21 ms·

I tried 30 mustards this summer

290 points by thomasjudge 5y ago

addaon 5y ago
I was motivated enough by this to seek out some of the mustards he mentioned -- and it looks like the Beaver Olde English is no longer on their web page? Has it been discontinued?
- cf100clunk 5y ago
  Not sure, but I've found almost all Beaver condiments (not just their mustards I've tried) to be worth the trouble to find, especially their Tartar Sauce.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    One upside, I suppose, of living in Portland is that Beaver is just 'the standard condiment brand I get at the grocery store.' I do like their stuff, and their tartar sauce was what made me try their other products.
- letmeinhere 5y ago
  same boat; my best guess is he's talking about the Deli one...
  - 1xdevnet 5y ago
    It existed at one point[0], but I can only see it listed in Canadian shops [1]. UPC 7182800350 [0] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00O8NG1J4/ https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00O8NG1J4/ [1] https://www.shopmsv.ca/shop/product/88326/Beaver_Hot_Olde_English_Mustard_360_mL https://www.shopmsv.ca/shop/product/88326/Beaver_Hot_Olde_En...
cf100clunk 5y ago
The one called the "Rolls Royce" of mustard, Pommery Meaux, costs $12.49 on amazon.com while amazon.ca has the same item for $58.64. Beyond the exchange rate, this must have something to do with duties or just plain greed.
- yial 5y ago
  Greed… or automatically set pricing based upon something strange. https://gourmetwarehouse.ca/pommery-meaux-mustard-stone-jar-250ml/ https://gourmetwarehouse.ca/pommery-meaux-mustard-stone-jar-...
- colechristensen 5y ago
  “Find something not on amazon and put it there at a hugely inflated price” is a way some people make money by finding obscure things to sell. If anyone actually starts buying it somebody will come in and bring the price down with competition, if not sometimes the high price is justified because keeping things in amazon warehouses isn’t free and spending the time to get something sold on amazon when you only expect to sell a few costs lots of money for the reward. The benefit is that you can find almost anything on amazon.
dustintrex 5y ago
Not a bad survey of American mustard, but still missing several entire classes of mustard: * French moutard a l'ancienne ("ancient" style), with mustard seeds left in. Maille's version is my go-to. * Japanese karashi. Extremely spicy, so a little goes a long way, but a must for some Japanese dishes like oden. * German mustards! Sweet Bavarian senf is obligatory for white sausage (weisswurst).
- Aromasin 5y ago
  I'd also like to add English mustard to that list, most notably the Colmans's brand. I found it odd to not be there but I suppose it's not a thing found commonly abroad? It's ubiquitous in the UK - like French's is the the US. It comes in both a bottle and powdered form, with the later capable of blowing a mans head clean off. Closer to Wasabi from my experience. I gave a bottle of the stuff as a present to my host when on a rugby tour in Canada. Didn't mention that it's not the type you use on hotdogs (it's generally used as a condiment for a roast dinner with beef, used sparingly). I received a very funny video a week later of them as a dribbling mess.
  - NextHendrix 5y ago
    I'm surprised the powder form of Colman's isn't a controlled substance. Not enough water and its essentially death paste. Sneeze near an open container of the powder and you'll probably need to move house and have facial reconstruction surgery. I pity your friend for slathering it on a hot dog, first bite must've been quite a shock. Marvellous stuff.
    - bserge 5y ago
      It puts the "mustard" in "mustard gas" :D
    - 01100011 5y ago
      I believe most mustard powder is roughly the same. The difference is in how much acid(usually vinegar) you mix in to slow the reaction which creates the spiciest compounds. Pure water usually gives you a very hot mustard with a short lifetime(i.e. 'Chinese mustard').
davibu 5y ago
At this point, why not simply make your own? The simplest recipe would be n time better than an industrial one. Look a the recipe: 150 g of seeds of brown mustard, 10cl of vinegar, 30cl of water, 10g of salt Nothing really fancy, even my son could do it. The same applies to homemade mayonnaise, 10 times better than the industrial one.
- MagnumOpus 5y ago
  Do you have any advantage in either the quality, price, or consistency of your water, salt, vinegar or seeds? In 99.9% of cases the answer is "no" and procuring ready-mixed mustard is more convenient, cheaper, less messy and time-saving.
  - Tade0 5y ago
    The advantage of home-made food is that you have control over the ingredients. Store bought mustard and mayonnaise contain such surprising ingredients like e.g. sugar or copious amounts of salt.
    - timcederman 5y ago
      What store bought mustard contains sugar? I'm not aware of any, and if there are, they aren't common. Also a little bit of sugar in mayonnaise is fine - in the US it usually relatively trace amounts to the most commonly sold ones in the Commonwealth.
    - bshimmin 5y ago
      While I broadly agree with this, I would say that my own attempts at making mint sauce were fairly disappointing in comparison with shop-bought - Colman's mint sauce is an awful lot nicer than anything I was able to make, and (though I've never tried to make it) I bet their wonderful mustard is too. You will probably also not be able to make at home anything all that similar to the mayonnaise you buy in a shop, though what you can make at home will almost certainly be equally as nice (my children were confused by the yellowish colour of home-made mayonnaise, which is sort of backwards since the confusing thing ought to be why shop-bought mayonnaise is white!).
null_object 5y ago
This was quite a fun read - especially the self-deprecating humor and the little vignettes about how and where the author sampled the different mustards - but I was pretty surprised by the narrow selection. In various parts of Europe there's a strong tradition of very geographically-specific types of mustard - often differing greatly in texture, strength, color and taste in neighboring towns or regions. Also mustards can be seasonal - here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas, for instance - not to mention that people make their own mustards (also usually based on regional preferences).
- teorema 5y ago
  I had the same impression regarding breadth. There's local mustards all over the US, which I was expecting more of. I still enjoyed reading it but was expecting something a little different.
- bryanrasmussen 5y ago
  >here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas I have a theory that desserts that are only on holidays really sort of suck or they would have broken out of the holiday and are just getting by on the nostalgia factor - how are these mustards you talk about? Also can you name some of them? I guess I can always take the train over to Malmö in a couple of months to pick some up to test the quality myself. on edit: fixed typo
