I tried 30 mustards this summer | Hacker News Reader

I tried 30 mustards this summer

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295 pointsthomasjudge222 comments

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.

My new favorite is the dill mustard that IKEA sells. (Seriously. It's awesome.)

I completely agree - the IKEA dill mustard is quite delicious: the flavour is remarkably well balanced, and the mustard itself is creamy but still has a bit of bite to it.

My overall favourite mustard is Löwensenf extra sharf (extra hot) mustard. It's the one in the red bottle, and it's a good hot mustard - I find it's really hard to get a good hot mustard in North America, so that's my go to.

I did not find it outside of Hungary, yet, but there they have a mustard mixed with horseradish[1].

Since this type of mustard is unknown where I live, I tried to recreate it, but never achieved the same balance as in the commercial product, which is sad, because, in my opinion, it's a match made in heaven! It may be, that they use a milder mustard, than average, to balance out the hotness of the horseradish.

[1]: https://www.univer.hu/en/products/mustard/horseradish-mustar...

i know several varieties of beaver brand mustard have horseradish. example:

https://www.beavertonfoods.com/product/beaver-deli-mustard-1...

Mustard mixed with horseradish is also common in Romania.

Maille has a horseradish mustard ("moutarde au raifort" in French), and it's one of my favorites.

This is my Favorite, it’s a balsamic mustard http://foxsmarvelous.com/

It’s good enough to eat by itself on crackers alone.

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.

Here I am putting that name through a search engine before realising it’s the exact brand of mustard sitting in my cubboard, which I ate for lunch this afternoon. My search is over.

Yeah it's in practically every grocery store where I am in Canada.

80% of Maille’s mustard seeds come from Canada.

according to wikipedia, a long time ago the French makers of Grey Poupon bought out the competing French brand Maille.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_Poupon#History

For those that like their mustard a little more raw, Maille Wholegrain is my mustard of choice. I keep several others (A deli, a horseradish, a brat) around but that's the true best.

I found that the Maille mustard they sell in the UK is heavily diluted with oil compared to the one in France. In the exact same packaging.

weird how that works. For me eggs are now a no-go.

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.

Have you also gotten phantosmia with smoke/cigarette smell? The initial reports that Covid was a respiratory disease turns out to be insufficient to describe what goes on. The virus gets into your brain and scrambles it up a bit, with varying severity. (Thankfully most people don't get it so bad.) Part of that damage occurs to the part of your brain that interprets smells - hence the phantosmia. Others have had luck retraining their brain using a collection of smells in jars.

Have not experienced this

> DM me because I'd like to collaborate

HN doesn’t have DMs …

Link to my website is in my profile for anyone who wants to reach out

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).

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.

>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.

on edit: fixed typo

I think it depends. Lots of the food is a hassle to make, so only done for big occasions when it will serve many.

But some of it I agree. Never learned to enjoy the traditional Norwegian food. Now it's "fårikål season", which is basically just lamb+cabbage boiled for far too long. Or "smalahove" where you eat the sheep's head. Christmas is the samme. Take ribs of the lamb and damp with salty water. Might be lamb I don't like, though.

We have a ton of Christmas-only or Easter-only desserts in Italy, all very good. I'm guessing the short availability window increases sales, you just need to make sure you always have something in season ;) It's more of a tradition than anything else, really!

> take the train over to Malmö in a couple of months to pick some up

If it’s Christmas mustard you’re hoping to find, simply search online for ‘julsenap’ before your visit.

Regional variations will more likely turn up at Christmas Markets (julmarknader), but even normal grocery stores will have more to choose from at that time of year.

An unusual tradition - a hangover from a time when people used mustard for its medicinal properties - is that chemists sell julsenap at Christmas.

There are literally dozens of varieties to choose from nowadays - some of them including unconventional flavorings and spices. Here’s one example (not a recommendation! I’ve never tried this - just googled julsenap and this was one) which includes chili and lemon: https://dellback.se/hovsenap-julsenap-chili-citron

Where does one find the mustard (Johnny's Senap) that this site recommends with split pea soup? IKEA?

https://www.swedishfood.com/swedish-food-recipes-starters/13...

First hit I got: https://www.totallyswedish.com/products/johnnys-mustard-410.

Ikea generally sell mostly their own brands, at least here in Sweden.

I'm in the US.

