mustard-msg – 2/13/08
Mustard seed in period. sauces. recipes.
NOTE: See also the files: sauces-msg, aspic-msg, herbs-msg, ham-msg, sausages-msg, pretzels-msg, herbs-cooking-msg, meat-pies-msg, spices-msg, murri-msg.
************************************************************************
NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************
From: dpeters at panix.com (D. Peters)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Mustard/Condiment Question
Date: 17 Apr 1996 19:59:35 -0400
>"I have been looking for ways to make my campsite more
>authentic. I know from my research that "they" often used mustard
>as a condiment. What I haven't been able to track down is whether
>that was powdered, as a sauce, a chutney or relish, or what. Does
>anyone have any suggested sources that I might have overlooked?"
What my researches in medieval cookery have turned up is: Mustard was
served as a sauce for meat in England and France from roughly the
13th-15th centuries (I haven't pursued later sources because I'm more
interested in earlier sources); mustard recipes generally call for
a mixture of mustard seed, vinegar, variable spices, and (occasionally)
honey; culinary writings from the above period state that mustard is to
be served as a condiment for salted (preserved) meats (in menus, it is
also mentioned with brawn).
A redaction of _Le Menagier's_ mustard sauce appears in Cariadoc and
Elizabeth's _Miscellany_; I worked out a redaction of a honey mustard
sauce in a collection of 13th century N. European recipes (e-mail me if
you'd like to see it). Other Rialto regulars (or lurkers) probably have
other ones. Have fun....
De Gustibus,
D.Peters
From: sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu (Stephen Bloch)
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: history of mustard
Date: 4 Jan 1997 16:06:54 GMT
Organization: Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
<bagabne at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>does anybody know if wet mustard is period?
Yes, definitely. It wasn't exactly like modern mustard, but "mustard
sauces" go back to at least the 13th century.
The 14th-c. Catalan _Llibre de Sent Sovi_ gives a recipe "to make
mustard our way", with finely ground mustard seed, broth, and honey or
sugar, pointing out that "the French style" is tempered with vinegar
rather than broth.
The 13th-c. Arabo-Andalusian _Manuscrito anonimo_ gives the following
recipe for "Sinab":
Clean good mustard and wash it with water several times, then dry it
and pound it until it is like antimony [?]. Sift it with a sifter of
hair, and then pound shelled almonds and put them with the mustard and
stir them together. Then press out their oil and mash them with
breadcrumbs little by little, not putting in the breadcrumbs all at
once but only little by little. Then pour strong vinegar and eggs over
this dough for the dish, having dissolved sufficient salt in the
vinegar. Then dissolve it well to the desired point, and clarify it
thoroughly with a clean cloth; and there are those who after it is
clarified add a little honey to lessen its heat. Either way it is
good.
If I recall correctly, a 13th-c. Anglo-Norman source also describes a
mustard sauce and specifies its particular affinity for pork.
--
Stephen Bloch
sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University
From: dpeters at panix.com (D. Peters)
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: history of mustard
Date: 4 Jan 1997 13:07:06 -0500
Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu> wrote:
>If I recall correctly, a 13th-c. Anglo-Norman source also describes a
>mustard sauce and specifies its particular affinity for pork.
No, I believe that the _Enseignements_ specifies mustard as a condiment
for meats that have been salted. (Gee, Steve, the Anglo-Norman sources
are in one of the filing cabinets at home. You *could* have checked :-))
Getting back to work,
D.Peters
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
From: wp823 at freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Jo Beverley)
Subject: Re: history of mustard
Organization: Victoria Freenet Association
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 21:12:38 GMT
As a lurker here (I confess, I just skim through looking for anything
that might be relevant to one of my romance novels) I'll contribute the
fact that mustard seed was known and used in Anglo-Saxon times.
If anyone here is interested in research of that period, a UK company
called Anglo Saxon Books puts out some detailed works, such a two-volume
set on food. I use them because my novels are late 11th, early 12th
century and most books favor the later period.
Jo Beverley
From: jfideli at newshost.li.net (Fideli)
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: history of mustard
Date: 13 Jan 1997 04:21:26 GMT
Organization: LI Net (Long Island Network)
Greetings...don't know how I passed over this post. being a food researcher
more than anything else.....here goes...just a quick find....from my
notes....
" {Prepared mustard} (gerenodne senep) was apparently used as a flavouring
with bread or other food (op cit.) . A mixture is to have 'the forum in
which mustard is tempered for flavouring' (pa onlicnesse geworht pe senop
bid getemprod to inwisam), and we learn that this could be spooned up, and
so had the pasty consistency that made mustard has today. Cumin is also
mentioned as an ingredient in a sauce, and both mustard and cumin were
found in the Oseberg ship burial in Norway."
from Hagen, Ann; A handbook of Anglo-saxon food Processing and
Consumption; Anglo-Saxon Books. Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. 1994.
<covering a period from the 5th cent. through 1100 ADE.>
This quote is sub-quoted from Foote, P.G. & D.M. Wilson; The Viking
Achievement. Sidgwick & Jackson. 1970.
Lord Xaviar the Eccentric
From: "Timothy.Moss" <Timothy.Moss at ncl.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic,rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: history of mustard
Date: 15 Jan 1997 10:51:30 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne
As far as my knowledge goes, Anglo-Saxons (and presumably any other
civilisation which had mustard) ate the mustard leaves raw before eating
the seeds. We tend not to these days, even though the modern mustard bush
is a wimp compared to the medieval thick stalked shrub, almost the size
of a sapling.
Tim.
From: L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt <liontamr at postoffice.ptd.net>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 09:47:43 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - THE SOAP-BOX + Horseradish Recipe
<snip>
OK. To the inevitable questions:
1 cup heavy cream
1 small Jar Prepared Horseradish
OR 1/2 cup grated fresh horseradish and 1/4 cup malt vinegar
1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
sugar to taste if desired (I don't)
Salt if desired
Whip the cream to stiff consistency. Fold in remaining ingredients to taste.
Chill. Serve cold with roasted meats. I have, upon occaision, doubled the
horseradish with good result.
No, I have no documentation. It's traditional English. They are all
documentable ingredients, and that's as close as I have bothered to get.
From: "Philip W. Troy" <troy at asan.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 11:53:24 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - THE SOAP-BOX + Horseradish Recipe
L Herr-Gelatt and J R Gelatt wrote:
> No, I have no documentation. It's traditional English. They are all
> documentable ingredients, and that's as close as I have bothered to get.
Lovely stuff, Aoife!
I like sour cream in mine, which takes it away from the English
repertoire and into something more like Eastern European.
There's a recipe for horseradish sauce in Digby, if I remember
correctly, which omits the cream and includes a bit of sugar. A bit like
bottled horsradish with additional seasonings.
Hard to go wrong.
Adamantius
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 11:53:39 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - mustard history
linneah at erols.com wrote:
> Any comments on the recent article by Edythe Preet ( LA Times syndicate) that
> said:
>
> "In the Middle Ages, mustard was a fixture on every table. It disguised the
> rank taste of spoiled food and camouflaged the immense amount of salt used to
> preserve meat. The small seeds, crushed into powder, were mixed with the
> leavings of wine - grape must. Hence the name for this mixture is much the
> same in most European languages... When made by those who did not have
> access to wine, mustard powder was mixed with vinegar. Honey was often added
> to minimize its sharpness."
We've been through this pretty exhaustively before on this list. Not a
comment on the above poster, just a comment on the claim about
disguising "the rank taste of spoiled food" and camouflaging "the
immense amount if salt used to preserve meat", which is one I've never
heard before ; ). It does seem to be true that mustard was fairly
ubiquitous across medieval Northern Europe; it i s one of the relatively
few spices that is native to much of Europe, and therefore comparatively
inexpensive. It is also true that mustard seems to be commonly used in
combination with cured or salted meats, just as it is used today.
However, I find it hard to accept the implication that such meat was
eaten without soaking and otherwise desalting it. Recipes generally are
pretty detailed about this process, and in an environment where salt
meats were eaten pretty frequently it would have been common knowledge
how to get around this.
> I like mustard but I don't often see it at feasts. Was it really as
> ubiquitous as the above makes it sound?
As with many things, it depends on when and where you are. Taillevent
refers to it several times, and gives at least one recipe, IIRC. Le
Menagier either gives a recipe or says to buy it from the sauce merchant
in different references, or both. Both The Forme of Cury and Das Buoch
Von Guter Speiss include recipes for a mustard sauce for preserving
fruits and vegetables: a similar recipe is in Le Menagier de Paris, but
I believe offhand that the mustard element is toned down in comparison
to the other recipes I mention.
Adamantius
From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter)
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 12:51:09 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - mustard history
Hi, Katerine here. Linneah writes:
>Any comments on the recent article by Edythe Preet ( LA Times syndicate) that
>said:
>
>"In the Middle Ages, mustard was a fixture on every table. It disguised the
>rank taste of spoiled food and camouflaged the immense amount of salt used to
>preserve meat. The small seeds, crushed into powder, were mixed with the
>leavings of wine - grape must. Hence the name for this mixture is much the
>same in most European languages... When made by those who did not have
>access to wine, mustard powder was mixed with vinegar. Honey was often added
>to minimize its sharpness."
Most of this is complete garbage. They didn't eat spoiled food; and they
had several techniques to leech the salt out of preserved meat (and fish).
Must is not "the leavings of wine". It is reduced grape juice. You see
it at some processes of vintning; but it was also made directly from grapes,
with no fermentation, as a sauce. Mustard was not made with must; the name
is the name of the plant. Mustards could be made with either wine or
vinegar or both; or for that matter, with neither. But people with no
access to wine were unlikely to have access to vinegar either.
What is true: mustard sauces were common and popular. They were generally
made with a wine or vinegar base, and often sweetened (though in the recipes
I am familiar with, sugar and sweet spices are more common than honey).
>I like mustard but I don't often see it at feasts. Was it really as ubiquitous
>as the above makes it sound?
It was a common sauce. There are surviving recipes for it, and lots of
mentions of it.
Cheers,
- -- Katerine/Terry
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 1997 21:49:28 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: SC - mustard history
Linneah quotes an article on mustard and asks:
>I like mustard but I don't often see it at feasts. Was it really as
>ubiquitous as the above makes it sound?
_Food and Drink in Britain_ (C. Anne Wilson) quotes figures for a
fifteenth-century English household which in a given year used 3/4 lb
saffron, 5 lb pepper, 2 1/2 lb ginger, 3 lb cinnamon, 1 1/4 lb each of
cloves and mace, and 84 lb mustard seed. Mustard, after all, was locally
grown and was a whole lot cheaper than spices which had to be imported from
the Orient.
Elizabeth/Betty Cook
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 16:04:00 -0500
From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter)
Subject: RE: SC - The siege cook challenge.
Hi, Katerine here. Juana Teresa asks:
>I have a question about a recipe in something called Harleian MS. #4016:
>the dish is "Ffesaunte rosted" ... it all seemed so simple and straight-
>forward until I got to the phrase "his sauce is Sugur and Mustard."
>GOOD GRIEF!! Is that the same "French's mustard & brown sugar" affair
>that I was terrorized by on Aunt Olive's Christmas ham throughout my
>innocent childhood???
Not precisely. Mustard sauces were a staple (so much so that they are often
referred to, but there are few recipes for them). But they weren't like
French's. (What is?) I would take this to mean either that you use
a mustard -- but a medieval one -- and sprinkle on sugar, or (more
likely) that you use mustard, but in making it, go a little heavy on the
sugar.
Here's a mustard sauce from the Menagier that I use a lot:
(Translated) Original:
If you would make provision of mustard to keep for a long time, make it in the
harvest season and of soft pods. And some say that the pods should be boiled.
Item, if you would make mustard in the country in haste, bray mustardseed in a
mortar and moisten it with vinegar and run it through the strainer and if you
would prepare it at once, set it in a pot before the fire. Item, if you would
make good mustard and at leisure, set the mustardseed to soak for a night in
good vinegar, then grind it in a mill and then moisten it little by little with
vinegar; and if you have any spices left over from jelly, clarry, hippocras or
sauces, let them be ground with it and afterwards prepare it.
Amounts as I make it:
3 tsp + dash ground mustard scant 1/8 tsp black pepper
2 1/2 T white wine vinegar scant 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 T water 1/8 tsp + mace
1/8 tsp coriander 1/8 tsp + cloves
1/8 tsp + ginger
Step-by-step:
1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
2. Simmer, stirring gently, until it begins to thicken. It will not get
very thick while it is hot.
3. Take it off the heat, and let it cool.
Notes:
This makes a wonderful mustard. You can use commercial ground mustard seed for
it, but it is much better if you get whole mustard seeds and grind them. It
thickens when it gets cold.
Good with beef or pork, or for that matter chicken, or mutton, or anything
you'd consider putting mustard with.
Cheers,
- -- Katerine/Terry
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 17:20:41 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - The siege cook challenge.
Terry Nutter wrote:
<mustard recipes snipped>
> This makes a wonderful mustard. You can use commercial ground mustard seed
> for it, but it is much better if you get whole mustard seeds and grind them.
