We Have Mustard!

I've finished my very first test batch of homemade mustard, and it's good stuff. It's definitely hotter than anything I've ever purchased at a store. Just a little tickle in the nose, but not much at all.
So here's what I did. I had previously posted that I had soaked the following together:
- 1 tbsp of yellow mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp of brown mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tbsp red wine
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
I let this concoction soak at room temperature for 2 full days to let the seeds rehydrate. Today I threw the whole mix into my food processor and let that run for about 5 minutes. It took much longer than I thought. The seeds kept flying up and sticking to the top of the food processor, so I had to stop it a lot to push them back down again with a spatula. I finally had something that truly resembled mustard. I added some more stuff:
a dash of salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp dried garlic powder
- 1 TBSP honey
I let that mix up some more and tasted it. Awesome. I really like it a lot. It would make for a good ham sandwich, or perhaps coating the top of a baked ham. Yummy stuff. Not as hot as I was orignally looking for, but my family (they have zero tolerance for hot/spicy food) would probably like it.


Yesterday I reviewed the pretzel episode of the cooking tv show Good Eats, which had a feature on mustard. Alton said that water and mustard combine together to produce isothiocyanates, the chemical responsible for the spicy heat of horseradish, wasabi, and mustard. He explained that the addition of acids acted to halt the isothiocyanate production.
He had a nifty bell curve chart that showed how isothiocyanate production (heat) varies by time. The longer mustard was in contact with water, the more heat was produced, up to a point, where the heat went back down again. Acids can be added at any point to halt it at that level.

In my test batch, I added acid and water at the same time. So that is what kept my heat level low. I could vary the heat in two ways. I could alter my water to acid ratio, or I could vary the point at which I add my acid. There are actually other possibilities. I could grind the whole dried mustard seeds into a powder, then add the water (and acid after a time) also.

So in future test batches, I will most likely play with these possibilities, sticking as close to my original recipe but altering my heat-production variables until I find a few mustard recipes to my liking. I would also be happy to find min/max in my experiments as well.

Now that's a spicy mustard

The epiphany came to me one day at a japanese restauraunt. I was eating my tonkatsu (breaded pork) nestled over a bed of shredded raw cabbage. There was mustard to the side, and some tonkatsu sauce in a bowl. The mustard was like horseradish. It seared my nostrils and singed my nose hairs. And I liked it.
Sure I've heard of "hot mustard", but all these years, I thought it was just a phrase. I've never had mustard like that. I've had that yellow crap that people put on hotdogs. I've had dijon and honey mustard. I am really fond of this stuff they sell in our supermarket called "dusseldorf". But none of it was exactly hot.
I later saw an episode on one of my favorite tv shows, Good Eats. Alton Brown made some pretzels, and to accompany them, some fresh mustard. I guess you can actually make that stuff.
So I set about my research on my new topic of interest: homemade mustard.

So far, I haven't found much information to my liking. Therefore, I shall have to come up with some experiments of my own. I have purchased 3 bags of mustard seeds from The Spice House. (No, I'm not an advertiser. It's just where I get my spices. I grew up in Milwaukee but they shipped to me now that I'm not there anymore). Not quite sure yet what I was going for other than a good kick in the nose (but not so much that I'm rendered unconscious).
I ordered some yellow, brown, and hot mustard seeds and they arrived in the mail today.

The first step is soaking the whole seeds in water and acid, and perhaps some alcohol if desired. I am making a mini tester batch. I am soaking 1 tbsp of yellow and 1 tbsp of brown mustard seeds in 2 tbsp water, 1 tbsp red wine, and 1 tbsp cider vinegar. I'll let that soak for a day or two and come back to this later.