Johnny's isn't good. For dishes like split pea soup, I recommend a visit to a Swedish apothecary in the month(s) before Christmas and Easter -- they have a great mustard which is particularly good for traditional food, and also (together with a creamier one like Graveleij and a little bit Dijon) great for mustard herring after my grandfather's recipe. :)

Just so I got this right, pharmacies in Sweden sell their own mustards? Or is an apothecary a different thing there than a pharmacy?

"An unusual tradition - a hangover from a time when people used mustard for its medicinal properties - is that chemists sell julsenap at Christmas"

To expand, egg nog is likely not available year-round in many markets because it is so calorie dense and thus, not compatible with (daily) life.

I also find that my desire for such a heavy drink decreases dramatically the warmer it is outside. My partner and I aged a batch of eggnog for a year, drinking 1/12th of it every month to see if there was a point at which the returns on aging diminished. It was genuinely difficult to be enthusiastic about sampling a glass of heavy cream, sugar, egg yolk, and bourbon on a 30° summer day.

Against this thought, which I have shared, I will oppose the pumpkin pie, which is a real delight, but almost always confined to American Thanksgiving, which has a strong historical connection to squash. I could do damage to a pumpkin pie right now.

On Thanksgiving growing up, my mother used to bake two pumpkin pies: one for me and one for the rest of the family. I've eaten 3/4 of one in a single day. I could easily eat a whole pie in a day if the shame didn't slow me down.

Just power through, you can do it!

Pumpkin pie with chocolate chips (dark chocolate) is one of my favorites.

I sort of agree with pumpkin pie, but I have had some outside of the season and it did not taste as good as it did in the season, which makes me think that my thinking it was good was because of strong nostalgia factor.

My main exhibit for this is the Danish ris a la mande which is during Christmas, it tastes great to me (nostalgia) and Danes if told it's crap will defend it. But foreigners don't taste the goodness, and really if I think about it when eating I start to think: "you know, a tiramisu is better, so is risengrød for that matter, this stuff sort of sucks but I like it."

Ris a la mande also has a specific Christmas tradition associated with it (you have to feel with your mouth for the whole almond in it, and if you find it you get a gift) so doubling down on "it's not taste" explaining the love.

I think your theory explains some but not all seasonal foods.

Many are originally seasonal for logistical reasons: before refrigeration, food had to be eaten close to harvest time or preserved in some way. So you have pumpkin dishes in fall because that's when the pumpkins are ripe. Likewise tomato dishes in spring.

Winter holiday foods often get that association because they are preserved. We ate them then because we had nothing else to eat since the harvest is over. That gives you eggnog, cured meat, jams, etc.

Once a dish gets a strong association with a certain time of year, I think it tends to hold it because the association is part of the enjoyment. Sure, I could have a mug of eggnog in June, but it wouldn't be as magical.

> I have a theory that desserts that are only on holidays really sort of suck

I have a counter-example.

I love peppermint stick ice cream, and it is impossible that anyone might not also love it. :-)

When I was a kid back it was one of the always-available flavors at the nearby ice cream shop. I don't know if was just luck or not, but now it seems peppermint stick is available only around Christmas, and even then I often have a hard time finding it.

Maybe this transmutation by nostalgia is the true miracle of Christmas. https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2012-12-03

> 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

People have time off on holidays, and families all get together increasing the available labor pool. Accordingly holiday foods can be more labor intensive than foods eaten during the rest of the year, which is an alternative explanation for why some foods only appear at holidays.

As another commenter mentioned, egg nog is one. Home made egg nog is a fair bit of work, doesn't keep for long (well depends on if you pre-mix the booze I guess), and is calorie dense enough that eating it year round would be a mistake.

Heck home made pies in general.

Also certain foods are a lot of work to get setup, but they scale up very well. It is just as much work to mull a little bit of wine as a lot of wine. Holiday cookies, kind of both. If you are rolling out cookie dough mine as well roll out a lot, and if you have lots of kids around, free labor to do the decoration!

As an aside, store bought eggnog is not good, if you don't like eggnog, try home made, you can adjust consistency, flavor profile, and sweetness dramatically. I never liked store eggnog, but on a whim I made it at home once and it turned out grand.

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.

there's also a whole selection of "mustards with x" around europe, so one can have it's premixed condiment available at all time.

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.

I love that Sweden also has Christmas soda-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julmust

From NPR:

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...

Not a bad survey of American mustard, but still missing several entire classes of mustard:

* 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).

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.

I'm surprised the powder form of Colman's isn't a controlled substance. Not enough water and its essentially death paste. Sneeze near an open container of the powder and you'll probably need to move house and have facial reconstruction surgery.

I pity your friend for slathering it on a hot dog, first bite must've been quite a shock.

