, fresh fish and stockfish , 
and indeed was considered the best sauce for any dish. As in Roman times 
mustard seed was pounded in the mortar and moistened with vinegar. 
French mustard had powdered spices added to it, while Lombard mustard 
was made up thick with honey, wine and vinegar, and thinned for use with 
wine."
The humoral theory of medicine also accounts for mustard's popularity. 
Medieval people believed that everyone and everything possessed 
qualities of moistness/dryness and cold/heat which needed to be kept in 
balance for health. The cold, moist humor was referred to as phlegm, and 
excess of phlegm was considered a common hazard, especially in winter. 
The heat and 'dryness' of mustard could correct this excess.

Mustards were so popular a sauce in period because they possessed 
moderate heat, and therefore were good with cold dishes such as brawn, 
[boiled] beef, and fish such as cod. Medieval doctors and 
health-hobbyists like Platina suggested it to counteract 'cold' foods 
and 'cold' conditions. It was drunk and gargled with in wine for sore 
throats; Dioscorides (a first-century Greek) suggested 'mustard 
plasters' to help with 'pain of long continuance' (probably on the same 
principle as Tiger Balm). But indications in books such as Le Menagier 
de Paris treat mustard as the basic sauce, except for salt, to be 
provided (much as we provide ketchup in everyday cooking today). 
Sometimes, the higher ranks of the tables got a variety of sauces while 
the lower ranks only got mustard sauce.

Hildegarde of Bingen says "Mustard is of a very hot and somewhat dry 
nature... Its seed flavors other foods." She didn't approve of it for 
sick people, but said, "One who likes to eat mustard should pour over it 
wine which he has heated. Consumed in this way, it does not harm sick 
people. Its injuriousness is removed by the heat of the wine. If one 
does not have wine, he may pour cold vinegar on it. Eaten in this way it 
is not harmful. If it is not tempered by wine or vinegar, it is not good 
for human consumption."

Platina says, "It is considered very useful to the stomach, drives out 
ills in the lungs, lightens a chronic cough, makes spitting easy, is 
given food to those who are gasping, purges senses and head from 
sneezes, softens the bowels, stimulates menstruation and urine, and cuts 
phlegm. When smeared on an ailment of the body, it shows the force of 
its burning."

Mustard sauces were generally made with ground mustard seeds-- black was 
considered better than white-- (sometimes mixed with other spices such 
as pepper), moistened with 'wine must', vinegar or wine. Honey or sugar 
was also added in a number of recipes; breadcrumbs and raisins appear in 
some recipes. (Platina says, "If you want it sweet, add sweet things; if 
sour, sour.") 

Mustard sauces were constructed in different ways depending on what they 
were to be served on, and the season of the year. Foods which the 
humoral system considered 'hotter' and hotter seasons got less 'hot' and 
'dry' ingredients (spices, wine) and substituted ingredients considered 
humorally cooler (verjuice).

Nowadays we buy mustard flour, ground and sifted/bolted in the same 
manner as wheat flour, but Sarah Garland in The complete book of herbs 
and spices, and Rosetta Clarkson in Magic Gardens: A modern chronicle of 
herbs and savory seeds, say that the modern process for bolting mustard 
flour was not invented until the 18th century (1700's). I

Instead, you could buy mustard meal in some places: Plat's Delights for 
Ladies says: "It is usuall in Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in 
their markets as we doe flower and meale in England: this meale, by the 
addition of vinegar, in two or three daies becommeth exceeding good 
mustard." (Apparently he liked his mustard mild too.) But mostly you 
ground it at home, either with a mortar & pestle or with a mill in later 
times. You could also buy your mustard sauce ready-made, if you lived in 
the city: Le Menagier de Paris directs the reader to buy "At the 
sauce-maker, a quart of cameline for the dinner, and for supper two 
quarts of mustard."

There is some indication by modern medicine that mustard flour actually 
retards the growth of food poisoning bacteria such as E. coli, though 
the addition of a weak vinegar actually slows this down.

The modern mustard most similar to period mustard is probably Dijon:

>From the Larousse Gastronomique:
"In 1390 the manufacture of mustard was governed by regulations: it had 
to be made from 'good seed and suitable vinegar', without any other 
binder. The corporation of vinegar and mustard manufacturers was founded 
at the end of the 16th century at Orleans and in about 1630 at Dijon. In 
the 18th century, a Dijon manufacturer called Naigeon fixed the recipe 
for 'strong' or 'white' mustard, the production of which was 
synchronized with the wine harvest, as the black and brown seeds were 
mixed with verjuice. Today, Dijon mustard is prepared with verjuice and 
white wine, Orleans mustard with white vinegar, and Bordeaux mustard, 
which is milder and brown in color, with grape must (the French word for 
mustard is derived from moute ardent, i.e. 'piquant must'). Meaux 
mustard, which owes its flavor and color to coarsely crushed seeds of 
various colors, is made with vinegar, particularly at Lagny." 

The simplest mustard is ground mustard seed mixed with vinegar, though 
wine and/or grape must were common too. If you want a basic mustard 
recipe that was used all over the place, you probably want lombard 
mustard:
Wine, honey, ground mustard, and wine vinegar. Mix to taste.
Let sit until its bite fades to the desired sharpness (1 hour to 1 
year), then refrigerate. (I asked the Cooperative Extension how to can 
home-made mustard and they came back with the answer that mustard is 
shelf-stable and didn't need canning.)


-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 
"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on 
imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." 
	-- Harry S. Truman