Make Mustard from Scratch

Do you like hot foods? You can make your own spicy, sweet, and/or hot mustard as a condiment or ingredient. Here are general instructions for making mustard, followed by a few recipes and a video.

Ingredients

  • Mustard Seeds (Dark Seeds Are Hotter)
  • Dry Mustard
  • Light Brown Sugar
  • Salt
  • Turmeric
  • Garlic Powder
  • Water(strong orange pekoe tea adds a nice depth)
  • Cider Vinegar

For more specific ingredients and amounts, see the Recipes section below.

Steps

  1. Use utensils and mixing vessels that are glass, or ceramic -- anything but aluminum, which can be dissolved by the vinegar.[1]
  2. Purchase some mustard seed, or ground mustard powder. Whole seeds come in 'white' (yellow), brown, and black varieties. The darker the seed, the stronger the mustard.
  3. Soak the seed for two hours before grinding. Do not try to hurry the process by boiling, as the heat will activate an enzyme that takes away the flavor of mustard.[1]
  4. Grind the mustard seed if it is not already ground. You can use a mortar and pestle if you have one, or a Clean an Electric Coffee Mill Thoroughly, or even a blender. The sound of the grinding will change when the mustard reaches an evenly ground consistency.
  5. Pour the mustard into a dish and mix with liquid until it is about the consistency of a thick ketchup. For a quick, hot mustard that you will use right away, use water; otherwise use wine/beer/mead, vinegar, or grape juice. Feel free to combine liquids.
  6. Add any desired sweeteners, such as honey, sugar, artificial sweetener, ground dates or raisins, to taste.
  7. Add ground spices. To make it sweeter, try anise or cinnamon; to make it hotter, try ginger, cloves, horseradish (as is the norm in Europe), or one of the black peppers. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  8. Mix together, cover, and leave on the counter until the hotness is at your desired strength. Heat and bitterness will reach a peak in 5-15 minutes; water-based mustard should be served then. For other kinds of mustard, wait between 2 hours and a day for flavors to blend.
    • Aging for a day is typically needed for the flavors to mellow, however some find that the best flavor arises after aging for several weeks.
    • Aging mustard in the refrigerator will cause it to stay hotter longer.
    • Aging mustard in a closed container in a cupboard or on the counter is generally considered safe, as mustard has anti-bacterial properties.
  9. Adjust consistency as necessary with juice, vinegar, or other liquids; mustard will thicken over time.

Alternative Method

  1. Take the dry ingredients. Grind in a spice grinder until relatively fine. This way you won't have to do any soaking.
  2. Add the liquid ingredients to a glass bowl.
  3. Add the dry to the liquid and mix well with a fork.
  4. Microwave on high for 1 minute.
  5. Mix well with a stick blender until creamy.
  6. Let the mixture rest. It will thicken as it cools.
  7. Finished.

Recipes

  • Dijon Mustard
    • 1 cup of onion (chopped)
    • 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
    • 2 tablespoons of honey
    • 4 oz of dry mustard
    • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
    • 2 teaspoons of salt
    • 4 drops of Tabasco sauce
    • 2 cups of dry white wine
  • Beer-Thyme Mustard
    • 1/4 cup brown mustard seeds
    • 1/4 cup yellow mustard seeds
    • 3/4 cup flat amber beer (or beer of your choice)
    • 1 Tablespoon mustard flour
    • 1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
    • 2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves
    • 1/2 cup cider vinegar
    • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Basic table/dipping mustard
    • 1/4 cup mustard seeds (Dark seeds are hotter)
    • 1/4 cup dry mustard
    • 2 tsp. light brown sugar
    • 1 tsp. Non-Iodized Salt
    • 1/2 tsp. Turmeric.
    • 1/4 tsp. Paprika for color.
    • 1/4 tsp. Garlic powder
    • 1/4 cup water
    • 1/2 cup sweet pickle juice.
    • 1/2 cup cider vinegar.




This video not only shows you how to make mustard, but it also shows you what will happen if you ignore one of the warnings below.

Tips

  • Check out Indian groceries for good prices on mustard seed.
  • Homemade mustard doesn't look yellow like the stuff in the stores. You can add turmeric to achieve a more yellow color.
  • To clean leftover mustard seed out of a spice grinder, mortar, or coffee grinder, grind bread crumbs, Clean an Electric Coffee Mill Thoroughly or salt, which will scour the item and pick up the leftovers; discard the bread, rice or salt, and repeat until the grinder is clean.
  • Wine, beer, mead, vinegar, verjuice[2] or clear fruit juice (such as white grape or apple) can be used in a wide variety of mustards. In the mustard museum there are 4,300 different varieties of mustard. Your imagination is your only limitation.
  • The heat level of the final product can be determined by when the vinegar is added to the mix. By adding water to the ground mustard seed, a chemical reaction starts to take place that brings out the heat of the mustard. Over time, the heat will rise to a peak, then gradually dissipate (the peak of hotness being around 15 minutes after the addition of water). Adding acid (i.e. the vinegar) will shut down this chemical reaction and lock in the heat at the level at which it was introduced. For the mildest mustard, add the vinegar at the same time as the water. [3]

Warnings

  • When first mixed, mustard has a very hot and bitter taste. This will fade over time. Most people who like spicy mustards will be happy with a one day old mustard; but in other cases you may have to age the mustard for months.
  • Do not get mustard powder in your eyes.
  • Waiting too late to add the vinegar will create a form of dangerous and caustic mustard gas.

Things You'll Need

  • Spice grinder
  • Stick blender

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.apinchof.com/makingmustard1078.html
  2. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verjuice
  3. ↑ http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season11/pretzel/pretzel_tran.html
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