Marvellous stuff.

It puts the "mustard" in "mustard gas" :D

I believe most mustard powder is roughly the same. The difference is in how much acid(usually vinegar) you mix in to slow the reaction which creates the spiciest compounds. Pure water usually gives you a very hot mustard with a short lifetime(i.e. 'Chinese mustard').

Colman's is mentioned.

"A few weeks after my Mr. Wonton, and since all I could talk about was my mustard quest, I mentioned to a friend the Chinese food thing. He mentioned that he’s also a fan of spicy mustard on his eggroll, and wondered had I tried Colman’s (12). I had tried Colman’s in the past, and Beard had it at number 16 on his list, but I didn’t think to try the English mustard with an eggroll. I guess I was too focused on the idea that Chinese mustard is best for Chinese food, and that isn’t wrong, but the Colman’s was a killer choice. Not as hot, but enough kick to clear out your nostrils. Big fan."

he shared a link to buy colman's on amazon. It was in a plastic squeezy container!!

The guy is not fit to write about mustard.

You can't have good mustard in plastic nor bad ones in glass? You must be extremely sensitive to marketing efforts ;)

What about "Don't judge a book by its cover"?

He's right in this case. The regular glass jars do not have vinegar; the squeeze bottles do.

Ok, I stand corrected, forgive me my ignorance.

Colman’s English mustard in a jar is hot: it gets used in similar amounts to wasabi as a comparison (most people would use even a teaspoonful with a meal).

There is no way you would put it in a squeezy bottle at the same strength, so the squeezy version can’t be the same. I would guess the squeezy bottle version is for the US market - it is unavailable in NZ for example: https://www.colmans.co.nz/products/

Ah, not sure how I missed that. I will say that the powder is my preferred choice however. I believe the squeezy bottle which he uses has vinegar, so is not comparable to the normal recipe.

How do you use the powder? I've used it when cooking a larger dish but I can't imagine using it like a table condiment.

You mix it with water (and optionally vinegar).

Or traditionally ale. Cider is nice too.

Vinegar is the troll of cuisine. It spots something good and immediately initiates an agenda to interfere and corrupt. It's a pugnacious product and can drive innocent people to madness. This is exhibited by the apple cider version, which a quick perusal of the interwebs will show those who come into contact with it often becoming delusional, attributing such panaceal powers to it as healing decapitation, curing plane crashes, stopping AIDS, and detoxifying the absence of good taste. The practice of not changing one's socks for months in tropical climates is not a recipe for good sauce. Why, then, foist this squalid fomentation onto mustard, or anything that hasn't wronged our species?

The entire Prohibition was based on the simple misunderstanding of this stuff usurping alcohol. If they had only known.

> (it's generally used as a condiment for a roast dinner with beef, used sparingly)

I'd suggest that horseradish sauce is more commonly associated with a roast beef dinner, but English mustard is certainly acceptable. However, it reigns supreme with cold cuts of ham. Also, I consider English mustard to be essential in a bacon sandwich. Just good white bread, good butter, grilled (preferably smoked) bacon and a good spread of mustard. Simple but stunning.

100% agree. Ketchup in a bacon sandwich is pure evil, and I've never been sure why bacon is even sold unsmoked.

English mustard is great. I'd say export it to Europe, but no one will like it because they consider French (and some, German) mustards superior. It's the cheese and sausage situation all over again :D

This is why I'm glad to be an American. I think.

>>He mentioned that he’s also a fan of spicy mustard on his eggroll, and wondered had I tried Colman’s (12).

> I'd also like to add English mustard to that list, most notably the Colmans's brand.

This is in the article

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.

Careful there; you dismissed not only Dijon mustard but also Bavarian sweet mustard, both very traditional mustards. Considering that even the word mustard comes from old French, it is worth considering that mustards can be created to fit more than just one taste profile. One local mustard that is extremely popular in my country in certain eateries is yellow mustard seeds mixed with an equal amount of room temperature water, left to sit at room temperature and never refrigerated for example; try at your own risk though.

Dijon mustard is quite spicy though, but it's that "up to the nose" spiciness. Eastern European mustards are usually milder and what I had in north is more spicy in the traditional sense.

One thing that I find surprising in France, is how little variety there is in mustard in most supermarkets. Basically you have a choice of dijon mustard from 20 different brands that all taste the same and then some "old fashioned" ones.

I would not lump all Eastern Europeans mustards into one bunch. Some Polish mustards remind me of the sweet Bavarian type which is constrasted by some Russian very spicy kinds.