I second the motion! I usually use a combination of whole black mustard
seeds, ground freshly in a mortar, with Coleman's, which is commercially
ground white mustard. This gives it a nice texture and an interesting
speckled appearance, while still being a little easier than grinding it
all yourself.
> Good with beef or pork, or for that matter chicken, or mutton, or anything
> you'd consider putting mustard with.
Essential for salt meats of all kinds. Yes, including corned beef, which
is a close relative of several forms of salted beef found in period
Europe. Also salt fish, according to some period sources, although
perhaps the sugar should be omitted in that case. Also: don't forget to
save some for hot dogs, if you do that sort of thing.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 20:27:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: rousseau at scn.org (Anne-Marie Rousseau)
Subject: Re: SC - capers
>Oooh. Sounds delicicous! Redaction please, and original recipe(s) if
>you have them.
okeydokey!
This is from _French Food in the Renaissance_ by me, which will hopefully
be part of a CA soon (I've had MY part done for a year now! :)). This
mailer won't take footnotes, so I've put in the citations in the text.
Please don't use in any publication with checking with me. I'll likely
give permission, I just like knowing where my stuff goes.
[Included in these Florilegium files with permission of the author -ed]
SAUCE ROBERT
This rich, creamy, slightly tangy sauce appears in many of the French
sources. There is some variation, for example _le Cuisinier francois_ (la
Varenne, 1651) updates his with capers, but all use verjuice and mustard
and butter. What its' served on seems to vary as well, with _le Menagier_
(Cariadoc et al 1991) putting it on poached sole (M30), _le Viandier de
Taillevent_ (Prescott, 1989) on poached or baked John Dory (a North
Atlantic flat fish) (T115, T207), and _le Cuisinier_ on Poor John
(another fish, perhaps a regional name for a John Dory) (V80), goose
(V33, p41), pork loin (V56, p48), or wild boar (V39, p67). We've enjoyed
this sauce on bork, fish, lamb and even veggies although there's no
documentation for the last two. Heck, ti's even good on bits of bread.
POOR JOHN WITH A SAUCE ROBERT (la Varenne, V80)
You may put it with butter, a drop of verjuice, and some mustard, you may
alsso mixe with it some capers and chibols [chives or green onions].
BARBE ROBERT [SAUCE] (Taillevent, T207)
Take small onions fried in lard (or butter according to the day),
verjuice, vinegar, mustard, small spices and salt. Boil everything
together. (A 1583 cookbook quoted by Pichon et al., p109)
(M30, le Menagier de Paris)
"POLE" and SOLE are the same thing, and the "pole" are speckled on the
back. They should be scalded and gutted like plaice, washed and put in
the pan, with salt on them and water, then put on to cook, and when
nearly done, add parsley; then cook again in the same liquid, then eat
with green sauce, or with butter with some of the hot cooking liquid, or
in a sauce of old verjuice, mustard, and butter heated together.
My version:
1 tsp rinsed and minced capers
2 tsp minced green onion, just the white part
2 tsp fine ground prepared mustard
1/2 stick butter (4T)
1 tsp cider vinegar or verjuice, if you can find verjuice
Mix all the ingredients over low heat until the butter is melted and
everything is blended. If it separates, whisk briskly until it reblends.
Makes 1/2 cup sauce. Serve on poached white fish, roast pork or goose.
Enjoy!
- --Anne-Marie d'Ailleurs
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Anne-Marie Rousseau
rousseau at scn.org
Seattle, Washington
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 20:56:01 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Noemi's recipe challenge
Varju at aol.com wrote:
> Out of curiousity, Adamantius, why did you decide to use prepared mustard
> rather than mustard powder?
I suppose it was that a dollop of prepared mustard turns up frequently
in sauces, while powdered mustard is generally used to make prepared
mustard. Also, dishes that have powdered mustard in them are often a bit
harsh, as it is hard to tell at first just how powerful the mustard will
turn out to be when it is fully macerated with the other ingredients.
Prepared mustard gives you a little more control in this regard, at
least. And, I didn't think the vinegar in the mustard would be
especially out of place here.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 11:15:51 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard and hiney saulce
Robert Beaulieu wrote:
> Does any one have a period recipe for a honey and mustard sauce to go
> with a roasted faisan?
While I don't have a period recipe for honey mustard, I can tell you a
couple of things that may interest you. The first is that Taillevent
recommends serving roast pheasant with fine salt only, and the second is
that the addition of honey to mustard in the Middle Ages was a signature
of Lombardy. Lombardy mustard appears to have been fairly coarse, almost
like whole grain mustard, and slightly sweet from the added honey.
I suspect that the coarse variety of Grey Poupon, with a little honey
added to taste, and some white wine and/or white wine vinegar added to
thin it down to a sauce, rather than a spreadable consistency, would be
a good approximation of Lombard mustard sauce.
You could, of course, make your own in more or less the same way.
Adamantius
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 15:42:47 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Mustard soup
James and/or Nancy Gilly wrote:
> I can't find either of my copies of Baron Salaamallah's mustard soup recipe
> (one from the *Nocking Point* a few years back, one from the A&S issue of
> the *Pikestaff* around the same time). Do any of you folks from the
> Eastrealm have it? (Margali? Ras? Adamantius?) And does anyone know what
> documentation His Excellency has for it?
I regret that I've never tasted His Excellency Salaamallah's mustard
soup, but it does appear to have quite a wide reputation. The only
mustard soup I can think of, offhand, from a primary source, is in le
Viandier de Taillevent. He's got a recipe for egg sops, with a similar
recipe for mustard sops, as a sort of partner to it. I don't recall if
the mustard sops is a variation on the egg sops, or if it is intended
that they be served together.
Are poached eggs, or, for that matter, eggs in any form, involved in the
mustard soup you know? This might provide a clue as to whether this soup
has some basis in the Viandier's recipe.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 17:18:39 -0500
From: waks at world.std.com (Jane Waks)
Subject: SC - Fo: Mustard soup recipe
Forwarded from the East list. Since I didn't transcribe it myself,
I can't comment on whether there was source info in the A&S article.
- --Caitlin
ORIGINALLY From sca-east-approval at world.std.com Mon Oct 27 15:28:01 1997
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 15:28:01 +0000
From: "Dr. Memory" <JVINCENT at wesleyan.edu>
To: sca-east at world.std.com
Subject: Re: [EK] Seeking a Salaamallah recipe...
From Pikestaff A&S '95...
Mustard Soup
A) Feast Size:
Ingredients:
- ------------
2 lbs butter (unsalted if possible)
2 lbs flour
20-50 oz cans of chicken broth
4 dozen eggs
120 oz of Gulden's spicy brown mustard
2 gallons milk
8 pints whipping cream
3 lbs frozen peas
Heat the chicken broth and milk together until it is hot but not
boiling (takes about 1 hour on fairly high heat)
Make a roux by melting the butter in the bottom of a large pot,=20
gradually adding the flour while stirring constantly until you have a thick
paste.
Add the chicken broth/milk mix to the roux, stirring CONSTANTLY so
it does not lump.
Beat the egss in a seperate bowl. Add the mustard and mix well. Add
the cream to that mixture and mix well.
Mix a little of the hot broth into the egg/mustard/cream mix to warm
it so the egss don't curdle. Then add the entire mixture to the large pot
of broth.
NOTE: The soup is usually made in 2 large pots, so adjust this procedure
accordingly.
Rinse the peas in colander with enough water to melt any ice, but
not cook them. Serve the peas in seperate bowls as a garnish for the soup.
B) "Initmate" size (ie serves 1-6)
Ingredients:
- -----------
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs Flour
2.5 cups chicken stock
2 eggs
0.5 tsp salt
dash of pepper
1 tsp of onion juice
3 Tbs Dijon Mustard (or a spicy brown)
1.25 cups milk
0.5 cup heavy cream
10 oz package of frozen peas
Except for the addition of the salt, pepper, and onion to the
egg/mustard/cream mix, this is made just like the feast version.
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 10:09:17 EDT
From: Kallyr <Kallyr at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - homemade mustard
<< Does someone on the list have a recipe for homemade msutard? >>
>From Le Menagier de Paris, (1390's)
MUSTARD. If you want to provide for keeping mustard a long time do it at
wine-harvest in sweet must. And some say that the must should be boiled.
Item, if you want to make must hastily in a village, grind some mustard-seed
in a mortar and soak in vinegar, and strain; and if you want to make it ready
the sooner, put it in a pot in front of the fire. Item, and if you wish to
make it properly and at leisure, put the mustard-seed to soak overnight in
good vinegar, then have it ground fine in a mill, and then little by little
moisten it with vinegar; and if you have some spices left over from making
jelly, broth, hypocras or sauces, they say it may be ground up with it, and
then leave until it is ready.
Properly made Mustard from Le Menagier De Paris
redaction by Minna Gantz
1 cup whole mustard seed
1-2 tsp Powder Fort*
16 oz. red wine vinegar (may not use all)
1) Mix the seeds and spices in a non-metal bowl
(A glass jar works great, leave about a cup headroom though.)
2) Cover the seeds with about 1 1/4 cup of the vinegar and soak overnight.
3) Grind in a mortar or food processor to desired fineness.
4) Add more vinegar to get to consistency you want, use up all left from
soaking first.
*Powder Fort: I have used 3 parts each of Cinnamon & Ginger, 2 parts each of
Black Pepper and Galengal, and 1 part each of Cubebs, Grain of Paradise, and
Cloves.
I have found it easier to make batches of Powder Fort blend as was the period
practice, than to try calculating fractions of spoons for a given recipe.
For people wanting to try mustard making, it's easy & wonderful. If you don't
have all the Powder Fort spices, use those you do-- the source recipe was not
all that specific, though Powder Fort is the spice of the era.
~~Minna Gantz <KALLYR at aol.com>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 00:42:04 -0400
From: mermayde at juno.com (Christine A Seelye-King)
Subject: Re: SC - homemade mustard
>Does someone on the list have a recipe for homemade msutard?
>Phillipa Seton
This is not a period recipie, (although, having read the post
that listed one, this is not far from it), but rather one from a (I
shudder to mention this) Sunset Book - Gifts From Your Kitchen. I made
this for Christmas this year, and I am sold! It is so easy to do, and
the results are just great.
French Old-Fashioned Mustard
Soak 1/2 cup White Mustard Seeds and
1 Tbsp. Dry Mustard in
1/2 cup cold water for 3 hours.
In a 1 - 2 quart noncorrodible pan,
combine 1/2 cup each:white wine vinegar and dry white wine;
1 small onion, chopped, (or 1/2 cup chopped shallots);
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced;
1 tsp. each salt and sugar;
1/2 tsp. dry tarragon;
1 bay leaf;
1/8 tsp. each ground allspice and ground turmeric.
Simmer, uncovered over medium heat until reduced by half, (10 -
15 min.) Pour liquid through a wire strainer into mustard seed mixture;
whirl in a blender until coarsely ground. Cook in the top of a double
boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionaly, until thickened (8 -
12 minutes). Let cool, pack into a jar or crock, and cover tightly.
Store in a refrigerator for at least 3 days or up to 2 years. Makes
about 1 cup.
Other spiced recipies include Dijon-style -use 1/2 cup water and 1 cup
dry mustard. For Honey-Dijon, add dark corn syrup and honey.
Green peppercorn - as above with 2 tbsp. minced green peppercorns.
Spiced German - use cider vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, dill
seeds, tarragon and turmeric.
I actually used Hot Chinese Mustard Seeds in the Old-Fashioned recipie,
and it is very good, with just a hint of bite when you bite into a seed.
I don't like hot stuff, and this isn't hot, just a little piquant. Yum.
Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 06:27:48 -0500From: vjarmstrong at aristotle.net (Valoise Armstrong)Subject: Re: SC - homemade mustard>Does someone on the list have a recipe for homemade msutard?>Phillipa SetonDas Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin has a sweet mustard recipe. I haven'ttried it, but it looks simple to do.34 To make the mustard for dried codTake mustard powder, stir in good wine and pear preserves and put sugarinto it, as much as you feel is right, as make it as thick as you prefer to eat it, then it is good mustard.Valoise
Subject: [Fwd: SC - re:period recipes and sources/mustards]
Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 17:56:54 -0400
From: Ceridwen <ceridwen at commnections.com>
To: stefan at texas.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: SC - re:period recipes and sources/mustards
Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 10:32:42 -0400
From: Ceridwen <ceridwen at commnections.com>
To: Seton1355 at aol.com
From An Old Icelandic Medical Miscellany ( supposed to be 15th C., from
a lost manuscript of the 13 th C.)
One shall take mustard (seed) and add a fourth part of honey and grind
all together with good vinegar. This is good for forty days.
One shall take mustard (seed) and a third of honey and a tenth part of
anise and two such of cinnamon. Grind this all with strong vinegar and
put it in a cask. This is good for three months.