  - matsemann 5y ago
    I think it depends. Lots of the food is a hassle to make, so only done for big occasions when it will serve many. But some of it I agree. Never learned to enjoy the traditional Norwegian food. Now it's "fårikål season", which is basically just lamb+cabbage boiled for far too long. Or "smalahove" where you eat the sheep's head. Christmas is the samme. Take ribs of the lamb and damp with salty water. Might be lamb I don't like, though.
  - MartinodF 5y ago
    We have a ton of Christmas-only or Easter-only desserts in Italy, all very good. I'm guessing the short availability window increases sales, you just need to make sure you always have something in season ;) It's more of a tradition than anything else, really!
squarefoot 5y ago
The best yellow senape mustard I ever tried is one I bought at a middle/far east shop almost 20 years back. It was different from others I knew for having a harder consistency, a bit harder than peanut butter to give an idea; I had to apply some force with a spoon in its big jar to cut a piece. Used it to give more flavor to meat by putting it in the frying pan along with oil and other spices, and the result was delicious. Unfortunately I don't recall the name, the shop changed owner although it still sells oriental spices, but now they have no idea of what product I'm talking about. Does anyone know if such a type of "hard" senape mustard still exist?
- utucuro 5y ago
  Mustard is made by adding liquids to mustard seeds or their powder, which activates the chemical reaction in them to make them spicy. How spicy a mustard becomes depends on the temperature and acidity of the liquids, and on how long the reaction is allowed to go on - heating or cooling the mustard significantly will stop it, keeping a mustard cool once it reaches the desired hotness will preserve it at that spiciness level. As it is, I wonder what the ratio of solids to liquid was and if it was a pure mustard (without other spices or additives) since I have never even heard of a semi-solid mustard...
  - fnord123 5y ago
    IME putting mustard in the fridge makes it lose potency. I've ruined a few jars of Colman's this way.
amelius 5y ago
No wasabi?
- dustintrex 5y ago
  Wasabi is a completely different plant.
  - bookofjoe 5y ago
    Yes. root v seed
VincentEvans 5y ago
If you like Chinese mustard, you ought to try Russian “gorchitsa”, which stands for mustard in Russian. It’s very spicy, probably on a level of wasabi, which ought to be included too, now that I think of it.
- bserge 5y ago
  Not sure if it's just the cheap Russian mustard that I ate, but it always seemed different than others. It has a strong initial "kick" then the taste is pretty mild. Like, English, French, German mustard taste and wasabi "sticks" for a longer time.
  - vilmosi 5y ago
    I found real wasabi to have the opposite effect. Strong initial kick, then more of a nutty taste to it.
    - bookofjoe 5y ago
      Yes. I was shocked the first time I had real fresh-grated (on a sharkskin grater — TMI?) wasabi. I had expected it to be really hot but unlike its ersatz version, the real thing had only an initial heat, which then faded to reveal a complex of multi-layered flavors and aromas, "nutty" among them.
- scns 5y ago
  I like Dijon mustard from France. To be enjoyed in moderation, the heat goes up the nose.
- Iwan-Zotow 5y ago
  Yep, that would clean up his pipes
- Miiko 5y ago
  Russian “gorchitsa” was mentioned in the article and even named a personal favorite: > Zakuson Gourmet Mustard The actual name is "тещина горчица" = "mother-in-law mustard", it's not for the weak of heart indeed ;)
marban 5y ago
Now that it's Oktoberfest time (or would be), you should try Weißwurst Senf by https://haendlmaier.de https://haendlmaier.de fame.
subpixel 5y ago
You only need one mustard in your life. And the most excellent thing is that mustard is in fact two mustards with a slightly-spicy rivalry: https://www.eater.com/2017/7/7/15926148/cleveland-brown-mustard-stadium-ballpark https://www.eater.com/2017/7/7/15926148/cleveland-brown-must...
- snarf21 5y ago
  Or if you prefer yellow mustard for some things, I'd suggest Plochman's. Everyone I've had tried Plochman's never ever uses that garbage from French's ever again. It is such a wonderful mustard with just the right amount of bite.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  Every time I go back home to Cleveland I snag a bottle of both types, although I prefer Stadium.
  - toddwprice 5y ago
    ^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^
zoltar 5y ago
Great article. For additional mustard content, I've enjoyed the reviews on the Mustard Museum's Youtube channel.
- physicsgraph 5y ago
  The Wikipedia page [0] mentions the collection of 5,300 mustards. I was underwhelmed by the 30 presented in this article. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum
- geoduck14 5y ago
  I had no idea mustard was taken so seriously. It makes me want to take a tour of salsa and post about that.
- rubylark 5y ago
  I second this. I happened to be in Middleton, WI on National Mustard Day (which is apparently a real "holiday"). They had a bunch of mustard themed midway games set up and a band like a little festival. The museum itself was pretty neat as well. The gift shop is why I recommend people stop by if the happen to be in that part of Wisconsin. They have over 500 types of mustards you can buy[1], and have a free samples counter that lets you try probably around 10. Some of them are extremely unique. I think the oddest one I tried was the peach champagne mustard because for whatever reason I didn't expect it to be so sweet. I still use the classic beer mustard I bought from there. [1] https://store.mustardmuseum.com/category/buy-mustards https://store.mustardmuseum.com/category/buy-mustards
- shotta 5y ago
  Poupon U!
GlennS 5y ago
Well, that was educational, and now I finally understand the Grey Poupon scene from Wayne's World. In future I will be less snooty about "American mustard", which before reading this I had assumed was all like French's mustard.
jkochis 5y ago
Anyone here like to mix mayonnaise and mustard?
- thomasjudge 5y ago
  Especially for dipping artichoke leaves
- Iwan-Zotow 5y ago
  This is sick! Instant upvote
- jrootabega 5y ago
  I prefer mustmayostardayonnaise.
- yoz-y 5y ago
  mayo, mustard, pickle water... the best sauce
- Erwin 5y ago
  It's done widely enough that Maille themselves sell a "Dijonnaise" : Dijon mustard + mayonnaise.
  - scrumbledober 5y ago
    There was a character on the disney channel cartoon Proud Family whose name was dijonnaise
  - jrootabega 5y ago
    You just awoke an ancient TV memory in me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48hQm5fIbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48hQm5fIbU
- fanf2 5y ago
  To make mayonnaise you start with egg yolks and mustard (and maybe other seasonings): the mustard helps the mixture to emulsify. You can put more mustard in it, to make a mustard mayonnaise, or add more mustard later.