> A chararacteristic element of mustard is the fact it is spicy.

Mustard is made from seeds of the mustard plant, not all varieties of which are spicy.

> The color is lighter than the real deal, and the structure is very creamy.

Except that Bavarian sweet mustard is way darker than typical mustard, has a very rough texture, and still can hardly be described as spicy/hot.

Also texture isn't really a function of the type of mustard seeds used, but rather a function of the way it's produced.

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.

If you ever find this one[0], buy it, it's the greatest. My local stores in the UK have this company's mustards in stock but not this particular (and superior) variant

[0] https://smakpol-doncaster.co.uk/110-thickbox_default/kamis-m...

I can definitely endorse Babci mustards as well for having a nice balance of flavour and kick.

>mustard seeds left in. Maille's version is my go-to.

My kin! I scoured the article for "whole grain" and "seed". Nothing. It's so good.

I really enjoy even the supermarket own brand whole grain mustards.

> Pommery moutarde de meaux: Truly excellent. You can put it on something as simple as a sandwich and elevate it, or you can put it on grilled meats like lamb or veal. This is the Rolls Royce of mustard.

This is a whole grain mustard and imo far better than maille.

My parents graduated a while ago from Maille's "moutarde à l'ancienne" to Pommery - definitely the more sophisticated option. Maille's "moutarde à l'ancienne" isn't bad at all though and it is actually a slightly different variety so both can peacefully cohabitate in the same fridge. I still have a soft spot for Maille's "moutarde au poivre vert" I grew up with.

I go through 10-ish jars a year of various brands of coarse-ground, whole seed mustard. Personally, I feel there is no better topping on most meats and deli sandwiches.

There is 'grainy', but I'm not sure if that means whole seeds.

OT: Maille's gherkins with caramelized onions are to die for.

https://thepicklestore.com/product/maille-pickles-cornichons...

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(?).

Is there a better brand for an "everyday" mustard in that style?

Ah, the American Dream. I can buy mustard for my burger and shampoo for my hair from the same company.

Just don't mix the two up.

Wasn't there a class action lawsuit a year or two ago asserting that Maille was Made in Canada but the labels led 60% of the people to believe it is Made in France.

I feel like whenever I see a previously foreign brand show up on the shelves of Costco, I know they sold out to some billon dollar conglomerate and taste and quality are never the same, e.g. Galbani Mascarpone - used to be difficult to find and was imported from Italy. Now you can find it at large retailers, says "No 1 in Italia," at times it is plastered with the Italian flag and is usually made by Lactalis, its parent company, in your regional production facilities. You can taste the difference.

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.

> Senf's mild taste

Just want to clarify that "Senf" just means mustard and does not refer to a particular style.

He should try Russian mustard, not sure if he could by it locally. That would clean his nose

If you like grainy mustard, I can’t recommend Kozliks’ Triple Crunch enough:

https://www.kozliks.com/

Kozliks' Triple Crunch is superb to make salad dressings as it adds a lot of texture and flavour. Their maple mustard is also very good for this purpose.

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?

Not that I know of, it's the same plant as Western mustard. The standard form factor is S&B's little squeezy tubes, identical in size to those used for wasabi.

https://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Seasoning-Paste-Plastic-Kara...

> * 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.

Less than a 20 hour drive away from Portland there is Continental Gourmet Sausage[1] (in Glendale, CA) which does pretty solid impressions of German sausage. I'm actually not a Weisswurst fan, so I haven't tried theirs, but their Knackwurst and Bratwurst are good and they even have Kaesekrainer which is my Austrian guilty pleasure.

1: https://www.continentalgourmetsausage.com/

The Moutarde de Meaux mentioned in the article has mustard seeds in it.

Reminds me of that classic Onion article: https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-w...

> "There I was, a grown man, planning a trip to the Mustard Museum in Wisconsin, when suddenly I heard a voice deep within me say, 'This is not what you want your life to be about.'"

"The Onion" was started in Madison IIRC, which is where the Mustard Museum [1,2] is.

> The museum was conceived and founded by Barry Levenson, former Assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin. It centers on a mustard collection he began in 1986 while despondent over the failure of his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, to win the 1986 World Series.

[1] https://mustardmuseum.com/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum

The Onion article is funny but I highly recommend the Mustard Museum (and shop!). A fun quirky place to visit just outside Madison and mustard makes for a great gift for anyone that likes to cook.

Came here to upvote for the Mustard Museum!

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.