Delights for Ladies - Cookerie and Huswifery, Hugh Plat, 1609
Mustard Meale
It is usuall in Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as
we doe flower and meale in England: this meale, by the addition of
vinegar, in two or three daies becommeth exceeding good mustard: but it
would be much stronger and finer, if the husks or huls were first
divided by searce or boulter: which may easily be done, if you dry your
seeds against the fire before you grinde them. The Dutch iron hand-mills
or an ordinarie pepper-mill may serve for this purpose.
The Closet Oened (sir Kenelme Digbie, KT) 1669
To Make Mustard
The best way fo making mustard is this: Take of the best mustard seed
(which is black) for example a quart. Dry it gently in an oven, and beat
it to subtle powder, and serse it. Then mingle well strong wine-vinegar
with it, so mush that it be pretty liquid, for it will dry with keeping.
Put to this a little pepper, beaten small (white is the best) at
discretion as about a good pugil (quantity?? how much is a pugil
anyone?) and put a good spoonful of sugar to it (which is not to make it
taste sweet, but rather, quick, and to help the fermentation) Lay a good
onion in the bottom, quartered if you will, and a race (root) of ginger
scraped and bruised, and stir it often with a Horseradish root cleansed,
which let always lie in the pot till it hath lost its vertue, then take
a new one. This will keep long, and grow better for a while. It is not
good till after a month, that it have fermented a while.
Some think it will be the quicker if the seed be ground with fair
water, instead of vinegar, putting store of onions in it.
My Lady Holmsby make her quick fine mustard thus: Choose true mustard
seed; dry it in an oven, after the bread is out. Beat and searce it to a
most subtle powder. Mingle Sherry-Sack with it (stirring a long time
very well, so much as to have it of a fit consistency for mustard) Then
put a good quantity of fine sugar to it, as five or six spoonfuls, or
more, to a pint of mustard. Stir and incorporate well together. This
will keep good a long time. Some do like to put to it a little (but a
little) of very sharp wine vinegar.
Ceridwen
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 05:47:08 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard
>Does anybody know when mustard - as the creamy, spreadable condiment we use
>today - was first used in Europe? I know mustard SEEDS were known way the
>heck back, from a New Testament quote regarding faith the size of a mustard
>seed.
Creamy spreadable stuff? Mustard? Well there are many types in Europe
even now, I prefer the type that has seeds in it but...
English Mustard (yellow & Smooth) was first recorded in 1730 in Durham
There are refs to Medieval mustard as a creaminy white sauce. White Mustard
was introduced in Britain by the Romans. The grains were pounded, blanced
with water, and cooking soda, mixed with sharpe white vinegar. It was
thickened with almonds and pine kernals for the table. Other recipes
include honey, oil & vinegar with powdered mustard !
French mustard is pounded & spices added
Lombard pounded & mixed with thick honey, wine & vinegar.
By Edward I there were proffesional sauce makers making mustard.
Mel
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 05:23:50 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard Roman
>I didn't know the Romans had "cooking soda." Can you please tell us where
>this information came from, and perhaps a little bit about the source or
>makeup of cooking soda?
From Food & Drink in Britain, C Anne Wilson, it is I think mentioned in
Apicius for enhancing the green of vegetables as well.
Mel
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 15:42:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Mustard
Sarah Garland, in _The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices_ says "The way to
reduce mustard seed to fine flour was only discovered in the mind-18th
century; before that the seed was pounded as needed in a mustard quern,or
the pounded seed was mixed with honey, vinegar and spices and formed into
balls that could be stored until needed. John Evelyn's instructions in the
_Discourse of Sallets_ written in 1699, are: 'Take the mustard seed, and
grind one and half pints of it with honey and Spanish oil and make it into
a liquid sauce with vinegar.'"
From my reading, I'd gathered the impression that pounding up mustard seed
and mixing it with oil & vinegar was a way of using it as a condiment that
was fairly common in period. However, their mustard would have been quite
different in flavor from most of our mustards, simply because it was made
right before consumption, while ours is ready made; most people say most
of the essential oil of mustard deteriorates within a day of mixing.
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa (Shire of Eisental; HERMS Cyclonus), mka Jennifer Heise
jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 17:33:26 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: LIST SCA arts <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard
According to Richard Mabey, mustard of medieval times was more like a salad
dressing that the yellow stuff we think of today.. He cites a recipe from
John Evelyn(later 1699 so not quite sure why he cites than but here goes):
Take the mustard seed, and grind one and a half pints of it with honey, and
Spanish oil, and make it into a liquid with vinegar......
To make mustard for the pot, slice some horse-radish, and lay it to soak in
vinegar, squeezing it well, and add a lump of sugar and an onion chopt. Use
vinegar from this mixture to mix the mustard.
Mel
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 12:47:17 -0500
From: snowfire at mail.snet.net
Subject: Re: SC - Venison sausage-update
Here's a Welsh Horseradish based sauce. This "unusual" sauce apparently
should be served with veal. It was in a book of traditional Welsh recipes.
I don't know how old it is.
Suryn Cyffaith Poeth
6 lemons, 2 oz horseradish, 1 lb salt, 6 cloves of garlic, 1/4 oz cloves,
1/4 oz mace, 1/4 oz nutmeg, 1/4 oz cayenne, 2 oz mustard, 2 quarts malt
vinegar
Cut the lemons into eighths and cover with salt. Cut the horseradish very
finely, then place with the rest of the ingredients in a big jar that has a
lid. Place the jar in a boiler of water (with the water coming to within 2
inches from the rim of the jar). Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes.
Stir the mixture every day for six weeks, and keep the lid on. At the end of
six weeks strain the mixture into small bottles and cork tightly. This will
keep for years, a little will go far.
Elysant
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 16:02:08 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: LIST SCA arts <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard & Soughdough Books
Two titles on the History of ....
A Dash of Mustard Katie Holder & Jane Newdick History of mustard from
Roman times to modern, 50 recipes etc
World of sourdoughs from antiquety ed Wood 1996
All these interesting books ...so little time...so unfair !
Mel
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 22:45:17 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
stefan at texas.net writes:
<< Take the mustard seed, and grind one and a half pints of it with honey, and
> Spanish oil, and make it into a liquid with vinegar......
>
> To make mustard for the pot, slice some horse-radish, and lay it to soak in
> vinegar, squeezing it well, and add a lump of sugar and an onion chopt. Use
> vinegar from this mixture to mix the mustard.
>
> Mel >>
I was speaking tongue in cheek but since you brought up the subject. The first
recipe sounds pretty straightforward to me as does the second. There were many
ways to make mustard. Al-Andalus contains a recipe with almonds added to the
ground mustard seed that has been soaked in water to remove the bitterness.
al-Baghdadi has a similar recipe where the mustard seed is soaked, drained,
crushed and mixed with vinegar and sweetener.
Barring the French's garbage all of the mustard making experiments I have done
turned out to be almost indistinguishable from certain modern products available
in the supermarket. Look for coarse ground mustards and brown mustards as well
as honey mustards. The difference is so minimal that it is really not worth
the bother of making your own.
Not all so-called modern foods differ in any significant way from it's
medieval counterpart. For instance modern canned tunafish packed in oil is
almost virtually the same as the Roman recipe for the fish which was cooked
and packed in oil. Anchovies are another example.
Admittedly the addition of ale to thin it down may or may not have been period
but it certainly was the best alternative considering I didn't bring any
vinegar with me. :-)
I never said it was a period sauce. I merely indicated that it was close in my
estimation to something that could have been period.. BTW, if you're looking
for actual redacted recipes from me at small affairs like our Shire 12th Night
which is exclusively held for shire members and their guests or our shire
picnic you will be sorely disappointed as I use those get togethers to
practice BEING a pewriod -like cook rather than parroting other cooks
recipes. They are a time for playing in the kitchen. :-)
Ras
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 06:17:15 PST
From: "Tipperith" <tipperith at excite.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Mustard & Soughdough Books
I have "A Dash of Mustard" and I really like it as a secondary source. There
are no period recipies, but the history portion of the book is reliable.
Tipperith
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 09:27:54 EST
From: WOLFMOMSCA at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Mustard & Soughdough Books
In a message dated 99-01-22 02:32:10 EST, Stefan wrote:
<< A Dash of Mustard Katie Holder & Jane Newdick History of mustard from
> Roman times to modern, 50 recipes etc >>
I bought this one a few months back. Wonderful coffee table book. Great
pictures. Historical information provided, but no bibliography, so you
pretty much have to take their word for it. Earliest (in their words) mustard
recipe given from De Re Rustica by Columella. There are some cool historical
pictures, though, including an artist's rendering of the Ancient Kitchen at
Windsor Castle, done in 1816, which shows a nifty scene of activity in this
huge cavern of a room. I don't know whether the kitchen at Windsor was
pre-1600 construction, but I'm willing to bet it was.
The rest of the recipes in the book are marvelous concoctions, with pretty
pictures. No historicity. Modern recipes from modern kitchens and cooks.
Valid as a spiffy 20th-century cookbook. The onion & rosemary focaccia
w/black mustard seed in the bread is just scrumptious.
The authors are Katy Holder (she wrote the recipes), a home economist and
writer, and Jane Newdick, a freelance journalist & writer specializing in
interiors & gardens, flowers and foods. Has a book called Period Flowers to
her credit (no, I haven't got it, so I don't know what period it discusses,
but if it's like Period Houses, it includes a lotta centuries).
My prime beef (with or without mustard) is the lack of a bibliography. To her
credit, the writer of the non-recipe material has, in some cases, given you
the source in the actual writing but, hey, I've got this thing about
knowing where ALL the info came from.
Great cookbook, especially for mustard lovers. Tells you how to grow and make
your own mustard. And the recipes are quite yummy. From this cookbook
collector, a general thumbs up.
Wolfmother
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 22:50:18 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
I know of three late period "Spanish" recipes for mustard. (I use
quotation marks, because two of them, though appearing in a
Spanish cookbook, are referred to as French mustard.) All of them
call for the mustard to be ground in a mortar. One specifies that
the mustard should be well ground up, and it describes the result
as "polvo" -- powder. The same recipe calls for honey to be added,
and lists "a little vinegar" as an optional ingredient, so I guess that
makes honey mustard period.
Brighid, who wishes she could still eat honey mustard.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 11:16:00 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
And it came to pass on 23 Jan 99,, that Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Lady Brighid ni Chiarain said:
> > I know of three late period "Spanish" recipes for mustard.
> Could you please post these recipes and translations? Or at least give a
> better idea where these can be found?
They are in the "Libro de Guisados" (1529) I have no finished
translation (nor any redaction) that I can post immediately.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 10:36:17 -0500
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
"The Medieval Kitchen; Recipes from France and Italy" 1998) Odile Redon,
Francoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi translated by Edward Schneider, The
University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0-226-70684-2 pages 177 through 178 has a
mustard recipe from "Le Menagier de Paris". The recipe is the the soul of
simplicity and consists of soaking 1.5 cups of white mustard seeds (250g) in
about 1.75 cups of excellent quality white wine vinegar (40cl). You cover
the mustard seeds with 1/4 inch of vinegar until the mustard seeds swell and
are soft enough to crush with your fingers, they say over night but I let it
soak longer. Drain the mustard seeds and grind to a thick paste gradually
adding the reserved vinegar until you get the consistency you want. Salt to
taste and one teaspoon of from the following prepared spice mixture from
page 222 item c: Strong Black Spice Mixture. 1/4 cup freshly ground black
pepper(30g) 1/4 cup ground long pepper (or additional black pepper) (30g)
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 whole nutmeg, grated. The spice mixture is from
. Ludovico ;Frati, editor Libro di cucina del secolo XI, Livorno, 1899;
reprinted Bologna, Forni, 1970 ("Test Antichi di Gastronomia," 7) Le
Menagier's recipe as translated calls for using left over spices from making
aspics, clare', hypocras, or sauces.
I entered this mustard in a recent Art/Sci serving it with sliced beef as
called for in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" along with some beer bread
so that people could make little sandwiches. It did quite well. If any
one wants a copy of the full documentation as writen up I will attach it to
a separate E-Mail privately.
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 14:50:58 -0500
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
Hello! There are 3 mustard recipes in Le Menagier, but this is the one you
are referring to (from Power's Goodman of Paris, p. 286):
"Item, if you would make good mustard and at leisure, set the mustardseed
to soak for a night in good vinegar, then grind it in a mill and then
moisten it little by little with vinegar; and if you have any spices left
over from jelly, clarry, hippocras or sauces, let them be ground with it
and afterwards prepare it."
His recipes for hippocras (p. 299) call for either
"a quarter of very fine cinnamon*..., and half a quarter of fine flour of
cinnamon, an ounce of selected string ginger (gingembre de mesche), fine
and white, and an ounce of graine [of Paradise,] a sixth of nutmegs and
galingale together... two quarters of sugar..."
[*spelled canelle in both instances in Pichon's edition]
or
"five drams of fine cinnamon, selected and peeled; white ginger selected
and pared 3 drams; of cloves, cardamom, mace, galingale, nutmegs, nard*,
altogether a dram and a quarter, most of the first and less of each of the
others in order... a pound and a half a quarter (by the heavy weight) of
lump sugar..."