nvr219 5y ago
Hot takes :D
smoyer 5y ago
I'm also a mustard lover and appreciate that the author didn't try to rank them - different mustards should be used for different occasions. I will admit that I found it a bit amusing that this article appeared on the front page of HN with "Where Do Type Systems Come From". Clearly mustard type systems come from James Beard and now Jason Diamond.
- eth0up 5y ago
  I apologise in advance, but if necessary, will fight to the death in defense of Colman's being used on almost any occasion, whilst other imposters hunch quivering on the sidelines drooling at low hanging vittles. But as does Norris of Chuck look upward to Schneier of Bruce for inspiration and permission, Colman's looks to a proper habanero mustard for hope in a lonely world of vinegar tainted dribblings. Good on all occasions that don't involve zippers. Edited: remove "e" from previous "Col[e]man's. Please pardon me for opening a potential Mustard in the Middle (MItM) vector.
  - pbhjpbhj 5y ago
    I don't understand your reference to zippers?
    - eth0up 5y ago
      Even during a time of pestilence where Amazon links infest every page on the web and condiments breach the discretionary ramparts of HN's frontpage, you must always mind what you handle after handling habaneros. I have fought to the death and lost this duel, but Colman's will never die. Long live proper mustard! And habanero anything
yial 5y ago
Two notable great mustards not mentioned are the Divina mustards imported into theUS by Food Match. https://foodmatch.com/products/listing/ingredients/ingredients-mustard https://foodmatch.com/products/listing/ingredients/ingredien...
josephd79 5y ago
Damn, didn't realize there was this many different types of mustard. btw, Hotdog, Mustard only. The true and only way.
- zikduruqe 5y ago
  I caution ye from the rabbit hole that ye shall go down... https://mustardmuseum.com https://mustardmuseum.com
  - modriano 5y ago
    I went there around 8 years ago thinking "oh, what a funny idea for a museum" and came away with the 2013 world champion mustard (Maille Dijon) and a love of mustard. That museum is really a (not so) hidden gem and I highly recommend it if you visit Madison, WI.
    - shagie 5y ago
      If you've got a bag of pretzels that need to be devoured rapidly, the Slimm & Nunne Sweet and Nicely Hot is just right. Its the mustard museum specialty brand - I haven't seen it anywhere outside of Wisconsin (though I'll admit I haven't necessarily looked too hard).
      - bookofjoe 5y ago
        Ooh... I just realized the name is a subtle play on words
        shagie 5y ago
        There's also the Mustard Museum University... Poupon U https://mustardmuseum.com/poupon-u/ https://mustardmuseum.com/poupon-u/ That's not as subtle.
      - bookofjoe 5y ago
        Here you go: https://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1651/buy-mustards https://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1651/buy-mustards
jkellermann 5y ago
Incomplete without a Test of Händlmeier sweet mustard. Ask any bavarian...
rcarmo 5y ago
This is delightful reading for the puns alone, never mind it being my favorite condiment.
c6400sc 5y ago
This is my favorite mustard. It's Austrian, spicy but not too much, and overall has a taste that is hard to describe with any other word than sublime. https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/mautner-austrian-hot-mustard-with-horseradish-in-tube-7-oz/ https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/mautner-austrian-hot-musta...
- evanb 5y ago
  I met the owner/operators of thetasteofgermany at the Christmas Market by the National Portrait Gallery just before Christmas 2019. German ex-pats, they were extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and excited to hear I had just returned from living in Germany. They have excellent products on offer---just what I was looking for to make it easy for me to answer the constant question I'd get: "What would you bring back from Germany if you could?"!
turbinerneiter 5y ago
Mautner Estragon Senf from Austria, thank me later.
- simondotau 5y ago
  Came here to say this. Comes in a toothpaste tube and isn’t expensive. But it’s damn good mustard. My personal favourite.
clement75009 5y ago
Reminds me of that classic Onion article: https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-world-of-diy-mustard-1819571371 https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-w...
- wyldfire 5y ago
  > "There I was, a grown man, planning a trip to the Mustard Museum in Wisconsin, when suddenly I heard a voice deep within me say, 'This is not what you want your life to be about.'" "The Onion" was started in Madison IIRC, which is where the Mustard Museum [1,2] is. > The museum was conceived and founded by Barry Levenson, former Assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin. It centers on a mustard collection he began in 1986 while despondent over the failure of his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, to win the 1986 World Series. [1] https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum
  - dcchambers 5y ago
    The Onion article is funny but I highly recommend the Mustard Museum (and shop!). A fun quirky place to visit just outside Madison and mustard makes for a great gift for anyone that likes to cook.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - a9h74j 5y ago
      Came here to upvote for the Mustard Museum!
sam_lowry_ 5y ago
When I was touring Moutarderie Edmond Fallot [1] this summer they told us that mustard makers suffered the phylloxera crisis [1] more than the winemakers. Originally, mustard was made out of the mix of mustard grains and the juice of bordelais grapes. Since bordelais was quite sour, it was not of particular importance to wine production. Once phylloxera hit, winemakers started rescuing important grape varieties and lost all bordelais species. Since mid-XIX century, mustard is made out of, well, mustard grains, vinegar and water. [1] https://www.fallot.com/ https://www.fallot.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight
kaidon 5y ago
Where is the Pitzman's??
bookofjoe 5y ago
From NPR: Barry Levenson, curator and CMO — "chief mustard officer" — of the National Mustard Museum, says a fit of despair led him to create the museum in 1986. "My beloved Boston Red Sox lost the World Series," he says. "Decided I need a hobby to get over my depression. That's the morning I began collecting jars of mustard." And Levenson, a lawyer by trade, quickly saw his hobby turn into an obsession. "I argued a case at the U.S. Supreme Court," he says. "On my way to the court, I saw this little jar of mustard on a discarded room-service tray. I didn't have time to go back to my room. So I brought it with me and argued — and I had a jar of mustard in my pocket." https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823724 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823...
zenron 5y ago