I apologise in advance, but if necessary, will fight to the death in defense of Colman's being used on almost any occasion, whilst other imposters hunch quivering on the sidelines drooling at low hanging vittles. But as does Norris of Chuck look upward to Schneier of Bruce for inspiration and permission, Colman's looks to a proper habanero mustard for hope in a lonely world of vinegar tainted dribblings. Good on all occasions that don't involve zippers.

Edited: remove "e" from previous "Col[e]man's. Please pardon me for opening a potential Mustard in the Middle (MItM) vector.

I don't understand your reference to zippers?

Even during a time of pestilence where Amazon links infest every page on the web and condiments breach the discretionary ramparts of HN's frontpage, you must always mind what you handle after handling habaneros.

I have fought to the death and lost this duel, but Colman's will never die. Long live proper mustard! And habanero anything

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.

[1] https://www.fallot.com/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight

This is my favorite mustard. It's Austrian, spicy but not too much, and overall has a taste that is hard to describe with any other word than sublime.

https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/mautner-austrian-hot-musta...

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.

Not sure if it's just the cheap Russian mustard that I ate, but it always seemed different than others.

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.

I found real wasabi to have the opposite effect. Strong initial kick, then more of a nutty taste to it.

Yes. I was shocked the first time I had real fresh-grated (on a sharkskin grater — TMI?) wasabi. I had expected it to be really hot but unlike its ersatz version, the real thing had only an initial heat, which then faded to reveal a complex of multi-layered flavors and aromas, "nutty" among them.

I like Dijon mustard from France. To be enjoyed in moderation, the heat goes up the nose.

Yep, that would clean up his pipes

Russian “gorchitsa” was mentioned in the article and even named a personal favorite:

> Zakuson Gourmet Mustard

The actual name is "тещина горчица" = "mother-in-law mustard", it's not for the weak of heart indeed ;)

> Honey mustard is usually horrible

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.

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 first thing I did was search for Trader Joe's mustard in the article, sad they didn't review it.

As a French person I can tell you Trader Joe's mustard beats all the premium mustards in this article and it is cheap too.

I really like that one, but it is a bit on the spicy side for me. Just on the edge of what I can tolerate, horseradish-wise. Their mustard garlic aioli is good as well.

My favorite was one from Germany I bought at a specialty shop, can't remember the name of course. But, it did come in a little bottle that looked like a beer mug, with a soft top. :D

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?

Mustard is made by adding liquids to mustard seeds or their powder, which activates the chemical reaction in them to make them spicy. How spicy a mustard becomes depends on the temperature and acidity of the liquids, and on how long the reaction is allowed to go on - heating or cooling the mustard significantly will stop it, keeping a mustard cool once it reaches the desired hotness will preserve it at that spiciness level. As it is, I wonder what the ratio of solids to liquid was and if it was a pure mustard (without other spices or additives) since I have never even heard of a semi-solid mustard...

IME putting mustard in the fridge makes it lose potency. I've ruined a few jars of Colman's this way.

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.

Greed… or automatically set pricing based upon something strange.

https://gourmetwarehouse.ca/pommery-meaux-mustard-stone-jar-...

“Find something not on amazon and put it there at a hugely inflated price” is a way some people make money by finding obscure things to sell. If anyone actually starts buying it somebody will come in and bring the price down with competition, if not sometimes the high price is justified because keeping things in amazon warehouses isn’t free and spending the time to get something sold on amazon when you only expect to sell a few costs lots of money for the reward. The benefit is that you can find almost anything on amazon.

Now that it's Oktoberfest time (or would be), you should try Weißwurst Senf by https://haendlmaier.de fame.

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.

This one and the Fairfield Tomato Festival were the best experiences I've had at any such town events

Never heard of that but it sounds delightful. Where I live now, good tomatoes are extremely hard to find and growing them is out of the question (upper Northeast USA).

Did you ever do Lambtown USA in Dixon? You get to pet lambs, watch lambs get sheared, watch lambs get herded in competitions, and then eat lambs. It's a lot of fun. If I ever go back west when its own I'd totally do it again.

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.

Two notable great mustards not mentioned are the Divina mustards imported into theUS by Food Match.

https://foodmatch.com/products/listing/ingredients/ingredien...

At this point, why not simply make your own? The simplest recipe would be n time better than an industrial one.

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.

Do you have any advantage in either the quality, price, or consistency of your water, salt, vinegar or seeds?

In 99.9% of cases the answer is "no" and procuring ready-mixed mustard is more convenient, cheaper, less messy and time-saving.