[*Pichon notes this is spikenard.]
His recipe for meat jelly (p. 279) calls for the following spices:
"a quarter of an ounce of saffron... ten or twelve heads of white ginger,
or five or six heads of galingale, half an ounce of grain of Paradise, two
or three pieces of mace leaf, two silver penniworths [10d.] of zedoary;
cubebs and nard three silver penniworths [15s.]; bay leaves and six
nutmegs..."
There is no salt listed in the original mustard recipe. He does not give a
recipe for clarry (a spiced wine drink). I am confused as to where this
spice mixture you give fits in to the original recipe.
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 17:11:16 -0500
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
Yes my lady your are correct regarding the source of the recipe I provided.
You are also correct regarding the spice mixture added, it is clearly from a
different quite possibly a non-period source. The salt to be added is not
specifically mentioned in the orginial recipe either. In truth I did not
add salt to the mustard I made. Regarding the orginal recipe as redacted,
sans the spices, what would be your take on the composition and volume of
the spice mixture to be added?
Daniel Raoul
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 18:17:31 -0500
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
Well, it's clear from Le Menagier that the spices to be used for the
mustard are leftovers from making the hippocras, jelly, etc. So, I suppose
I'd start by making the hippocras (since it's the easiest), & straining out
& reserving the spices. (The recipes for hippocras are each to make a quart
of spiced wine; the recipe for meat jelly also calls for a pig, 4 calves'
feet, 2 chickens, 2 young rabbits, 3 quarts white wine or clarry, 1 pint
vinegar, and 1/2 pint verjuice. While the spices serve to season these
mixtures, the spices in turn are flavored by the other ingredients.) Next,
I'd grind the spices to paste, & add them to my mustard mixture a bit at a
time, until it was seasoned to my liking.
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 20:30:27 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - mustard sauce
The spice mixtures referred to in the Medieval Kitchen are from Ludovico
Frati's Libro di cucina del secolo XI and are quite period. While the
authors are not precisely following Menagier, they are being true to his
instructions by using leftover spice mixes from their kitchen.
The one thing that really doesn't fit in is the salt.
Bear
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:32:49 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Mustard Recipe #1
This is from 'Libro de Guisados" (Spanish, 1529). The translation
is mine.
MUSTARD
You must take granular mustard; and clean it of the dust and the
earth and the stones and grind it well in a mortar, and when it is
ground, pass it through a cloth strainer: and then take the mustard
powder and put it in a mortar with a piece of bread crumb* soaked
in meat broth; and crush it all together; and when it is well crushed,
dissolve it with a little bit of lean broth without fat which is well
salted and when it is gradually dissolved so that it should not be
too thin, take honey which is good; and melted on the fire, and
cast it in the mortar and stir it well until it is well mixed and prepare
dishes. Some cast a little vinegar in the broth, you can add peeled
crushed almonds with the mustard, toasted.
*note: the word here is "migajon" which means a chunk of the
inside part of the loaf, ie., not the crust.
Somebody want to play around with this one? I'd be tempted,
because it's nice and simple, but as a diabetic, I don't have much
use for honey mustard these days.
Brighid
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 22:05:12 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
The other mustard translations I promised.
Mustard recipe # 2
>From "Libro de Guisados" (Spanish, 1529)
my translation -- permission to reproduce in SCA publications if
credit is given
"French Mustard"
You must take a "cantaro" [a wine-vessel and/or unit of
measurement for wine] of the must of wine, either red or white; and
grind a dishful of mustard that is select and very good; and grind
with it, if you wish, after passing it through a cloth strainer or a hair
sieve, a little cinnamon and cloves and ginger and cast it all, very
well mixed, into the mortar, into the cantaro or jar of wine; and with
a cane stir it around a long while, so that it mixes with the must;
and each day you must stir it with the cane seven or eight times;
and you will boil the wine with this mustard and when the wine has
finished boiling, you can eat this mustard; and when you want to
take it out to cast it in the dish to eat, first stir it with the cane a
little, and this is very good mustard and it will keep all year.
Mustard Recipe # 3 (same source):
"Another Very Good French Mustard Which Lasts All Year"
Take a caldron which will hold two cantaros, and fill it with red
grapes and set it to cook upon the fire until it is reduced by half
and there remains half a caldron which is one cantaro; and when
the grapes are cooked remove the scum with a stick of wood; and
stir it now and then with a stick; and strain this must through a
clean cloth and cast it into a cantaro [used here in the sense of
wine-vessel]; and then cast in the mustard, which will be a dishful
well ground up, stirring it with a stick, and each day you should stir
with it, four or five times a day and if you wish you can grind with
the mustard cinnamon three parts, cloves two parts, and ginger
one part; this French mustard is very good and lasts all year and is
mulberry-colored.
Brighid
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 23:55:47 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauces
him at gte.net writes:
<< I see that some of the mustard recipes calls for a wine must. How do I
make or fake that? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Helen >>
Wine must is unfiltered grape juice before it ferments. Grape juice would be
a substitute.
Ras
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 10:39:28 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: SC - mustard balls - was - First Feast
>Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu mentioned:
>> There's a recipe around here somewhere for dry balls of mustard,
>> that can be mixed with vinegar? when needed.
>
>Is this a period recipe? Or just a modern expedient? Either way I'd
>like to hear more details if anyone has more info on this.
>--
>Lord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Hi! I found it. It's from Epulario (1598), p. 32:
To make mustard which may be carried in Bals.
Beat the mustard seed as aforesaid*, then take grapes well stamped, adding
thereto Sinamon and Cloves, then make what fashion bals you will round or
square, and set them on a table to dry, and being dry, you may carry them
whether you will. And when you will use them, temper them with a little
veriuice, vinegar, sodden wine, or Bastard wine."
*"Take mustard seed & let it soke for the space of two daies, and change
the water often, that it may be the whiter..."
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 06:54:21 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard balls - was - First Feast
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 1) What does it mean by "grapes well stamped"? The grape outside after
> most of the juice has been squeezed out? Or the juice? I would guess
> the former.
Yeah, one might think so, since this is supposed to end up a dryish sort
of product. On the other hand, with respect, Lord, it's possible to, um,
think too much...; ) . If you get my drift. Take some grapes, and
pulverize them in a mortar, or however they're crushed for making wine,
I guess. Take the result, which is unfiltered must, and use it to make
mustard, which is why it's called mustard, apparently.
> 2) Any idea what "sodden wine" or "Bastard wine" is? The former sounds
> like old wine or wine that has been in contact with the air for awhile.
> The latter sounds like just "low grade" wine.
Sodden wine is presumably wine that has been sodden, or seethed, or
boiled. Bastard implies a mixture, but not necessarily low grade:
consider you might some day have to discuss your views with William the
Conqueror and Leonardo da Vinci, both bastards. Mixing various wines,
beers, and ales has a long history before the birth of Half-and-half
(half mild, half bitters?) in British pubs.
> "round or square bals". Ok. :-)
Hey, now there's an interesting point. I'm not gonna run to the
dictionary just this second, but I wonder if we have, over time,
developed a habit of putting the cart before the horse in the matter of
round balls. In other words, does the word mean round, or some kind of
projectile not characterized by its roundness, but by its
projectile-ness, if you know what I'm saying? If so, square balls would
be a perfectly sensible term. And if not, well, we seem to have figured
it out anyway... .
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 21:45:04 -0400
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: SC - Re: OOP Neat Book
I recently picked up "The Mustard Book" by Jan Roberts-Dominguez, Macmillian
Publishing Co., NY 1993 ISBN 0-02-603641-X. Its a great little special
topic cook book with a short chapter on the history of mustard and chapters
on European, Eastern and American mustards. All in all a lot of fun to read
and use.
Daniel Raoul
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 19:16:43 EDT
From: RuddR at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost
Kerri Canepa asks:
<Anyone want to take a guess on Greek wine and Lombard mustard?
I have adapted this the easy way; instead of grinding my own mustard seed,
etc., I start with commercial mustard already made with wine and vinegar, and
thin it with honey and wine:
LUMBARD MUSTARD
Take mustard seed and waisshe it, & drye it in an ovene. Grynde it drye;
sarse it thurgh a sarse. Clarifie hony with wyne & vyneger & stere it wel
togedre and make it thikke ynow\; & whan (th)ou wilt spende (th)erof make it
thynne with wyne.
Forme of Cury
1 C brown mustard made with white wine
1/2 C honey
1/4 C dry white wine
1. In a bowl, stir together mustard and honey.
2. Stir in wine until sauce reaches a desirable consistency.
Yields one and three-quarters cups of sauce.
Rudd Rayfield
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 20:51:29 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost
RuddR at aol.com wrote:
> Kerri Canepa asks:
> <Anyone want to take a guess on Greek wine and Lombard mustard?
>
> I have adapted this the easy way; instead of grinding my own mustard seed,
> etc., I start with commercial mustard already made with wine and vinegar, and
> thin it with honey and wine:
Grey poupon makes a whole-grain Dijon mustard that's excellent for this
sort of thing. So does a company called Plochman's, whose product comes
in a distinctive "stoneware" pot.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 09:53:26 -0400
From: "Nick Sasso" <njs at mccalla.com>
Subject: Mustard (was Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost)
>troy at asan.com writes:
><< So does a company called Plochman's, whose product comes
> in a distinctive "stoneware" pot. >>
>This is the brand i use because it is the closest to anything i have tried to
>make myself from period recipes. :-)
>Ras
Is the Plochman's made with white mustard seed? My understanding from a spice/herbal source is that white (yellow) seed was more common in Western European Middle Ages than the black.
I have been overjoyed with my success at making mustards from seed and from Coleman's Dry Mustard. I started with the Coleman's and the Menagier recipe, and loved it truly. It aged gracefully and was a delight after about 2 months. Lots of the sharp edges mellowed into a smooth, hot mustard.
The Forme of Cury (Lombard Mustard) recipe method is much simpler because of the dry seeds. When I try to soak the seeds before running through a mill or even a food processor, it gets a bit sticky and awkward to handle. The dry seeds went much better. Either is just delightful with Menagier's sausages and German soft pretzels.
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 16:53:51 GMT
From: "Liam Fisher" <macdairi at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost
>I have adapted this the easy way; instead of grinding my own mustard seed,
>etc., I start with commercial mustard already made with wine and vinegar,
>and thin it with honey and wine:
Dunno, I think the only tedious part would be to grind the mustard. I'd
think you could use pre-ground mustard, but it would loose some of the oils
being pre-ground. I think this is something you could make well in advance.
Also, you can adjust it if you use the original.
But then again, people think I'm weird too..
Cadoc
- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Cadoc MacDairi, Mountain Confederation, ACG
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 11:26:31 CEST
From: "Christina van Tets" <cjvt at hotmail.com>
Subject: SC - mustard
There is actually no need to use a food processor to grind mustard seeds:
to my mind the mortar does a nicer job, as I like the variation in size
which it gives. The only extra work is picking up all the seeds which fall
out onto the floor, because I invariably forget to put a bowl under the
mortar first, and the little blighters bounce. Is there a difference in
flavour between the various seeds? I only ask because I can't seem to
duplicate the flavour of my favourite mustard (stoneware jars labelled
Pommery) which has _brownish_ seeds, which I've never seen in shops (I've
only found black and yelow).
Cairistiona
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 13:18:56 -0400
From: "Nick Sasso" <njs at mccalla.com>
Subject: Grinding mustard (was Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost)
>macdairi at hotmail.com writes:
><< Dunno, I think the only tedious part would be to grind the mustard. >>
>
>Even this is not tedious. Food processor immediately comes to mind.
>Ras
I often use my Black & Decker 'Handy Chopper": a 2 cup capacity food processor. It works sufficiently well, especially for smaller quantities. The big processors would make lighter work of it, though when you get over a cup or so.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you grind with too much liquid, you'll get air incorporated and yield a moussey texture. I found that a rather annoying side effect the first time. grind dry or with scant liquid to make a paste to avoid that problem.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 15:45:12 -0600
From: Magdalena <magdlena at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Platina mustard
Stephanie Dale Ross wrote:
Does anyone have the original of Sinapidum Rubeum (reddish mustard) from Platina's De honesta voluptate with a decent translation? I have a redaction I picked up at an A&S University, but the translation says to use white corn meal, and the redaction uses 2 c. of burgundy wine in place of "a little must". I'd like to see how well done the redaction is in the recipe i have.
I won't swear as to how good the translation is...
Platina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health
trans. Mary Ella Milham
8.14 Red Mustard Sauce
Grind in mortar or mill, either separately or all together, mustard, raisins, dates, toasted bits of bread, and a little cinnamon. When it is ground, soak with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and pass through a sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one above (8.13 Prepared Mustard/ Sinapidum) and stimulates thirst but does not nourish badly.
Magdalena
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 08:54:39 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
>hi all from Anne-Marie
>does anyone have a favorite homemade mustard recipe they'd care to share?
>I'm especially interested in period ones, ie one like le Menagier, or
>Epilarios, and ones that donÕt contain eggs.