Mustard was my go-to condiment. I loved Dijon and stone grounds Dijon's. However, I lost my taste and smell in 2020 due to Covid-19. When my taste came back everything was fine but my smell didn't return for months. When it did, MANY things have an acrid taste to it. Dijon mustard, Pepsi, Coke, even Iceburg lettuce in different cuts (shredded is fine but in whole leaf I have issues) all taste the same and its so acrid that I can't touch the stuff any more. Bog standard French's Yellow Mustard still rocks even if the taste is a little dulled due to my new smeller. So the story is a bitter sweet for me... almost literally lol.
- dheera 5y ago
  My new favorite is the dill mustard that IKEA sells. (Seriously. It's awesome.)
  - altrus 5y ago
    I completely agree - the IKEA dill mustard is quite delicious: the flavour is remarkably well balanced, and the mustard itself is creamy but still has a bit of bite to it. My overall favourite mustard is Löwensenf extra sharf (extra hot) mustard. It's the one in the red bottle, and it's a good hot mustard - I find it's really hard to get a good hot mustard in North America, so that's my go to.
    - zmix 5y ago
      I did not find it outside of Hungary, yet, but there they have a mustard mixed with horseradish[1]. Since this type of mustard is unknown where I live, I tried to recreate it, but never achieved the same balance as in the commercial product, which is sad, because, in my opinion, it's a match made in heaven! It may be, that they use a milder mustard, than average, to balance out the hotness of the horseradish. [1]: https://www.univer.hu/en/products/mustard/horseradish-mustard-en https://www.univer.hu/en/products/mustard/horseradish-mustar...
      - pasquinelli 5y ago
lapetitejort 5y ago
There's a small but growing movement of people fermenting mustard. The process adds a je ne sais quoi to condiments that can't be replicated by simply adding vinegar. See also fermented salsa. https://insaneinthebrine.com/lacto-fermented-mustard/ https://insaneinthebrine.com/lacto-fermented-mustard/
sabujp 5y ago
Also missing asian preserved mustard variants, e.g. my favorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasundi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasundi . Any type of spicy brown is my goto in the US.
mfkp 5y ago
The author recommends a "hot Olde English mustard" from Beaver, but I can't seem to find it. Does it exist?
- nilram 5y ago
  It’s probably this brand, which I’ve seen in the Pacific Northwest (in the US). They do make good products but I don’t see a hot Olde English mustard among their current offerings. https://www.beavertonfoods.com/beaver-brand/ https://www.beavertonfoods.com/beaver-brand/
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    Yeah I can find pictures of it online, and it's the same Beaver, but looks like they stopped making it.
    - mfkp 5y ago
      This is as close as I could find (Amazon Canada, out of stock): https://www.amazon.ca/Beaver-Olde-English-Mustard-360ml/dp/B00O8NG1J4 https://www.amazon.ca/Beaver-Olde-English-Mustard-360ml/dp/B... Must be discontinued, but I wonder where the author of the article found it.
silisili 5y ago
This is the kind of stuff I love this place for. I'm a huge mustard fan, and love trying new varieties I see at the store, but would never think to Google for such a review(would it help? it's all blogspam anyways). Seems I've got a lot of mustard to try.
nikkinana 5y ago
I shit on a shingle. I win!
davidw 5y ago
> Italy’s Mostarda di Cremona, Not actually mustard, which in Italian is "senape". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostarda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostarda
knightofmars 5y ago
30? That's nothing in the world of mustards. https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/
jedberg 5y ago
If you love mustard, check out https://mustardmuseum.com https://mustardmuseum.com And if you happen to find yourself in Wisconsin, you can enjoy their tasting room in person!
SavantIdiot 5y ago
I used to go to the Napa Valley Mustard Festival every year in the 2000's. I'd taste hundreds of mustards and bring home a year's supply. Granted, they were all local, so you'd miss some classics, but every year I looked forward to getting semi wasted and eating a ton of mustard. Ironically my favorite go-to is Edmund Fallot. Got hooked on it in France and luckily it is easy to find now that I live 3000 miles from Napa.
- jimmygrapes 5y ago
  This one and the Fairfield Tomato Festival were the best experiences I've had at any such town events
  - SavantIdiot 5y ago
    Never heard of that but it sounds delightful. Where I live now, good tomatoes are extremely hard to find and growing them is out of the question (upper Northeast USA). Did you ever do Lambtown USA in Dixon? You get to pet lambs, watch lambs get sheared, watch lambs get herded in competitions, and then eat lambs. It's a lot of fun. If I ever go back west when its own I'd totally do it again.
WaitWaitWha 5y ago
"I think there’s a scientific reason for this, but I’m too lazy to look it up." I enjoy the levity and care free writing. I would have been bogged down with crafting a proper matrix of things that were tested, the method of comparison for each column, the exact tests themselves to produce the tests, sorting, and so on... Drives my progeny crazy.
mrpippy 5y ago
I’d love to know how the Trader Joe’s Dijon mustard compares. It’s made in France, cheap/available, and I always thought it tasted better than Grey Poupon
- pazimzadeh 5y ago
  The first thing I did was search for Trader Joe's mustard in the article, sad they didn't review it. As a French person I can tell you Trader Joe's mustard beats all the premium mustards in this article and it is cheap too.
  - mixmastamyk 5y ago
    I really like that one, but it is a bit on the spicy side for me. Just on the edge of what I can tolerate, horseradish-wise. Their mustard garlic aioli is good as well. My favorite was one from Germany I bought at a specialty shop, can't remember the name of course. But, it did come in a little bottle that looked like a beer mug, with a soft top. :D
hondo77 5y ago
Gotta mention Boar's Head. Great deli mustard. As for Coleman's, I get the powder and mix up some with water when we bring spring rolls home. Clears up your brain quick!
burnished 5y ago
Fucking three popups before I even get through the introduction. No thanks.
hydroreadsstuff 5y ago
Bautzener Mittelscharf or bust
notacoward 5y ago
I was surprised not to see Honeycup on this list. It's pretty widely available, and many delis/restaurants use it (I think I discovered it at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor). It's sweet, of course, but also has quite a strong horseradish-y bite. It's very distinctive, and some people are really really into it, though I personally only like a little and even then only in the right dish/mood.
WorldMaker 5y ago