The advantage of home-made food is that you have control over the ingredients.

Store bought mustard and mayonnaise contain such surprising ingredients like e.g. sugar or copious amounts of salt.

What store bought mustard contains sugar? I'm not aware of any, and if there are, they aren't common.

Also a little bit of sugar in mayonnaise is fine - in the US it usually relatively trace amounts to the most commonly sold ones in the Commonwealth.

While I broadly agree with this, I would say that my own attempts at making mint sauce were fairly disappointing in comparison with shop-bought - Colman's mint sauce is an awful lot nicer than anything I was able to make, and (though I've never tried to make it) I bet their wonderful mustard is too.

You will probably also not be able to make at home anything all that similar to the mayonnaise you buy in a shop, though what you can make at home will almost certainly be equally as nice (my children were confused by the yellowish colour of home-made mayonnaise, which is sort of backwards since the confusing thing ought to be why shop-bought mayonnaise is white!).

Another advantage is that making your own x from scratch is fun and satisfying. Mayonnaise, mustard, soda, barbecue sauce, gravlax, liver sausage — it's fun to see the things people buy ready-made, and know you have the knowledge and ability to do it yourself. Sometimes it's enough better to be worth the effort; sometimes, like catsup, you find that the store-bought is better — but you still have the fun of doing it and the satisfaction of knowing for sure.

Why brown mustard specifically?

Taste and spiciness. Yellow mustard seeds are milder and black mustard seeds are spicier. Brown seeds are usually in the middle. Most recipes usually call for specific amounts of each, once you know what you like, you can adjust them.

One word: Duke's

https://food52.com/blog/22456-we-taste-tested-8-mayos-and-li...

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!

I went to a Sunday Dinner Club dinner in Chicago a few years ago and had a cassoulet with what I think was a mustard drawn from the mustard grinder tap at the (late lamented) cheese shop Pastoral. I'm 90% sure it was a Maille. It was so hot you couldn't taste it without your sinuses lighting on fire; far, far hotter than horseradish wasabi.

I've gone through dozens of different mustards since trying to find it and have never succeeded. It's my white whale.

We've gotten close by mixing up mustards in our kitchen (spicy Asian mustards get close). But then the texture is off, and it's not balanced.

Have you tried grinding and using cold water? Hot water actually mellows out the intensity.

https://mustardmuseum.com/

Formerly Mt Horeb Mustard Museum

Anyone here like to mix mayonnaise and mustard?

Especially for dipping artichoke leaves

This is sick! Instant upvote

I prefer mustmayostardayonnaise.

mayo, mustard, pickle water... the best sauce

It's done widely enough that Maille themselves sell a "Dijonnaise" : Dijon mustard + mayonnaise.

There was a character on the disney channel cartoon Proud Family whose name was dijonnaise

You just awoke an ancient TV memory in me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48hQm5fIbU

To make mayonnaise you start with egg yolks and mustard (and maybe other seasonings): the mustard helps the mixture to emulsify. You can put more mustard in it, to make a mustard mayonnaise, or add more mustard later.

Yes! Best Foods/Hellmans and Grey Poupon...mmmmm...

I usually mix it up with fried rice. It's a weird habit I started in college.

Mayonnaise normally already has mustard in it. But yes, you can always add more to improve the taste.

Easy homemade mayo recipe which will taste 1000% better than storebought:

  To a tall container, add in this order:

  Ingredients:
  1 (egg)
  1 soup spoon Dijon mustard (the strong kind)
  1 soup spoon apple cider vinegar
  salt/pepper
  vegetable oil (about 2-3 cups)

  Recipe:
  - Blend ingredients by starting from the bottom and moving your soup blender up and down. Stop blending when it's nice and thick, don't over-blend. Should take 10 seconds or so.

There's an excellent lecture by Malcolm Gladwell: "Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce" that touches both on mustard (and spaghetti sauce), and of course the topic of choice:

https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_...

I was motivated enough by this to seek out some of the mustards he mentioned -- and it looks like the Beaver Olde English is no longer on their web page? Has it been discontinued?

Not sure, but I've found almost all Beaver condiments (not just their mustards I've tried) to be worth the trouble to find, especially their Tartar Sauce.

One upside, I suppose, of living in Portland is that Beaver is just 'the standard condiment brand I get at the grocery store.' I do like their stuff, and their tartar sauce was what made me try their other products.

same boat; my best guess is he's talking about the Deli one...