Here is one from the Harpestreng-manuscript, Icelandic version, late 15th
century:
"Item sem salsa mustar
Taka skal mustard ok lata til ?ridiung af hunangi. ok t’unda hlut af afsi.
enn tvo slik af kanele. mala ?etta. alltt saman med stercktt edik. lata
sidan j legil. ?at dugir um ?ria manadi."
Another mustard sauce
Take mustard and add a third as much of honey, and a tenth of aniseed, and
twice as much cinnamon (as aniseed). Grind this all together with a strong
vinegar, then put in a cask. It will keep for three months.
The other versions of this recipe I have are very similar.
This is a hot mustard, very good for lamb or well-flavored ham. I do use a
bit less aniseed, though.
Nanna
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 19:08:36 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
><< I do use a bit less aniseed, though. >>
Ras asked:
>How much less?
Weeell - let«s see. To each 300 ml of mustard seed maybe 100 ml honey, 4
tbsps cinnamon and 1-1 1/2 tbsp aniseed (should be 2 tbsps according to the
recipe). Come to think of it, I probably use a bit less cinnamon too - maybe
2 1/2-3 tbsps. Mixed with some vinegar and sometimes thinned with a bit of
water.
There is another, milder, mustard recipe in the 1616 Danish Koge Bog, with
mustard, roasted almonds, wine and sugar or honey.
Nanna
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 07:46:57 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Re: SC - mustard recipes
My redaction of the Le Menagier follows:
Mustard (Le Menagier De Paris, ca. 1393 (Powers)
MUSTARD. If you wish to provide for keeping mustard a long time do it at wine-harvest in sweet must. And some say that the must should be boiled. Item, if you want to make mustard hastily in a village, grind some mustard-seed in a mortar and soak in vinegar, and strain; and if you want to make it ready the sooner, put it in a pot in front of the fire. Item, and if you wish to make it properly and at leisure, put the mustard-seed to soak overnight in good vinegar, then have it ground fine in a mill, and then little by little moisten it with vinegar: and if you have some spices left over from making jelly, broth, hypocras or sauces, they may be ground up with it, and then leave it until it is ready.
2 tablespoons ground yellow mustard seed
2 tablespoons vinegar
pinch black spices
Mix the mustard and vinegar together into a smooth paste. Add spice mix and let stand to meld and/or mellow for a week or more. The mustard I entered in Kingdom A&S was nine days old, and aged gracefully for another two weeks (it was gone by then). The black spice powder is adapted from "The Medieval Kitchen": equal parts black pepper and long pepper (1/4 cup each) to 1/2 tsp ground cloves and a whole grated nutmeg. You only use a pinch in the small recipe above, so it lasts a long time. The black spices are also great on a pan roasted beef steak!
simple recipe with delightful outcome. Pungent taste followed 3-5 seconds later by an intense heat. Marvelous on lamb and pork.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 18:33:12 -0800
From: Valoise <varmstro at zipcon.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
Sabina Welserin has a sweet mustard recipe:
34 To make the mustard for dried cod
Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put sugar
into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you prefer to
eat it, then it is a good mustard.
I noticed that this calls for mustard powder. Does a coffee grinder
get mustard seeds that finely ground?
Valoise
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 23:03:34 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
varmstro at zipcon.net writes:
<< Does a coffee grinder get mustard seeds that finely ground?
Valoise >>
I grind in the coffee grinder and then sift, returning the large bits to the
grinder and repeat until it is all finely ground. I do this with all my whole
spices that need to be ground.
Ras
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 00:24:52 -0800
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <acrouss at gte.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
hey all from Anne-Marie
Valoise sez :At 06:33 PM 12/3/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Sabina Welserin has a sweet mustard recipe:
>
>34 To make the mustard for dried cod
>
>Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put sugar
>into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you
>prefer to eat it, then it is a good mustard.
>
>I noticed that this calls for mustard powder. Does a coffee grinder
>get mustard seeds that finely ground?
do you have access to the original German? is it positive that they mean
mustard powder, and not "mustard powdered", ie ground seeds (which could be
a bit chunky)?
I know that there's some English recipes that call for grinding things like
meat to "dust" and we take that to mean "grind really well", not literally
to dust (which would be very tricky with fresh meat :)).
this is gonna be fun! I like the idea of mustard with pear preserves added...
- --AM
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 14:35:13 -0800
From: Valoise <varmstro at zipcon.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
>Anne-Marie Rousseau asked:
> do you have access to the original German? is it positive that they mean
> mustard powder, and not "mustard powdered", ie ground seeds (which could be
> a bit chunky)?
The recipe calls for senffmel which would literally be mustard flour.
Powder is one of the alternate uses for the modern word Mehl or flour.
Valoise
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 14:49:35 -0500
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
Subject: SC - Digby's Horseradish Mustard
> Digby has a Ginger horseradish mustard sauce: can someone get that
> for me?
>
> Caointiarn
Here you go -
From Sir Kenelme Digby's Closet Opened
"To Make Mustard
The best way of making Mustard is this: Take of the best Mustard-seed
(which is black) for example a quart. Dry it gently in an oven, and beat
it to subtle powder, and searse it. Then mingle well strong Wine-vinegar
with it, so much that it be pretty liquid, for it will dry with keeping.
Put to this a little Pepper beaten small (white is best) at discretion,
as about a good pugil, and put a good spoonful of Sugar to it (which is
not to make it taste sweet, but rather quick, and to help the
fermentation) lay a good Onion in the bottom, quartered if you will, and
a Race of Ginger scraped and bruised; and stir it often with a
Horse-radish root cleansed, which let always lie in the pot, till it have
lost it's vertue, then take a new one. This will keep long, and grow
better for a while. It is not good till after a month, that it have
fermemted a while. Some think it will be the quicker, if the seed be
ground with fair water, in stead of vinegar, putting store of Onions in
it.
My Lady Holmeby makes her quick fine Mustard thus: Choose true
Mustard-seed; dry it in an oven, after the bread is out. Beat and searse
it to a most subtle powder. Mingle Sherry-sack with it (stirring it a
long time very well, so much as to have it of a fit consistence for
Mustard. Then put a good quantity of fine Sugar to it, as five or six
spoonfuls, or more, to a pint of Mustard. Stir and incorporate all well
together. This will keep a good long time. Some do like to put to it a
little (but a little) of very sharp Wine-vinegar."
And here is another plain horseradish sauce.
<snip - see sauces-msg>
Christianna
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 22:39:43 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Digby's Horseradish Mustard
Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> mermayde at juno.com writes:
> << > Digby has a Ginger horseradish mustard sauce: can someone get that
> > for me?
> >
> > Caointiarn
>
> Here you go -
>
> From Sir Kenelme Digby's Closet Opened
>
> What does "searse" mean?
verb, to sift or sieve
> "as about a good pugil,
> What is a pugil?
>From the context, probably a fistful [of pepper]. Pugilism is boxing.
> How much is a race (of ginger)?
A race is a rhizome or root. That doesn't tell you much, I suspect. A
piece of ginger. Some ; ) .
Adamantius
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 23:18:21 -0400
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard
<<<<Thanks! I'll drag Markham out. I'm going to make the red mustard from Platina,
a German one, and the one in Digby that uses horseradish, onions, ginger etc,
but I reallly liked the one I tried at KC.>>>>
Foy your information, Platina's mustard ROCKS!! I'll give you what I came up with. I ground the mustard flour myself (a real chore in a Corona mill!). It is the hit of several events around these parts so far. Very complex and interesting flavor.
Red Mustard
(On Good Health and Right Pleasure -- Platina translated by Milham)
Liber ovtavus, <14> : Sinapeum Rubeum: Sinapum, passalas, sandalos, buccellas, pinas tostas, cinnami parum, seorsum autsimul conterito, vel molito. Trita cum acresta aut aceto cum-que modico sapae dissolvito, in patinasque per setaceum transagito. Hoc minus praedicto concalefacit, ac sitim movet, nec incommode nutrit.
Book Eight, <14> Red Mustard sauce: Grind in mortar or mill, either separately or all together, mustard, raisins, dates, toasted bread, and a little cinnamon. When it is ground, soak with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and pass through a sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one above and stimulates the thirst but does not nourish badly.
niccolo's Red Mustard (Makes about 1 ? cups prepared mustard sauce.)
1/2 cup mustard flour (yellow) 4 large pitted dates
3/4 c. cider/wine vinegar 1 slice toasted bread
1/4 c. white grape juice 1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbl zante raisins 1/4 tsp salt (to taste)
Combine the two liquids and stir; set aside. Moisten toasted bread in liquid to cover for two hours, then drain. In mortar or food processor grind mustard flour, bread, raisins, dates and cinnamon until fine. You may need to add a little of the liquid to loosen it. When ground, turn out into the mustard in large mixing bowl and add salt and add 3/4 of the liquid. Stir with a spoon or whisk until smooth. Pass this mixture entirely through a fine mesh sieve or food mill. This will make a very smooth paste and remove fibrous material left from raisins and dates. Let stand covered overnight. Stir in more vinegar/juice liquid to desired consistency. The complex sweetness surpasses any honey mustards I've made to date.
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:09:34 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard
Sure. No problem. I'm including the original translation and my redaction...with notes.
Sinapidum rubeum--Reddish Mustard
Platina--De honesta voluptate
Original:
"Grind up mustard, raisins, white corn meal and toasted bread crumbs and a little cinnamon, either separately or all together; when they are ground up, dissolve them in verjuice or vinegar and a little must. And pass this into dishes through a strainer. This is less warming than the [mustard recipe] above and stimulates the thirst and is agreeably nourishing."
Redaction:
1 cup mustard seed 3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup white cider vinegar 2 cups burgundy wine
1 cup raisins
1. Place mustard seeds in a blender with vinegars and wine. Liquefy.
2. Add cinnamon and raisins, and reduce this to liquid.
3. Add bread crumbs, enough to thicken the mustard enough so that a wooden spoon or spatula will almost stand in it.
4. Let cure for several weeks in a crock with a cloth cover.
Notes:
The translation called for "white corn meal". Because I am unaware of the existence of corn meal in 16th century Italy, I believe that this is a mistake in translation, but do not know enough classical Latin as it was used in the Renaissance to do my own translation. Therefore I simply omitted it. Possibly the original referred to "meal", which might have been oats or spelt, according to information found in "A Taste of Ancient Rome" and "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine".
Also, as must is not generally available, I have substituted burgundy wine, as it seemed to be a reasonable substitute.
Finally, this translation is from the edition published by Falconwood Press, and, as it did not include the name of the translator, I'm not sure who it was.
Kiri
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 02:13:49 EDTFrom: CBlackwill at aol.comSubject: Re: SC - Re: SC poppa's Mustard ringofkings at mindspring.com writes:> To my knowledge, "must" is the unfiltered grape juice that you get> with crushed grapes with all the pulp and bits still in it but the skins> and seeds strained out. It is your basic beginning point of making> wine from sratch rather from concentrates. As it has lots of natural> yeasts in it, it will begin to ferment unless kept cool, so putting it in> sealed bottles in the bottom of a pond makes sense. That's correct. 'Must' is, essentially, the same as 'wort' in beer brewing. The raw, unfermented building blocks for remarkably tasty beverages...Balthazar of Blackmoor
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 08:22:31 -0500
From: Magdalena <magdlena at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: SC poppa's Mustard
RANDALL DIAMOND wrote:
> As it has lots of natural yeasts in it, it will begin to ferment unless kept
> cool, so putting it in sealed bottles in the bottom of a pond makes sense.
I use a combination of partially concentrated grape juice and a touch of red
wine to simulate must. The real question, though, is whether the Latin word
"sapae" (I think that's the word) means "must" in a modern sense.
Trita cum acresta aut aceto cum-que
modico sapae dissolvito, in patinasque per setaceum transagito.
aceto=vinegar; acresta~verjuice
- -Magdalena
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 10:04:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard (recipe #1 - Platina red)
> A key phrase is ". . . and have it ground". Not begging any questions
> since I, too, ground my first couple of mustard flours, but it is quite
> apropos to get pre ground mustard flour to use as ingredient since the
> spicers in much of medieval Europe would have been doing the grinding
> for us.
Can I ask for further elaboration?
Because I've been wondering about that very subject. Sarah Garland, in
_The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices_ says "The way to reduce mustard
seed to fine flour was only discovered in the mind-18th century; before
that the seed was pounded as needed in a mustard quern,or the pounded seed
was mixed with honey, vinegar and spices and formed into balls that could
be stored until needed." On the other hand, Plat says, "It is usuall in
Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as we doe flower and
meale in England," but he then says, "but it would be much stronger and
finer, if the husks or huls were first divided by searce or boulter: which
may easily be done, if you dry your seeds against the fire before you
grinde them. " Which is a bit confusing. My theory is that the smooth
ground mustard powder that is available from modern merchants is probably
not accurate: what you get when you grind it yourself (in mortar or coffee
grinder, at least) is of a much rougher texture.
If you have more information to justify the use of modern mustard 'flour',
I'd feel a lot more comfortable (because I admit to using half-and-half
handground and commercial mustard powder in my mustard).