> Honey mustard is usually horrible I love the idea of honey mustards but dislike that almost all of them are dijons. Admittedly, that's partly in my case to do with a sensitivity issue with eggs and trying to avoid dijons generally, but beyond that I find dijons naturally already tend to be lighter/sweeter to start with and adding honey to that just moves things way over the balance scale to "too sweet" territory. My favorite relatively recent discovery was a Kentucky honey mustard that is not at all a dijon! https://www.kentuckysmokingrill.com/product/grand-reserve-spiced-honey-mustard/ https://www.kentuckysmokingrill.com/product/grand-reserve-sp... It's also unapologetically spicy, not just in a very strong mustard tang, but also a very nice balance of a good amount of pepper heat to really counterbalance the front sweet of the honey with some sinus tang and throat heat. As someone that goes through jars of Colman's and Chinese Mustards somewhat regularly, and loves a variety of mustards for different occasions in my fridge, it's the perfect honey mustard for my tastes and almost exactly what I'd been searching for in a honey mustard for something like years.
jdkee 5y ago
National Mustard Museum for the curious: https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/
djrogers 5y ago
Agree with a lot of his choices - Beaver makes great stuff, but also want to cape up for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale mustards. They're both good, but the honey one is particularly great - just a hint of sticky-sweet that doesn't overpower the vinegar.
partiallypro 5y ago
My favorite general purpose mustard is probably Vienna's Dusseldorf mustard. It's not listed in this article but it's great on sandwiches and brats. The only problem is that it's fairly expensive online and no one really sells it here in stores.
vector_spaces 5y ago
Does anybody happen to know anything about the origins of the "Chinese hot mustard" condiment? It's ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants in the US, but my friend in China tells me that nobody in China actually eats the stuff. I spent a solid weekend researching this, even poring over Chinese language source materials + Google translate with no luck. Mainly I want to know: is it true that this isn't a thing in China, and when and why did it start appearing in American Chinese restaurants?
tptacek 5y ago
I went to a Sunday Dinner Club dinner in Chicago a few years ago and had a cassoulet with what I think was a mustard drawn from the mustard grinder tap at the (late lamented) cheese shop Pastoral. I'm 90% sure it was a Maille. It was so hot you couldn't taste it without your sinuses lighting on fire; far, far hotter than horseradish wasabi. I've gone through dozens of different mustards since trying to find it and have never succeeded. It's my white whale. We've gotten close by mixing up mustards in our kitchen (spicy Asian mustards get close). But then the texture is off, and it's not balanced.
- thinkingkong 5y ago
  Have you tried grinding and using cold water? Hot water actually mellows out the intensity.
- kasey_junk 5y ago
  https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/ Formerly Mt Horeb Mustard Museum
tauntz 5y ago
I'd recommend adding this to the list of mustards to try: https://ehtnejahea.ee/toode/poltsamaa-kange-sinep-65g/ https://ehtnejahea.ee/toode/poltsamaa-kange-sinep-65g/ it's one of a different kind..
AlbertCory 5y ago
He mentioned chicken, and that reminded me: I used to broil chicken breasts, skin on, with mustard spread on them. You would think they'd taste all mustardy, but they didn't. Note to self: try that again.
fsckboy 5y ago
ya know, he didn't even answer a really simple question, "how does Grey Poupon compare to French Dijon mustards?" he didn't whip out the GP when he was tasting the French ones, and he didn't mention Dijon when he was tasting the GP, and then he brought GP up again later and did mention it was Dijonnaise and simply said "but it's made in America". There is still a European GP being made, although it's unclear from wikipedia whether it's a Maille mustard or not, but why not grab some? And to give French's and Gulden's thumbs up without comparing them in any meaningful way (or any way at all) to similar taste profile mustards seems basically dumb. This shouldn't have taken all summer to taste. Oh, and a mustard has the wrong texture to go in a pastrami sandwich? wtf. as an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist autist, sorry, but this review does not cut it... it being the mustard. > "I’ll gladly watch ... Anthony Bourdain explain the world through food" if you pay attention to Anthony Bourdain, he rarely says anything about food beyond "oh, that's good". And some of the foods he says it about I've tried and they are not good (like when he did restaurants around NYC) but of course that's just personal taste. He was a highly entertaining food rascal to watch and listen too, and the production values of video were quite high, and he entertained us with a lot of interesting foodie travel, but strictly about food... eh, you couldn't even hypothetically argue with him, he never said anything, and he even said he didn't want to say anything. but "oh, that's good". (also btw, where he came up as a chef was pretty unspectacular, French brasserie food certainly is a great niche food-de-confort-wise, but pretty paint-by-number in terms of palette and technique.)
- titanomachy 5y ago
  I'm not sure if you mean palate rather than palette, it seems either word would work here with the painting analogy :)
  - fsckboy 5y ago
    yes, i noticed the fun pun :) but thought bringing it to the fore would be distracting, and palette is what I wanted since I had referenced paint-by-numbers
- tnorthcutt 5y ago
  I don't disagree with any of this, but I also don't think the article/OP is saying otherwise... "I’ll gladly watch ... Anthony Bourdain explain the world through food" doesn't IMO imply Bourdain was any kind of incredible food critic. Rather, he went to interesting places and talked to interesting people and just used food as the vehicle to do that.
executive 5y ago
Best mustard is from Canada. https://www.redsoss.com/store/p25/THAT_MUSTARD_SAUCE.html https://www.redsoss.com/store/p25/THAT_MUSTARD_SAUCE.html
dcormier 5y ago
My favorite mustard is missing: Lusty Monk mustard[1] I fully admit to first buying it because of the branding, but it is the best mustard I've ever had. It is pretty potent, so if you like a subtle mustard don't bother. [1]: https://www.lustymonk.com/ https://www.lustymonk.com/
michalu 5y ago
Having moved to France recently, 30 doesn't seem a lot.
coder4life 5y ago
Kallas brand Creamy Dill is delcious
harrydehal 5y ago
There's an excellent lecture by Malcolm Gladwell: "Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce" that touches both on mustard (and spaghetti sauce), and of course the topic of choice: https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_and_spaghetti_sauce?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_...
taylodl 5y ago
My go-to mustard is Nance's Sharp & Creamy. It's not the perfect mustard for everything, but it pairs well with everything! Has enough "sharp" to make it interesting, but not so much that it's obnoxious and detracts from what it's supposed to be complementing. Love it!