It existed at one point[0], but I can only see it listed in Canadian shops [1]. UPC 7182800350

[0] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00O8NG1J4/

[1] https://www.shopmsv.ca/shop/product/88326/Beaver_Hot_Olde_En...

Bautzener Mittelscharf or bust

There's a small but growing movement of people fermenting mustard. The process adds a je ne sais quoi to condiments that can't be replicated by simply adding vinegar. See also fermented salsa.

https://insaneinthebrine.com/lacto-fermented-mustard/

Mautner Estragon Senf from Austria, thank me later.

Came here to say this. Comes in a toothpaste tube and isn’t expensive. But it’s damn good mustard. My personal favourite.

You only need one mustard in your life. And the most excellent thing is that mustard is in fact two mustards with a slightly-spicy rivalry:

https://www.eater.com/2017/7/7/15926148/cleveland-brown-must...

Or if you prefer yellow mustard for some things, I'd suggest Plochman's. Everyone I've had tried Plochman's never ever uses that garbage from French's ever again. It is such a wonderful mustard with just the right amount of bite.

Every time I go back home to Cleveland I snag a bottle of both types, although I prefer Stadium.

^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^

ya know, he didn't even answer a really simple question, "how does Grey Poupon compare to French Dijon mustards?"

he didn't whip out the GP when he was tasting the French ones, and he didn't mention Dijon when he was tasting the GP, and then he brought GP up again later and did mention it was Dijonnaise and simply said "but it's made in America". There is still a European GP being made, although it's unclear from wikipedia whether it's a Maille mustard or not, but why not grab some?

And to give French's and Gulden's thumbs up without comparing them in any meaningful way (or any way at all) to similar taste profile mustards seems basically dumb. This shouldn't have taken all summer to taste. Oh, and a mustard has the wrong texture to go in a pastrami sandwich? wtf.

as an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist autist, sorry, but this review does not cut it... it being the mustard.

> "I’ll gladly watch ... Anthony Bourdain explain the world through food"

if you pay attention to Anthony Bourdain, he rarely says anything about food beyond "oh, that's good". And some of the foods he says it about I've tried and they are not good (like when he did restaurants around NYC) but of course that's just personal taste.

He was a highly entertaining food rascal to watch and listen too, and the production values of video were quite high, and he entertained us with a lot of interesting foodie travel, but strictly about food... eh, you couldn't even hypothetically argue with him, he never said anything, and he even said he didn't want to say anything. but "oh, that's good".

(also btw, where he came up as a chef was pretty unspectacular, French brasserie food certainly is a great niche food-de-confort-wise, but pretty paint-by-number in terms of palette and technique.)

I'm not sure if you mean palate rather than palette, it seems either word would work here with the painting analogy :)

yes, i noticed the fun pun :) but thought bringing it to the fore would be distracting, and palette is what I wanted since I had referenced paint-by-numbers

I don't disagree with any of this, but I also don't think the article/OP is saying otherwise... "I’ll gladly watch ... Anthony Bourdain explain the world through food" doesn't IMO imply Bourdain was any kind of incredible food critic. Rather, he went to interesting places and talked to interesting people and just used food as the vehicle to do that.

yeah, I recognized that, but at the same time I wanted to offer my "nitpicky" perspective to anybody else reading who might have mistaken their salivation while watching Bourdain's shows as having come from something Bourdain said.

oh, I also added substantive mustard content to my comment, moving the Bourdain section "below the fold"

My favorite mustard is missing: Lusty Monk mustard[1]

I fully admit to first buying it because of the branding, but it is the best mustard I've ever had. It is pretty potent, so if you like a subtle mustard don't bother.

[1]: https://www.lustymonk.com/

"I think there’s a scientific reason for this, but I’m too lazy to look it up."

I enjoy the levity and care free writing.

I would have been bogged down with crafting a proper matrix of things that were tested, the method of comparison for each column, the exact tests themselves to produce the tests, sorting, and so on...

Drives my progeny crazy.

I'd recommend adding this to the list of mustards to try: https://ehtnejahea.ee/toode/poltsamaa-kange-sinep-65g/ it's one of a different kind..

This is the kind of stuff I love this place for. I'm a huge mustard fan, and love trying new varieties I see at the store, but would never think to Google for such a review(would it help? it's all blogspam anyways). Seems I've got a lot of mustard to try.

My favorite general purpose mustard is probably Vienna's Dusseldorf mustard. It's not listed in this article but it's great on sandwiches and brats. The only problem is that it's fairly expensive online and no one really sells it here in stores.