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 12:22:56 -0400
From: Nick Sasso <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard (recipe #1 - Platina red)
My belief is built on the directions in the recipe to 'have it ground'
and references in Scully's "Art of Cookery" (IIRC) that travelling
spicers would bring spices for the manors, and that spicers in
marketplaces would also do so. I also belief from reading and
experience that one can get a VERY fine grind with a mortar and pestle
given patience and muscle. Bolting will serve to give an even finer
product based on the weave of the bolting cloth. Consider the fine
flour needed for breads. It starts as a rather large, husked seed, and
can come out very fine in a grist mill. Le Menagier also talks of
buying whole spices rather than pre ground, but commends the wife to buy
prepared mustard, so that is a wash.
Given time and effort, I have gotten a fairly fine grind on the mustard
seed. I don't have an enormous mortar as a large kitchen must certainly
have had (compared to my 8 ounce jobber), but I can get .5 to one cup of
fine mustard over several hours of work with mortar and FINE sieve. I
end up regrinding a lot. Does that help? I can get page and source
reference next week if desired.
Also know that oxygen will react with compounds in the mustard to make
it hotter. That is one reason, I suspect, that aging smoothes the
taste. the oxygenated compounds degrade and resemble the more natural
ones in the mustard.
niccolo
Jenne Heise wrote:
> > A key phrase is ". . . and have it ground". Not begging any questions
> > since I, too, ground my first couple of mustard flours, but it is quite
> > apropos to get pre ground mustard flour to use as ingredient since the
> > spicers in much of medieval Europe would have been doing the grinding
> > for us.
>
> Can I ask for further elaboration?
>
> Because I've been wondering about that very subject. Sarah Garland, in
> _The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices_ says "The way to reduce mustard
> seed to fine flour was only discovered in the mind-18th century; before
> that the seed was pounded as needed in a mustard quern,or the pounded seed
> was mixed with honey, vinegar and spices and formed into balls that could
> be stored until needed." On the other hand, Plat says, "It is usuall in
> Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as we doe flower and
> meale in England," but he then says, "but it would be much stronger and
> finer, if the husks or huls were first divided by searce or boulter: which
> may easily be done, if you dry your seeds against the fire before you
> grinde them. " Which is a bit confusing. My theory is that the smooth
> ground mustard powder that is available from modern merchants is probably
> not accurate: what you get when you grind it yourself (in mortar or coffee
> grinder, at least) is of a much rougher texture.
>
> If you have more information to justify the use of modern mustard 'flour',
> I'd feel a lot more comfortable (because I admit to using half-and-half
> handground and commercial mustard powder in my mustard).
>
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 13:16:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard (recipe #1 - Platina red)
> If you soak the mustard seed first, it would be easier to grind.
Um, er... I've tried it both ways, using wet mustard seed and dry mustard
seed, and in my experience, the dry is easier to grind in a mortar &
pestle, because when it is wet, the friction is reduced. I also find that
grinding seeds, etc. is much easier in a mortar with a rough inner
surface. (Somehow I ended up with FIVE mortar & pestle sets:
One regular pottery with a not-completely-smooth glaze and a shaped wooden
pestle (which has been demoted to pomander making since I can't get the
frankincense completely off the pestle)
One white ceramic with a roughened surface inside and on the pestle
(excellent for everything but lavender and roses)
One brass, smooth inside, with a smooth brass pestle (seems to work for
dried herb leaves but not seeds)
One marble set which I can't find!
One semi-conical mortar with a ridged interior (and cylindrical wooden
pestle) which is good on lavender flowers, roses, etc.-- I think this came
from a Japanese grocery)
I also have a cheap electric coffee grinder for large amounts of seeds...
(What's an herbalist without a M&P anyway?)
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 22:29:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terri Spencer <taracook at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Mustard question
I'm preparing some mustard and noticed a small discrepancy in recipes.
My edition of The Goodman of Paris (Powers, 1928) lists on page 286:
Mustard. If you would make provision of mustard to keep for a long
time, make it in the harvest season and of soft pods. And some say
that the pods should be boiled
The recipe as posted by several list members reads:
Mustard. If you wish to provide for keeping mustard a long time do it
at wine-harvest in sweet must. And some say that the must should be
boiled.
Must at harvest time makes sense to me, but I don't want to contradict
a source without further evidence. Anyone out there with a copy of the
recipe in the original French? Other translations? Educated opinions?
Tara
Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 14:37:59 +0200
From: tgl at mailer.uni-marburg.de
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard question
"269. Moustarde. Se vous voulez faire provision de moustarde
pour garder longuement, faictes la en vendenges de moulx doulx.
Et aucuns dient que le moulx [moust_ms. B] soit bouly."
Source: Brereton, G.E./ Ferrier, J.M. (eds.): Le Menagier de Paris.
Oxford 1981, p. 258 #269. The text in Pichon/Vicaire edition is
essentially the same, only "faites-la" instead of "faictes la" and
"moust" instead of the second use of "moulx".
Thomas
From: "Siegfried Heydrich" <baronsig at peganet.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 00:00:54 -0400
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Col. Mustard did it in the kitchen
I ran across this in my wanderings . . .
Sieggy
For the Love of Mustard
If you're fascinated by mustard - and who isn't? - you may want to plan a
trip to Mount Horeb, Wis. soon, in order to pay a visit to the Mount Horeb
Mustard Museum, home to over 3,000 varieties of everyone's favorite yellow
condiment. Founded in 1986 by curator Barry Levenson, the museum also
features "an extensive collection of mustard memorabilia and antique mustard
pots". If that sort of thing gets your heart racing, you'll probably need a
pacemaker after visiting the museum's official site, where you can buy
assorted mustard paraphernalia - a "mustard herbal bath" anyone? - or enroll
at the mock mustard college "Poupon U." where you can take courses in such
fascinating subjects as "Brown Spicy Mustard in Etruscan Literature". Um,
could someone pass the ketchup please?
From: "Patricia Collum" <pjc2 at cox.net>
To: <SCAFoodandFeasts at yahoogroups.com>, <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 09:20:03 -0700
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Sabrina Welserin Mustard Sauce
Yesterday was our A&S competition. I decided at the last minute (6:30am
that day) that I would bring this mustard sauce and make it right then. I
had made Sir Digby's mustard several monthe before, and the contrast between the two was really nice. My Kingdom MoAS suggested that I only enter one at Kingdom A&S, and Sabrina's won the most positive comments. I did not win the category with the mustard yesterday, because their were no other
cooking-condiments entries to compete against. This may also happen at Kingdom.
But the crowd's reaction was wonderful.
Original recipe (translated in english from Das Kuchbuch der Sabrina
Welser=
in (1553): To make the mustard for dried cod:
Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put
suga=
r into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you
prefer =
to eat it, then it is a good mustard.
I decided to use canned pears instead of pear preserves like the
redaction that I read in 'Making Medieval-Style Mustards' by Jadwiga
Zajaczkowa/Jenne Heise.(Thank you for a wonderful article!)
my redaction: 1 cup freshly ground mustard seed (starting with about 1
Tbsp of brown mustard seed to 3 Tbsp yellow)
2 small cans (8 1/2 oz.) pears in heavy syrup, drained well
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup cooking sherry
dump all contents into a blender and whirl until smooth.
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 22:43:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
Besides the seeds, are other parts of the plant also edible? Roots, for example?
<<<
The leaves and sprouts of white mustard are edible; they are eaten as
mustard greens.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 09:48:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
To: sca-east at indra.com
Subject: [EK] sauces/spreads from war camp
A couple people asked me for the recipes for this stuff, so here they are.
Dilled cream cheese:
<see spreads-msg –Stefan>
Sauce for Pigeons (the salsa stuff):
Original:
Sauce for Peiouns. Take percely, oynouns, garleke, and salt, and mynce
smal the percely and the oynouns, and grynde the garleke, and temper it
with vynegre y-now; and mynce the rostid peiouns and cast the sauce
ther-on a-boute, and serve it forth.
(Ashmole M.S. 1479, quoted in Take a Thousand Eggs by Cindy Renfrow)
* Snip parsley leaves from 3 large bunches off stems (I used a mixture
of curly and flat parsley).
* Grind about 3 cups of leaves in a food processor until seriously
minced; remove from food processor.
* Cut up about 4 medium onions into chunks and mince in food
processor.
* Add a handful of peeled garlic cloves.
* Remove and mix with minced parsley.
* Add red wine vinegar (about a cup) and mix so that the result is
moist with vinegar and salsa-like in texture.
(Can be made the night before and refrigerated. Should be let stand at
least 1/2 hour before serving in any case.)
Brown Mustard from Rumpolt:
Original: Brown mustard made up with clear vinegar/ is also good.
Grind brown mustard seeds. Add white wine vinegar to make a thin paste.
Let sit 2 days. Does not need refrigeration.
Cinnamon Mustard:
From The Viandier of Taillevent (13th century), translated by Terence
Scully [Cameline Mustard Sauce]: "Take mustard, red wine, cinnamon powder
and enough sugar, and let everything steep together. It should be thick like
cinnamon. It is good for any roast."
1 part chinese cinnamon powder
4 parts ground yellow mustard seed
Add burgundy wine to make a thin paste
Sweeten to taste with sugar.
Tournai-Style Cameline:
Spicy Green Sauce (the pesto-like stuff):
Prune Sauce:
<see the sauces-msg file for these sauces –Stefan>
n Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 09:50:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Mustards
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
I'd like to try some other fruit mustards. Does anyone have any recipes or
thoughts before I go wildly experimenting on:
Fig Mustard
Plum Mustard (or maybe prune mustard would be better)
Cherry Mustard
An Orange Marmelade sort of mustard
Olive mustard
<<<
Hm... I would try prunes and dried cherries rather than fresh plums and
cherries, they work really well. What about combining mustard with the
prune sauce that we already have from period?
Some fruit mustards:
with grapes:
De Nola:
155. Another Very Good French Mustard Which Lasts All Year-- OTRA
MOSTAZA FRANCESA MUY BUENA Y DURA TODO EL A„O
Take a caldron which will hold two cantaros, and fill it with red grapes
and set it to cook upon the fire until it is reduced by half and there
remains half a caldron which is one cantaro; and when the grapes are
cooked, remove the scum with a wooden spoon; and stir it now and then
with a stick; and strain this must through a clean cloth and cast it into
a cantaro; and then cast in the mustard, which should be up to a dishful
well-ground, little by little, stirring it with the stick. And each day
you should stir with it, four or five times a day; and if you wish, you
can grind with the mustard three parts cinnamon, two parts cloves, and
one part ginger. This French mustard is very good and lasts all year and
is mulberry-colored.
Two mustards with dried fruit from Platina:
Red Mustard sauce: Grind in mortar or mill, either separately or all
together, mustard, raisins, dates, toasted bread, and a little cinnamon.
When it is ground, soak with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and
pass through a sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one
above and stimulates the thirst but does not nourish badly.
Mustard sauce in bits: Mix mustard and well-pounded raisins, a little
cinnamon and cloves, and make little balls or bits from this mixture. When
they have dried on a board, carry them with you wherever you want. When
there is a need, soak in verjuice or vinegar or must. This differs little
in nature from those above.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 06:58:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Mustards
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Jadwiga wrote:
>What's your favorite mustard recipe?
I made this sweet mustard from Scappi about a year
ago. In the absence of quinces I used apples.
From Scappi Cap CCLXXVI, folio 95, 2nd book.
Sweet Mustard
Take a pound of sauce of grapes, and an other of
quinces cooked in wine and sugar, four ounces of
"appie" apples cooked in wine and sugar, three ounces
of candied peel of eggplant, two ounces of candied
lemon peel, and half an ounce of candied sour orange
peel, and paste all the candies together with the
apples and quinces in a mortar. When everything is
ground pass it through a sieve together with the grape
sauce, add to the said material three ounces of
cleaned mustard seed, more or less depending on how
strong you want it. And when it is passed (mixed) put
in a little salt and sugar finely ground, half an
ounce of cinnamon, and a quarter (of an ounce) of
cloves, and if you don't want to make a paste of the
candies then chop them minutely. If you don't have
sauce of grapes one can make it without, take more
quinces and apples cooked in the above said manner.
From Scappi Cap CCLXXIIII folio 95, 2nd book
To make sauce of black grapes
Take black grapes, that are firm, those that are
called "gropello", that is "cesenese", that have a red
skin, break them and put to boil in a casserole on a
low fire for an hour. After take the juice that they
have made and strain through a sieve. And for every
pound of juice take eight ounces of fine sugar and put
it to reboil in a casserole, scum it well and to this
add at the end a little salt and whole cinnamon and
let it boil on a slow fire until it takes the cooking
(the implication here is that the sauce reduces and
becomes syrupy) and when it is cooked conserve it in a
glass or glazed pottery vessel.