290 points by thomasjudge 5y ago

I was motivated enough by this to seek out some of the mustards he mentioned -- and it looks like the Beaver Olde English is no longer on their web page? Has it been discontinued?

cf100clunk 5y ago
Not sure, but I've found almost all Beaver condiments (not just their mustards I've tried) to be worth the trouble to find, especially their Tartar Sauce.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  One upside, I suppose, of living in Portland is that Beaver is just 'the standard condiment brand I get at the grocery store.' I do like their stuff, and their tartar sauce was what made me try their other products.
letmeinhere 5y ago
same boat; my best guess is he's talking about the Deli one...
- 1xdevnet 5y ago
  It existed at one point[0], but I can only see it listed in Canadian shops [1]. UPC 7182800350 [0] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00O8NG1J4/ https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00O8NG1J4/ [1] https://www.shopmsv.ca/shop/product/88326/Beaver_Hot_Olde_English_Mustard_360_mL https://www.shopmsv.ca/shop/product/88326/Beaver_Hot_Olde_En...

cf100clunk 5y ago

The one called the "Rolls Royce" of mustard, Pommery Meaux, costs $12.49 on amazon.com while amazon.ca has the same item for $58.64. Beyond the exchange rate, this must have something to do with duties or just plain greed.

yial 5y ago
Greed… or automatically set pricing based upon something strange. https://gourmetwarehouse.ca/pommery-meaux-mustard-stone-jar-250ml/ https://gourmetwarehouse.ca/pommery-meaux-mustard-stone-jar-...
colechristensen 5y ago
“Find something not on amazon and put it there at a hugely inflated price” is a way some people make money by finding obscure things to sell. If anyone actually starts buying it somebody will come in and bring the price down with competition, if not sometimes the high price is justified because keeping things in amazon warehouses isn’t free and spending the time to get something sold on amazon when you only expect to sell a few costs lots of money for the reward. The benefit is that you can find almost anything on amazon.

dustintrex 5y ago

Not a bad survey of American mustard, but still missing several entire classes of mustard: * French moutard a l'ancienne ("ancient" style), with mustard seeds left in. Maille's version is my go-to. * Japanese karashi. Extremely spicy, so a little goes a long way, but a must for some Japanese dishes like oden. * German mustards! Sweet Bavarian senf is obligatory for white sausage (weisswurst).

Aromasin 5y ago
I'd also like to add English mustard to that list, most notably the Colmans's brand. I found it odd to not be there but I suppose it's not a thing found commonly abroad? It's ubiquitous in the UK - like French's is the the US. It comes in both a bottle and powdered form, with the later capable of blowing a mans head clean off. Closer to Wasabi from my experience. I gave a bottle of the stuff as a present to my host when on a rugby tour in Canada. Didn't mention that it's not the type you use on hotdogs (it's generally used as a condiment for a roast dinner with beef, used sparingly). I received a very funny video a week later of them as a dribbling mess.
- NextHendrix 5y ago
  I'm surprised the powder form of Colman's isn't a controlled substance. Not enough water and its essentially death paste. Sneeze near an open container of the powder and you'll probably need to move house and have facial reconstruction surgery. I pity your friend for slathering it on a hot dog, first bite must've been quite a shock. Marvellous stuff.
  - bserge 5y ago
    It puts the "mustard" in "mustard gas" :D
  - 01100011 5y ago
    I believe most mustard powder is roughly the same. The difference is in how much acid(usually vinegar) you mix in to slow the reaction which creates the spiciest compounds. Pure water usually gives you a very hot mustard with a short lifetime(i.e. 'Chinese mustard').

davibu 5y ago

At this point, why not simply make your own? The simplest recipe would be n time better than an industrial one. Look a the recipe: 150 g of seeds of brown mustard, 10cl of vinegar, 30cl of water, 10g of salt Nothing really fancy, even my son could do it. The same applies to homemade mayonnaise, 10 times better than the industrial one.

