I’ve stolen a mustard recipe this week which has been exciting as I have so loved learning to make mustard. Mustard has formed such an important part in our culinary history, from when the Romans first bought it into England to the Tudor love of the punchy, hot little seeds for eating and for health to our current national mania for mustard.
This weeks theft combines two ingredients which were very popular in the middle ages, beer and mustard. Tracklements Beer Mustard is perfect with pies, cold meats and sausages and those wise folk at Tracklements make their mustards with very little salt knowing that they might well be paired with things that are very salty. The mustard has a lovely, malty taste.
In Tudor times, according to the Tracklementalist, some monasteries had their own ‘mustardarius’ who was responsible for growing and distributing mustard sauces for the monastic communities. The mustardarius would break apart brown mustard seeds, then add an acidic liquid like wine, vinegar or verjuice and some salt, to make a sauce not unlike what we now think of as mustard. The monastic communities would eat this with meat and fish, the latter of which formed a large part of their diet.
Their was a belief that mustard played an important part in maintaining good health – it was considered ‘hot’ and therefore served with ‘cold’ foods to balance the humour of a meal. It was also drunk (gulp!) and gargled to treat sore throats.
Tracklements grow their own mustard seeds in Britain which is very rare as the majority of mustard seed is grown abroad, often on huge farms in Canada. One of the issues with growing mustard seed is that it spreads very easily and so farmers are unwilling to risk the spread of the plants into other crops. However the fact that it can be grown here makes it a more sustainable spice for us to use than others which need the heat of tropical countries to flourish.
I have found it quite challenging grinding mustard seeds in a home kitchen, but the best that I can suggest is to use a stick blender – after much trial and error and scattering of little seeds all over the floor I have learnt to cover my stick blender with a tea towel to stop all of the little seeds flying everywhere and crunching under foot.
I used a good quality local bitter to make the mustard, I felt that as it was a key ingredient it should be a good quality one, but you could use any bitter/stout, just do not use lager. You should leave the beer open overnight to let the bubbles go flat.
Tracklements’ Beer Mustard
120g Yellow Mustard Seed
120g Brown Mustard Seed
3g (1 heaped tsp) Black peppercorns
2g Allspice berries
1g dried birdseye chillies
400ml cider vinegar
200ml beer (bitter not lager)
10g salt
- Open the beer, add the salt to it, stir and leave overnight. This will allow the beer a chance to go flat so that the bubbles don’t react with the mustard seed.
- Using a stick blender, whizz the mustard seeds and the spices .
- Pour the beer into a bowl, stir to make sure that the salt has dissolved, and then add the seeds and spices and stir.
- Leave to mature for a couple of days, stirring every so often so that the mustard soaks up the liquid.
- Fill into jars and enjoy with a sausage and a pork pie.