Mustardo amabile - sweet mustard
For the grape sauce:
1 lb red or black grapes
4 oz sugar
1 " stick cinnamon
For the apples cooked in wine and sugar (note for
feast apples were cooked in water only):
3 apples
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
For the mustard sauce:
1 oz candied lemon peel
1 small pinch ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch cloves
1 oz mustard seed ground
pinch salt
Take the grapes, break the skins and place in a
covered pot on a low heat for one hour. Strain the
grapes through a sieve and then strain the resultant
pulpy juice through a jelly bag or cheesecloth. This
should yield 8 oz of grape juice. Add the sugar,
return to the pan and bring to a boil. As it boils
remove any scum that rises to the surface. Simmer for
about 20 minutes until the sauce reaches a consistency
that is tacky and thick and is before the jelly stage.
Core the apples, chop roughly and place in a pan with
the wine and sugar, simmer until tender. Remove the
apples from the liquid and press through a sieve or
other strainer, to remove skin and mash apples.
Blend 8 oz grape sauce with 8 oz of apple mush in a
blender with the lemon peel and remaining spices
including the mustard. Blend until smooth. This is a
sweet, tangy, fruity mustard, in every way friendly
(which is the literal translation of amabile). Makes
enough to fill a 16 oz canning jar, serves 30 for
feast.
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 11:22:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Mustards
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
I think the dried fruit would be good too, as it would concentrate the
sweetness and keep the mustard from being watery.
<<<
Someone used dried cranberries in her mustard and liked it very much.
>>>
Combining a prune sauce and a mustard sounds like a good combo. I looked in
the Florilegium for prune sauce, but didn't turn it up. And I tried a few
other google searches as well. Is it under an old language spelling?
<<<
It's in The Medieval Kitchen by Redon et al. Googling Dried Plum Sauce
found it in someone's list of redactions-- here's the original:
"Translation: Take prunes and put them to soak in red wine, and remove the
pits; pound them very well with a few unskinned almonds and a little
roasted or grilled bread soaked in the wine where the prunes had been. And
pound all these things together with a little verjuice and the above
mentioned wine and a little boiled grape must, or sugar, which would be
much better; mix and strain, adding good spices, especially cinnamon. "
>>>
Those grape and raisin ones sound tasty. Do you find that white or red
wine/verjuice is best from those ones in Platina. The spice-raisin balls
seem like a good food for travelers or campers as it would be easy to just
get out the number of little spice balls that you needed from your container
and would require minimal preparation at that point. It occurred to me that
this preparation is like jerky-for-spices.
<<<
I like red wine and white verjuice, the white wine mustards I've made seem
to turn pickle-ish over time.
BTW, my research indicates verjuice or must would be used in summer,
vinegar in fall and spring, and wine in winter because of the theory of
humors, but I think that info is from Scully's Medium Aevum article.
>>>
Did you teach your mustard class again this year at Pennsic? If so what
were people's favorites?
<<<
Well, mostly I give them a bunch of things to try mixing together. Many of
them make lombard mustards but a bunch of them made the cinnamon mustard
from the Viander, as that is one of the ones I had available for them to
try. (I used 3 parts mustard to one part chinese cinnamon)
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 14:27:26 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustards/Responses to Phlip's, Jadwiga's, and
Helewyse's posts
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
Phlip,
is your pear mustard posted somewhere I could find it and try it out? I
have experienced some of the mustards that were very sweet--- on the order
of mustard flavored honey. But I think a lot of people like this version
too as they seem to sell well modernly.
Your thoughts did lead me to think though about other things that would add
sweetness and flavor without being overly sweet. One thing that occurred to
me would be beets. I haven't looked though to see whether white and yellow
beets are period as well as red. And while I think beet mustard flavor
could be really good, I am not sure how the color would come out with red
ones--beet red or a funny color of orangey yellow. A red one might or might
not be visually appetizing in combination with meat (or it might make for
one of those heart stopping soltilties).
<<<
This is from Valoise' translation of Sabina Welserin:
34 To make the mustard for dried cod
Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put sugar
into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you prefer to
eat it, then it is a good mustard.
As I was unable to find pear preserves, and knowing that preserves are
cooked, I substituted fresh pears, which I had cored and lightly parboiled-
just to tenderness. I left the peels on, for a bit of added texture (never
mind it was late and I was tired ;-) and we ran them through the food
processor, with a bit of wine- semi-dry white- with the mustard powder. We
did add a bit of sugar, but very little, because these pears were
wonderfully sweet in their own right.
The consistancy was rather similar to a fairly firm applesauce, with a
lovely bite of mustard. It does mellow, given a couple of days, but is still
good in 24 hours.
Proportions were about 6 pears to one can (4 3/4 oz?) mustard. We served it
with roast pork loin, as one of 3 sauces, camelline and pevorade (sp?
Grape/black pepper combo) being the other two.
If I were to do it again, I'd likely make pear preserves, since they're so
hard to find, and do them in either thin slices, or small chunks, and work
from there. Regardless, it was very tasty as it was, and if I get a taste
for it in a hurry, I'll duplicate my actions.
This enough?
In the meantime, Jadwiga, while I have thought about doing the mustards with
dried fruits, I've been in a bit of a quandry about what to do to liquify
them, to a softer consistancy. I'm thinking about rehydrating them in a
light wine, but haven't come to any firm decision. Any suggestions?
Saint Phlip,
CoD
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 11:44:59 -0500
From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] On Topic, Welserin's Pear Mustard (long)
To: "Cooks List" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I am working on an A&S entry for this weekend, long story short, starting at
one spot ended up with me making a variety of mustards, one of them being
Welserin's Pear. There are many different redactions on the web, and even
several that were posted here I hope what I have done will add at least a
little interesting to the corpus. The following is the second Appendix to my
research that discusses the Pear Preserves I used to make the Mustard, I
have just copied and pasted so it is in "documentation" speak.
Appendix B
The Welserin recipe calls for pear preserves. I did not want to purchase
ready made preserves (assuming they could be found), but neither Welserin
nor her contemporary Rumpolt saw fit to provide us with a recipe for pear
preserves. Instead of moving to a parallel source from another region of
Europe I decided to look back in time to earlier German manuscripts, hoping
to keep the continuity of the region.
Luckily the Teutonic cookbook provides us with a sort of pear preserve.
18. Wilthu ein grune? von Huzellen machenn:
so wasche die Huzell gar schone und stos sie clein und streich sie durch
mytt Wein und seidt sye dann woll und thu dan darein guett Hoengk und wurz
genuck und wer es zu din, so reib Prott darein und thu es in ein Haffenn so
bleybett es dir 4 ader 6 wochen guett. das magst kallt ader warm gebenn und
stre(u) Zucker daruff und Zimettrindenn.
18. If you want to make a green (dish) of pears
Wash the pears nicely and pound them finely. Pass them through a sieve with
wine, boil them well and add good honey and enough spices. If it is too
thin, add ground breadcrumbs. If you put it into a crock, it will last
for 4 to 6 weeks. It can be served cold or hot. Sprinkle it with sugar and
cinnamon.
In keeping with the theme of this line of research I chose to update the
recipe to coincide with what I have found by comparing the texts, namely
that the use of honey had been all but phased out by the 16th century in
most things. So, to this end I substituted sugar for honey in the recipe and
I utilized the same Reisling wine that I chose for the end sauce.
To determine what spices to use I reviewed the Welserin manuscript and
identified five recipes that were for dishes in which pears were the main
ingredient. The break down of the seasoning was: two with cinnamon only; two
with cinnamon and cloves; and one with cinnamon, ginger and cloves. The
original recipe calls for cinnamon at the end, so I chose to go with
cinnamon and cloves to fulfill the mandate of "enough" spices.
Lastly, the issue of pears, I went to the market and looked at all of the
pears available to me. Of all on display the ones that were labeled
"Forelle" looked the best in quality, so those are what I bought. Upon
returning home I decided to see what I could find on the pear, fully
expecting it to be a modern variety, but hopefully better than a Bosc. What
I was able to find was fortuitous:
"Forelles are a very old variety, and are thought to have originated
sometime in the 1600's in northern Saxony, Germany. The name Forelle
translates to mean "trout" in the German language. It is believed that the
variety earned this name because of the similarity between the pear's
brilliant red lenticles and the colors of a Rainbow trout.."
Pear Bureau Northwest. Forelle Pears - History.
http://www.usapears.com/varieties_forelle.php#history
With no further research to substantiate this claim, I would not hold it as
fact. But possibly luck was with me that day.
Ingredients:
6 small Forelle Pears
3/4 C Reisling Wine
1 1/2 C Sugar
1 t Cinnamon
pinch Cloves
Peel pears and cut in half, remove seeds and chop coarsely. Place in food
processor with wine and process until smooth. Force mixture through a sieve
into non-reactive cooking pot. Add spices and sugar, stir to combine. Bring
to a boil and hold at a low boil for 30 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid
scorching. Refrigerate or can using sanitary methods.
There have been plenty of redactions of the mustard itself posted, so unless
someone wants it I will not make this any longer. One point that I was a bit
confused on tho, in most of the redactions by SCA'ers that I have seen they
have added vinegar. In the Welserin it calls for wine. I was wondering why
people added the vinegar.
Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 10:05:52 -0500 (EST)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [sig] Re: Period Mustard Recipes
To: Slavic Interest Group <sig at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org, EKCooksGuild at yahoogroups.com
> I'm confused; a recently acquired source on Polish
> herbs and plants lists references to black mustard and
> white mustard, one firm source being in the 1500's,
> but no mention of Brown Mustard, yet someone here said
> that brown mustard is more appropriate? I'm not
> contesting them, since this is just one source, but
> asking for clarification.
> Eluned
Join the club of confused people. Black mustard and brown mustard are both
terms used for Brassica nigra, but if Gernot Katzer's spice pages can be
believed:
"Botanically different, though of equal use in the kitchen, are the
Sarepta mustard or Romanian Brown Mustard (Br. juncea) from Eastern Europe
and the Indian Brown Mustard (Br. integrifolia or Br. juncea, a fertile
hybride from Br. nigra and Br. campestris) from India and Central Asia.
Of all three species, the latter is probably most commonly sold in the
West.
Although the pungency of black mustard is slightly stronger than that of
brown mustard, black mustard is hardly planted in Europe anymore, and
brown mustard is the dominating quality on the European market. The reason
is that brown mustard, unlike black mustard, can be harvested by machines
which make production much cheaper in countries where working force is
expensive. "
I should re-write my pages to explain that. If you can get real black
mustard, by all means use it-- otherwise, brown mustard is a decent
approximation of black, and is the preferred approximation.
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:03:44 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pear Mustard?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> If anyone has it, PLEASE e-mail me privately, as i get the Digest of
>> this list and i probably won't see your response until Sunday night
>> when i get back from Beltane.
>
> I think this is it... From Sabina Welserin, via Cariadoc's website...
>
> 34 To make the mustard for dried cod
>
> Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and
> put sugar into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick
> as you prefer to eat it, then it is a good mustard.
>
> Adamantius
If my redaction will help (and you can't find pear preserves, which I
haven't found yet), quarter and core 4-5 pears, parboil them to just tender,
then throw them in the blender with a dab of cinnamon and the white wine.
and an entire (small, supermarket size, not a honking great food services
size) can/jar of mustard. It really should sit in the fridge about a week,
to mellow the flavors, although it's OK in a day or two- just a bit
harsh.
I added the cinnamon because all the recipes found for pear preserves had
cinnamon in them, and it really did do a nice job of brightening up the
flavor, and I never added sugar because the pears I had were so sweet. If I
were to add sugar, though, I think I'd do it as a syrup, to thicken the
texture just a bit and make it a bit more like normal preserves.
Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 15:43:38-0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] long pepper?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
OK...here'tis. The original says to eat it right away, but I have
found that letting it age for about 6 weeks makes it really delicious.
Otherwise, IMHO, it's a little too sharp.
Red Mustard Sauce – Platina, p. 357 (Mary Ella Milham edition)
Grind in a mortar or mill, either separately or all together, mustard,
raisins, dates, bits of bread, and a little cinnamon. When it is
ground, with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and pass thorugh a
sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one above ad
stimulates thirst but does not nourish badly.
2 cups mustard seed
2 cups must
4 tsp. Cinnamon
3/4 cups raisins
3/4 cups dates
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar (or verjuice)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup bread crumbs
Place mustard in a blendr with vinegars and must. Liquify. Add
cinnamon, raisins and dates and reduce this to a liquid. Add enough
bread crumbs to thicken the mustard so that a wooden spoon or spatula
will almost stand in it. Let cure in a crock with a cloth cover for
several weeks.
Kiri
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:21:19 -0700
From: Ruth Frey <ruthf at uidaho.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Still hashing this about. My hope was if 9 out of 10 of your
> ingredients and 90% by volume of your ingredients must be
> documented to period, this may well disqualify many commercial
> sauces or limit their percentages in final sauces.
>
> All commercial mustards would still fall within your guidelines.
> Unaltered.
What about the tumeric? I believe that's what give some of the
commercial mustards that screaming-yellow color, and I don't recall
tumeric on any Period European spice lists . . . That would at least
take out *some* of the commercial mustards.