MagnumOpus 5y ago
Do you have any advantage in either the quality, price, or consistency of your water, salt, vinegar or seeds? In 99.9% of cases the answer is "no" and procuring ready-mixed mustard is more convenient, cheaper, less messy and time-saving.
- Tade0 5y ago
  The advantage of home-made food is that you have control over the ingredients. Store bought mustard and mayonnaise contain such surprising ingredients like e.g. sugar or copious amounts of salt.
  - timcederman 5y ago
    What store bought mustard contains sugar? I'm not aware of any, and if there are, they aren't common. Also a little bit of sugar in mayonnaise is fine - in the US it usually relatively trace amounts to the most commonly sold ones in the Commonwealth.
  - bshimmin 5y ago
    While I broadly agree with this, I would say that my own attempts at making mint sauce were fairly disappointing in comparison with shop-bought - Colman's mint sauce is an awful lot nicer than anything I was able to make, and (though I've never tried to make it) I bet their wonderful mustard is too. You will probably also not be able to make at home anything all that similar to the mayonnaise you buy in a shop, though what you can make at home will almost certainly be equally as nice (my children were confused by the yellowish colour of home-made mayonnaise, which is sort of backwards since the confusing thing ought to be why shop-bought mayonnaise is white!).

null_object 5y ago

This was quite a fun read - especially the self-deprecating humor and the little vignettes about how and where the author sampled the different mustards - but I was pretty surprised by the narrow selection. In various parts of Europe there's a strong tradition of very geographically-specific types of mustard - often differing greatly in texture, strength, color and taste in neighboring towns or regions. Also mustards can be seasonal - here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas, for instance - not to mention that people make their own mustards (also usually based on regional preferences).

teorema 5y ago
I had the same impression regarding breadth. There's local mustards all over the US, which I was expecting more of. I still enjoyed reading it but was expecting something a little different.
bryanrasmussen 5y ago
>here in Sweden there are many mustards that are only available at Christmas I have a theory that desserts that are only on holidays really sort of suck or they would have broken out of the holiday and are just getting by on the nostalgia factor - how are these mustards you talk about? Also can you name some of them? I guess I can always take the train over to Malmö in a couple of months to pick some up to test the quality myself. on edit: fixed typo
- matsemann 5y ago
  I think it depends. Lots of the food is a hassle to make, so only done for big occasions when it will serve many. But some of it I agree. Never learned to enjoy the traditional Norwegian food. Now it's "fårikål season", which is basically just lamb+cabbage boiled for far too long. Or "smalahove" where you eat the sheep's head. Christmas is the samme. Take ribs of the lamb and damp with salty water. Might be lamb I don't like, though.
- MartinodF 5y ago
  We have a ton of Christmas-only or Easter-only desserts in Italy, all very good. I'm guessing the short availability window increases sales, you just need to make sure you always have something in season ;) It's more of a tradition than anything else, really!

squarefoot 5y ago

The best yellow senape mustard I ever tried is one I bought at a middle/far east shop almost 20 years back. It was different from others I knew for having a harder consistency, a bit harder than peanut butter to give an idea; I had to apply some force with a spoon in its big jar to cut a piece. Used it to give more flavor to meat by putting it in the frying pan along with oil and other spices, and the result was delicious. Unfortunately I don't recall the name, the shop changed owner although it still sells oriental spices, but now they have no idea of what product I'm talking about. Does anyone know if such a type of "hard" senape mustard still exist?

utucuro 5y ago
Mustard is made by adding liquids to mustard seeds or their powder, which activates the chemical reaction in them to make them spicy. How spicy a mustard becomes depends on the temperature and acidity of the liquids, and on how long the reaction is allowed to go on - heating or cooling the mustard significantly will stop it, keeping a mustard cool once it reaches the desired hotness will preserve it at that spiciness level. As it is, I wonder what the ratio of solids to liquid was and if it was a pure mustard (without other spices or additives) since I have never even heard of a semi-solid mustard...
- fnord123 5y ago
  IME putting mustard in the fridge makes it lose potency. I've ruined a few jars of Colman's this way.

amelius 5y ago

No wasabi?

dustintrex 5y ago
Wasabi is a completely different plant.
- bookofjoe 5y ago
  Yes. root v seed

VincentEvans 5y ago

If you like Chinese mustard, you ought to try Russian “gorchitsa”, which stands for mustard in Russian. It’s very spicy, probably on a level of wasabi, which ought to be included too, now that I think of it.

bserge 5y ago
Not sure if it's just the cheap Russian mustard that I ate, but it always seemed different than others. It has a strong initial "kick" then the taste is pretty mild. Like, English, French, German mustard taste and wasabi "sticks" for a longer time.
- vilmosi 5y ago
  I found real wasabi to have the opposite effect. Strong initial kick, then more of a nutty taste to it.
  - bookofjoe 5y ago
    Yes. I was shocked the first time I had real fresh-grated (on a sharkskin grater — TMI?) wasabi. I had expected it to be really hot but unlike its ersatz version, the real thing had only an initial heat, which then faded to reveal a complex of multi-layered flavors and aromas, "nutty" among them.
scns 5y ago
I like Dijon mustard from France. To be enjoyed in moderation, the heat goes up the nose.
Iwan-Zotow 5y ago
Yep, that would clean up his pipes
Miiko 5y ago
Russian “gorchitsa” was mentioned in the article and even named a personal favorite: > Zakuson Gourmet Mustard The actual name is "тещина горчица" = "mother-in-law mustard", it's not for the weak of heart indeed ;)

marban 5y ago

Now that it's Oktoberfest time (or would be), you should try Weißwurst Senf by https://haendlmaier.de https://haendlmaier.de fame.

subpixel 5y ago

You only need one mustard in your life. And the most excellent thing is that mustard is in fact two mustards with a slightly-spicy rivalry: https://www.eater.com/2017/7/7/15926148/cleveland-brown-mustard-stadium-ballpark https://www.eater.com/2017/7/7/15926148/cleveland-brown-must...

snarf21 5y ago
Or if you prefer yellow mustard for some things, I'd suggest Plochman's. Everyone I've had tried Plochman's never ever uses that garbage from French's ever again. It is such a wonderful mustard with just the right amount of bite.
selimthegrim 5y ago
Every time I go back home to Cleveland I snag a bottle of both types, although I prefer Stadium.
- toddwprice 5y ago
  ^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^

zoltar 5y ago

Great article. For additional mustard content, I've enjoyed the reviews on the Mustard Museum's Youtube channel.

