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.
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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.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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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