Just to chime in with a mustard kids might like (if they have a
tolerance for hot stuff), I've come up with a slightly-faked version of
Sabina Welserin's pear mustard ("For Stockfish," though it goes
wonderfully with beef, too). The faking comes in with the pear
preserves; I haven't been able to find any pre-made, and when I don't
have time to make my own, I substitute pear "nectar" (juice) for flavor
and a little applesauce for texture. Also, she calls for wine in the
recipe, but I've substituted a little vinegar to avoid uncooked-alcohol
issues (especially important when serving to kids!). If you're serving
to adults only, however, a little white wine would probably be
excellent. The recipe goes as follows:
4 parts ground yellow mustard seed
2 parts pear juice
1 part apple cider vinegar
2 parts unrefined cane sugar
plus a little "dab" of applesauce
Mix, let stand for about 10-15 minutes, stir again to dissolve all the
sugar, and you're ready to go.
Sweet, hot, and popular with all my "tasters." :)
-- Ruth
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:37:35 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> What about the tumeric? I believe that's what give some of the
> commercial mustards that screaming-yellow color, and I don't recall
> tumeric on any Period European spice lists . . . That would at least
> take out *some* of the commercial mustards.
Well, actually, tumeric was imported to Europe at the end of period, and
it, and preservatives, probably don't add up to 10% of any given
commercial mustard.
The brown mustards mostly don't have tumeric in them.
By the way, should I start bringing Pear butter and "pear sweets"
(boiled pear juice) to events and handing them out? Everyone seems to
love Welserin's Pear mustard but says they can't get pear preserves.
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 14:53:44 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> So the "pear sweets (boiled pear juice)" ... boiled how long? To a
> syrup stage?
Yes, definitely a syrup. I picked it up at the Amish health food store
in the next county. I thought, hm... we know that the Teutonic knights
stored boiled down berry juices to add to drinks and we are pretty sure
same are mentioned in the Domostroi... so boiling down pear juice in
Germany to get the 'pear preserves' is a good guess.
According to Wax Orchard's online store, it is concentrated pear juice
with unsweetened pineapple and peach juices. But it definitely tastes of
pear juice specifically.
Anyway, I did try a version of the Welserin mustard with pear butter and
someone else tried it with pear sweet-- it was good but I wasn't really
paying attention to what I was doing, as it was filling a slow space in
a small class I was teaching. I need to do it again.
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 16:43:38 -0400
From: Avraham haRofeh <avrahamharofeh at herald.sca.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Pear Mustard (was Re: Commercial Mustard
ingredients)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Anyway, I did try a version of the Welserin mustard with pear butter and
> someone else tried it with pear sweet-- it was good but I wasn't really
> paying attention to what I was doing, as it was filling a slow space in a
> small class I was teaching. I need to do it again.
When Phlip and I did the Northpass Tavern feast two years ago (gee, is it
really that long?), due to a misreading of Petru's recipe, we made the pear
mustard with fresh pears. It was nummy. :-)
****************
Reb Avraham haRofeh
(mka Randy Goldberg MD)
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:01:00 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pear Mustard (was Re: Commercial Mustard
ingredients)
To: "Cooks withn the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> Anyway, I did try a version of the Welserin mustard with pear butter and
>> someone else tried it with pear sweet-- it was good but I wasn't really
>> paying attention to what I was doing, as it was filling a slow space in a
>> small class I was teaching. I need to do it again.
>
> When Phlip and I did the Northpass Tavern east two years ago (gee, is it
> really that long?), due to a misreading of Petru's recipe, we made the pear
> mustard with fresh pears. It was nummy. :-)
>
> ****************
> Reb Avraham haRofeh
No we didn't, Avraham, we did that deliberately, since I was totally unable
to find any pear preserves anywhere. Still looking, still haven't found any.
What I did was to reverse engineer preserves, and include the ingredients
that would normally be put into pear preserves, including cooking the pears
(remember the parboiling) and work from there. Sugar was adjusted to my
taste- since the pears I got were already so wonderfully sweet, I didn't add
any. In later versions, I have added a bit of cinnamon, since later research
(by others on this List) indicted that almost every pear preserve recipe
they had found had a bit of cinnamon in it (like I ever need an excuse to
add cinnamon to anything ;-).
Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:03:47 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlik.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Sabina Welserin's Pear Mustard... i used baby food pears and some
sugar (since - hurrah! - baby food doesn't have sugar in it anymore)
for the pear preserves, when i couldn't find any.
Anahita
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 21:46:27 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Sue Clemenger:
> Okay, I was actually wondering this, recently, anyways, but:
> What exactly makes a mustard a "dijon" mustard? I thought maybe
> consistency, but I've seen it for sale as both smooth, and chunkier
> (still showing evidence of the seeds, almost a whole-grain mustard).
> I was a bit disgruntled, having to actually buy some of the stuff
> (for a modern recipe) when I could so easily have made my own (in
> the broad middle of a mustard project for A&S Competition).
I believe Dijon mustard is a style characterized today by the
addition of salt, vinegar and white wine to the ground mustard.
The Larousse Gastronomique sez:
"In 1390 the manufacture of mustard was governed by regulations: it
had to be made from 'good seed and suitable vinegar', without any
other binder. The corporation of vinegar and mustard manufacturers
was founded at the end of the 16th century at Orleans and in about
1630 at Dijon. In the 18th century, a Dijon manufacturer called
Naigeon fixed the recipe for 'strong' or 'white' mustard, the
production of which was synchronized with the wine harvest, as the
black and brown seeds were mixed with verjuice. Today, Dijon mustard
is prepared with verjuice and white wine, Orleans mustard with white
vinegar, and Bordeaux mustard, which is milder and brown in color,
with grape must (the French word for mustard is derived from moute
ardent, i.e. 'piquant must'). Meaux mustard, which owes its flavor
and color to coarsely crushed seeds of various colors, is made with
vinegar, particularly at Lagny."
I'd bet there's a Grey Poupon web site with a little more historical
information. Some of it might even be accurate, but in general when a
place name is attached to a wine, a cheese, etc., there are some kind
of standards for determining style, outside of which it is illegal
(somewhere) to use that name...
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 20:43:44 -0700
From: Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Gifts in Jars
To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:
>> A period Mustard (such as that from Le Menagier de Paris)
> Lots of period mustards. Anyone ever try canning any of these? Some
> people don't feel comfortable distributing them without safety seals.
Yes. Me, at least. I do it a LOT (contributions for royalty gift
baskets, most frequently). I waterbath the jars (4 oz or 8 oz) for
10-15 minutes, and check seals after they cool. Works just fine, and
then there are no safety concerns, or leakage issues.
--maire
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:17:48 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustards
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Didn't I read somewhere that beer was used in some mustards?
Hm... I have not found any recipes from pre-1650, let alone pre-17th c.
that specify beer, but that doesn't mean that nobody did it, just that
nobody wrote it down. :)
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 02:52:51 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fw: [mk-cooks] Periodness and a query....
To: "SCA-Cooks" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Was discussing corned beef with a fairly new person on MK Cooks, and Huen
chimed in with the following story. Not only did it lead me into a bit of
online research, which brought me toan interesting website, but the story
itself is great, not only for Jadwiga and her many mustards, but for the
gentle asking about Scottish foods.
> Do you know what powdered beef is? I've seen references to it in early
> 17th c manuscripts.
> My former mistress once told me that she thought it was related to
> corned beef, but she wasn't sure.
(Website is http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/381.php- putting it here for you
guys will now make sense).
> Here's a funny story bout powdered beef - it's from Taylor's Feast,
> 1638.
> Three Gentlemen of the ancient race of Redshanks, (now called
> Highland-men, because they inhabite in the Mountaynous parts of the
> North of Scotland) these three having occasion to come into Engand,
> being at their Inne, had to their Dinner a peece of powderd Beefe and
> Mustard: now neither of them had never seene Mustard before,
> wherefore one of them demanded what Deele it was? the Host
> answered, that it was good sawce for their meate; Sace said the
> other? it hath an ill looke, I pray let me see you eat some first, then the
> Host took a bit of Beefe, and dipt it in the Mustard, & did eate it: the
> Highland-man presently tooke his meat and rowl'd it in the Mustard, and
> began tochaw, but it was so strong, that it was no sooner in his mouth,
> but it set him a snuffing and neesing, that he told his Friends, (Ducan
> and Donald) that hee was slaine with the grey Grewall in the wee-dish;
> he bid them draw their Whineards, and stice the false Lowne, (their
> host) hee pray'd them to remember his last love to his wife and Barnes,
> and withall to have a care to beware of the grey grewall, for the Deele
> was in't. But after the force of the Mustard was spent, the Gentleman lef
> neesing, all was pacified, mine Host was pardoned, and Mustard was
> good sawce for powderd Beefe.
> Huen
Saint Phlip,
CoD
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:39:53 +0100
From: Fred Schwohl <wladislaus at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cook] Period German Mustard Recipes (long)
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Am 21.01.2005 21:15 Uhr schrieb "Irmgart" unter <irmgart at gmail.cm>:
Hello from Germany
(being a native German speaker and interested in medieval cooking and
collecting all those fancy books comes quite handy here :o) )
> And here are mustard recipes that *aren't* translated, at least
> anywhere I can find them, an my rather pathetic attempts to translate
> using online sources:
>
>> From Koch vnd Kellermeisterey 1566
> (http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/kochkell.htm)
>
> Senff zu machen.
> SŸssen Senff mal mit der WŸrtz/ vnd wann er wol gemahlen ist/ so gib> jm ein wall in einer Pfannen auff einem Fewr/ rŸr jn wol mit wenig
> Saltz/ behalt jn/ vnd mehre jn mit deren WŸrtzen gesotten/ vermach jn
> gar wol. Wiltu den zu essen machen/ so seud einen guten Honigwein/ vnd
> temperier den darmit/ saltz jn/ vnd wŸrz jn/ kom zu prŸffen/ so ist
> er gute
>
> Sweet mustard time with the sausage/ and when it is well ground/ so
> give at a wall(bank/parapet/rampart?) in a pan from the fire/ [rŸr] in
> good with a little salt/ keep in/ and more in with their sausage hard> boiled/ to give in well cooked. You will then make to eat/ also [seud]
> a good Honeywine/ and temper the stomach/ salt in/ and sausage in/
> [kom] close testing/ so is it good.
To make a sweet mustard ground it with spices/broth ("WŸrtz" is derived from
"WŸrze" which means normally seasoning, or spices, in the given context it
has to be the liquid something is boiled in or a simple meatbroth, and it
has nothing at all to do with sausages, which would be "WŸrste". The Term
"wort" used in beer brewing is the english term for that.)/and when it is
well ground/so give him some heat ("Wall" from the German "wallen,
aufwallen, aufwellen" which means to cook until the liquid is agitated
through heat convection)/stir it well with a little salt/keep it/ and add
("mehre" = "vermehre" = add some other liquid) some more broth (see
above)/store in a well closed container ("vermache" is an old expression
related to "einmachen" which means storing, the raw mustard is first cooked
and only prepared for eating whe needed). If you want to prepare it for
eating/cook a good mead (or Honeywine, i'm not absolutely sure which of the
many recipes for mead is used here)/and temper it (the honeywine) with the
prepared mustard (this term "temperier" is related to the Humoal Theorie of
Galenius where every ingredient has its own temper and a meal or dish has to
be well balanced to be healthy)/and salt it/ and season it/ and taste it
("prŸfen" is "to prove" the taste)/ so it is good
> Ein ander behende wei§.
> Temperie Honig wol mit Essig/ Wein oder FleischbrŸh/ vnd rŸr den Senff
> darein.
>
> One other agile white. (Another easy white?)
> Temper honey well with vinegar/ wine or meat both/ and [rŸr] the mustard
> therin.
Another fast way ("behende weis" means in modern German "Behende Weise,
behende Art" = a fast way to do things)/temper (see comment above on humoral
theorie) Honey with vinegar/wine or meatbroth/ and stir ("rŸr" means
"rŸhren" = to stir) the mustard in
> Rosin vnd Feigen gesotten mit Wein oder Wsser/ damit Senff temperiret
> ist/ oder Rosenwasser/ vnd gestossen Zimetrinden darein gethan/
> subtilen Leuten.
>
> Rasins and figs hardboiled with wine or water/ so that mustard is
> tempered/ or rosewater/ and hardboil [zimetrinden - something
> crust... possibly cinnamon? Zimt is cinnamon] therein [gethan -
> possibly getan (done)]/ subtle people.
Rasins and figs boiled in wine or water /this used to temper (see again
comment on Humoral theorie above) the mustard/ or rosewater (in exchange to
the fgs and raisins)/ and add ground (actually "gestossen" is referring to
the way cinnamon is ground in a mortar) cinnamon rind ("Zimmetrinden" is
rind of cinnamon)/... The "subtle people" makes no sense for me at all, I
can see it in the original Text on Tomas«page but it makes no sense in any
context for mustard or sauce. It is possible the the complete part should
read "das ist von subtilen Leuten" meaning this is something
Extraordinary, not for common usage (due to the cinnamon of course), but this
is sheer speculation.
> OK, so none of these really makes sense, I think Ruhr might mean