Agree with a lot of his choices - Beaver makes great stuff, but also want to cape up for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale mustards. They're both good, but the honey one is particularly great - just a hint of sticky-sweet that doesn't overpower the vinegar.

Also missing asian preserved mustard variants, e.g. my favorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasundi . Any type of spicy brown is my goto in the US.

Best mustard is from Canada. https://www.redsoss.com/store/p25/THAT_MUSTARD_SAUCE.html

Well, that was educational, and now I finally understand the Grey Poupon scene from Wayne's World.

In future I will be less snooty about "American mustard", which before reading this I had assumed was all like French's mustard.

Where is the Pitzman's??

If you love mustard, check out https://mustardmuseum.com

And if you happen to find yourself in Wisconsin, you can enjoy their tasting room in person!

> Italy’s Mostarda di Cremona,

Not actually mustard, which in Italian is "senape".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostarda

He mentioned chicken, and that reminded me:

I used to broil chicken breasts, skin on, with mustard spread on them. You would think they'd taste all mustardy, but they didn't.

Note to self: try that again.

Gotta mention Boar's Head. Great deli mustard.

As for Coleman's, I get the powder and mix up some with water when we bring spring rolls home. Clears up your brain quick!

30? That's nothing in the world of mustards.

https://mustardmuseum.com/

National Mustard Museum for the curious:

https://mustardmuseum.com/

The author recommends a "hot Olde English mustard" from Beaver, but I can't seem to find it. Does it exist?

It’s probably this brand, which I’ve seen in the Pacific Northwest (in the US). They do make good products but I don’t see a hot Olde English mustard among their current offerings.

https://www.beavertonfoods.com/beaver-brand/

Yeah I can find pictures of it online, and it's the same Beaver, but looks like they stopped making it.

This is as close as I could find (Amazon Canada, out of stock): https://www.amazon.ca/Beaver-Olde-English-Mustard-360ml/dp/B...

Must be discontinued, but I wonder where the author of the article found it.

Great article. For additional mustard content, I've enjoyed the reviews on the Mustard Museum's Youtube channel.

The Wikipedia page [0] mentions the collection of 5,300 mustards. I was underwhelmed by the 30 presented in this article.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum

I had no idea mustard was taken so seriously. It makes me want to take a tour of salsa and post about that.

I second this. I happened to be in Middleton, WI on National Mustard Day (which is apparently a real "holiday"). They had a bunch of mustard themed midway games set up and a band like a little festival. The museum itself was pretty neat as well. The gift shop is why I recommend people stop by if the happen to be in that part of Wisconsin. They have over 500 types of mustards you can buy[1], and have a free samples counter that lets you try probably around 10. Some of them are extremely unique. I think the oddest one I tried was the peach champagne mustard because for whatever reason I didn't expect it to be so sweet. I still use the classic beer mustard I bought from there.

[1] https://store.mustardmuseum.com/category/buy-mustards

Poupon U!

This is delightful reading for the puns alone, never mind it being my favorite condiment.

Fucking three popups before I even get through the introduction. No thanks.

Incomplete without a Test of Händlmeier sweet mustard. Ask any bavarian...

Having moved to France recently, 30 doesn't seem a lot.

Kallas brand Creamy Dill is delcious

Damn, didn't realize there was this many different types of mustard. btw, Hotdog, Mustard only. The true and only way.

I caution ye from the rabbit hole that ye shall go down... https://mustardmuseum.com

I went there around 8 years ago thinking "oh, what a funny idea for a museum" and came away with the 2013 world champion mustard (Maille Dijon) and a love of mustard. That museum is really a (not so) hidden gem and I highly recommend it if you visit Madison, WI.

If you've got a bag of pretzels that need to be devoured rapidly, the Slimm & Nunne Sweet and Nicely Hot is just right. Its the mustard museum specialty brand - I haven't seen it anywhere outside of Wisconsin (though I'll admit I haven't necessarily looked too hard).

Ooh... I just realized the name is a subtle play on words

There's also the Mustard Museum University... Poupon U

https://mustardmuseum.com/poupon-u/

That's not as subtle.

Here you go: https://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1651/buy-mustards

I'm familiar with it... I now live nearby.

The furthest away from Madison, WI that I've found it in a store, however, was in a Festival Foods in Eau Claire, WI. I'm not sure how wide in other places it can be found. Like, can you find it in Chicago? Or Minneapolis? Or Des Moines?

Who cares when you can order it online?

Hot takes :D

No wasabi?

Wasabi is a completely different plant.

Yes. root v seed

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