[Sca-cooks] Gluten Free Dijon Mustard

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Sat May 7 00:43:05 PDT 2011


Aelina said:

<<< Before there was gluten free mustard I made mine own. It was based  
on this recipe I found in Sarah Garland's Complete Book of Herbs and  
Spices An Illustrated Guide to Growing and using culinary, aromatic,  
cosmic and medicinal plants.

It is in this book I found the description for the use of flour in the  
preparation of English mustard, "dry English mustard is a combination  
of ground black and white mustard seed and a little wheat flour  
colored with turmeric. Mix it to a paste with cold water or vinegar 5  
minutes before needed.".

Further on it talks about how French mustards, Dijon and Bordeaux and  
German mustards were mixed with vinegars. White vinegar is an area of  
caution for many who are on gluten free diets.

I did play around with these mixtures in the past substituting the  
vinegars with gf vinegars or wine.

The one that has been popular in my house comes from John Evelyn's  
Discource of Sallets written in 1699 (I think this is later period for  
many of us)
"Take the mustard seed and grind one and half pints of it with honey  
and Spanish oil (I used olive oil) and make it into a liquid sauce  
with vinegar" (I used cider vinegar or verjuice). I have served this  
with roast beast or with salmon.
I am not a huge tarragon fan but I didn't have dill one year for my  
salmon so I substituted tarragon. It was pretty good. >>>

Where did the tarragon, or the dill come from? I don't see either in  
the mustard recipes you gave. Did I miss something from another message?

That first mustard recipe certainly isn't "aged" long! Is white  
mustard seed different from yellow? I know much of the "ballpark"  
mustard is probably colored with turmeric but I'm surprised to see it  
being used this early. At least I don't remember turmeric being that  
common in medieval recipes, so is this a post-period recipe, or have I  
simply missed turmeric in medieval recipes?

And finally, why is "white vinegar" a problem with gluten free diets?   
I thought white vinegar was distilled vinegar, often from petroleum  
products, and being distilled and then diluted to a 5% solution was  
almost pure ascetic(?) acid. Or are you really speaking of white-wine  
vinegar?

Thanks,
   Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****





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