Making Mustard

Cafe Society
1

I’ve recently begun to play with making homemade mustard, but need hints & tips from the mustard making dopers.

  1. Mustard seeds swell up to amazing proportions. I started with about 8oz of seeds, and have nearly a quart of mustard. I’ve yet to add any mustard flour to the mix yet. Can I skip the flour, and just use the seeds, mixed up in the blender?

  2. My online reading has indicated that the flavor will mellow over the next few days/weeks. How does one determine how it will taste once mellowed, when mixing it up?

  3. I’m using home-brewed beer as a base liquid, along with some vinegars. As home-brew still contains active yeast, what’s the best way to kill the yeast, so that any sugar I add remains in the mustard, rather than fermenting out?

  4. What’s the best way to store this new mustard?

2

Well, I’m going to use my one bump.

There has to be another weirdo that makes mustard on the dope.

3

Butler, how did you get started? Is there some sort of book or site I can find a how-to?

From my limited experience (with horseradish), the way to tell how it will taste when mellowed is to try a small amount on tasteless bread. It cuts the hot to get to the flavor.

4

I’ve made my own, didn’t use mustard flour or anything. I made mine from instructions on egullet.com, and my boyfriend always asks “When are you gonna make that delicious mustard again?” It has apple cider vinegar, mirin, mustard seeds, salt, apple jelly or similar, and sugar, and that’s pretty much it.

As for “how spicy is it going to be once it’s mellowed”, experience. Also, cooking a mustard makes it less spicy, so you can doctor it that way. Keep in mind that if you want to can in a hot water bath, that’s “cooking” and will make it less spicy.

5

I bought some mustard seeds (yellow & black) and some mustard flour. I then started experimenting.

I’m working on my first batch, so I have no experience.

There appears to be little on the web that doesn’t assume you’re already familiar with the process, or my google-fu is lacking today.

Zsofia, Can you give me a basic primer on how you canned it? I have no canning experience, though I’d expect that not a whole lot can grow in mustard, especially one made with vinegar & salt.

6

Oh, missed the edit window, after I went to the Egullet thread. That’s what I was looking for in the first place!

So many questions answered. Thanks for the hint! I need to visit that site WAY more often.

7

Is “making mustard” what kids are calling it these days? :slight_smile:

Interesting idea. I always assumed mustard was just mustard seeds and vinegar, but looks like there’s a lot variations that can be tried. Is it worth the effort?

8

I haven’t actually canned it - started to last year, but then damn if the BF didn’t eat it all. It may be his favorite condiment in all the land. Watch out, though, before you know it you’ll end up buying a ton of really good roast beef to eat it with.

I did want a specific recipe to work with for canning - botulism is not a thing to be fucking around with. Here’s a recipe I found - http://www.recipezaar.com/205688 - the thing is, searching for mustard with canning is going to screw you up because so many pickle recipes use mustard seeds. I somewhere read that you can can a recipe like the EGullet one, but have not tried - I’d assume you can just hot water can it for ten minutes or so.

ETA - it lasts for ages in your fridge anyway, by the way.