physicsgraph 5y ago
The Wikipedia page [0] mentions the collection of 5,300 mustards. I was underwhelmed by the 30 presented in this article. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum
geoduck14 5y ago
I had no idea mustard was taken so seriously. It makes me want to take a tour of salsa and post about that.
rubylark 5y ago
I second this. I happened to be in Middleton, WI on National Mustard Day (which is apparently a real "holiday"). They had a bunch of mustard themed midway games set up and a band like a little festival. The museum itself was pretty neat as well. The gift shop is why I recommend people stop by if the happen to be in that part of Wisconsin. They have over 500 types of mustards you can buy[1], and have a free samples counter that lets you try probably around 10. Some of them are extremely unique. I think the oddest one I tried was the peach champagne mustard because for whatever reason I didn't expect it to be so sweet. I still use the classic beer mustard I bought from there. [1] https://store.mustardmuseum.com/category/buy-mustards https://store.mustardmuseum.com/category/buy-mustards
shotta 5y ago
Poupon U!

GlennS 5y ago

Well, that was educational, and now I finally understand the Grey Poupon scene from Wayne's World. In future I will be less snooty about "American mustard", which before reading this I had assumed was all like French's mustard.

jkochis 5y ago

Anyone here like to mix mayonnaise and mustard?

thomasjudge 5y ago
Especially for dipping artichoke leaves
Iwan-Zotow 5y ago
This is sick! Instant upvote
jrootabega 5y ago
I prefer mustmayostardayonnaise.
yoz-y 5y ago
mayo, mustard, pickle water... the best sauce
Erwin 5y ago
It's done widely enough that Maille themselves sell a "Dijonnaise" : Dijon mustard + mayonnaise.
- scrumbledober 5y ago
  There was a character on the disney channel cartoon Proud Family whose name was dijonnaise
- jrootabega 5y ago
  You just awoke an ancient TV memory in me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48hQm5fIbU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B48hQm5fIbU
fanf2 5y ago
To make mayonnaise you start with egg yolks and mustard (and maybe other seasonings): the mustard helps the mixture to emulsify. You can put more mustard in it, to make a mustard mayonnaise, or add more mustard later.

nvr219 5y ago

Hot takes :D

smoyer 5y ago

I'm also a mustard lover and appreciate that the author didn't try to rank them - different mustards should be used for different occasions. I will admit that I found it a bit amusing that this article appeared on the front page of HN with "Where Do Type Systems Come From". Clearly mustard type systems come from James Beard and now Jason Diamond.

eth0up 5y ago
I apologise in advance, but if necessary, will fight to the death in defense of Colman's being used on almost any occasion, whilst other imposters hunch quivering on the sidelines drooling at low hanging vittles. But as does Norris of Chuck look upward to Schneier of Bruce for inspiration and permission, Colman's looks to a proper habanero mustard for hope in a lonely world of vinegar tainted dribblings. Good on all occasions that don't involve zippers. Edited: remove "e" from previous "Col[e]man's. Please pardon me for opening a potential Mustard in the Middle (MItM) vector.
- pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  I don't understand your reference to zippers?
  - eth0up 5y ago
    Even during a time of pestilence where Amazon links infest every page on the web and condiments breach the discretionary ramparts of HN's frontpage, you must always mind what you handle after handling habaneros. I have fought to the death and lost this duel, but Colman's will never die. Long live proper mustard! And habanero anything

yial 5y ago

Two notable great mustards not mentioned are the Divina mustards imported into theUS by Food Match. https://foodmatch.com/products/listing/ingredients/ingredients-mustard https://foodmatch.com/products/listing/ingredients/ingredien...

josephd79 5y ago

Damn, didn't realize there was this many different types of mustard. btw, Hotdog, Mustard only. The true and only way.

zikduruqe 5y ago
I caution ye from the rabbit hole that ye shall go down... https://mustardmuseum.com https://mustardmuseum.com
- modriano 5y ago
  I went there around 8 years ago thinking "oh, what a funny idea for a museum" and came away with the 2013 world champion mustard (Maille Dijon) and a love of mustard. That museum is really a (not so) hidden gem and I highly recommend it if you visit Madison, WI.
  - shagie 5y ago
    If you've got a bag of pretzels that need to be devoured rapidly, the Slimm & Nunne Sweet and Nicely Hot is just right. Its the mustard museum specialty brand - I haven't seen it anywhere outside of Wisconsin (though I'll admit I haven't necessarily looked too hard).
    - bookofjoe 5y ago
      Ooh... I just realized the name is a subtle play on words
      - shagie 5y ago
        There's also the Mustard Museum University... Poupon U https://mustardmuseum.com/poupon-u/ https://mustardmuseum.com/poupon-u/ That's not as subtle.
    - bookofjoe 5y ago
      Here you go: https://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1651/buy-mustards https://store.mustardmuseum.com/product/1651/buy-mustards

jkellermann 5y ago

Incomplete without a Test of Händlmeier sweet mustard. Ask any bavarian...

rcarmo 5y ago

This is delightful reading for the puns alone, never mind it being my favorite condiment.

c6400sc 5y ago

This is my favorite mustard. It's Austrian, spicy but not too much, and overall has a taste that is hard to describe with any other word than sublime. https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/mautner-austrian-hot-mustard-with-horseradish-in-tube-7-oz/ https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/mautner-austrian-hot-musta...

evanb 5y ago
I met the owner/operators of thetasteofgermany at the Christmas Market by the National Portrait Gallery just before Christmas 2019. German ex-pats, they were extremely friendly and knowledgeable, and excited to hear I had just returned from living in Germany. They have excellent products on offer---just what I was looking for to make it easy for me to answer the constant question I'd get: "What would you bring back from Germany if you could?"!

turbinerneiter 5y ago

Mautner Estragon Senf from Austria, thank me later.

simondotau 5y ago
Came here to say this. Comes in a toothpaste tube and isn’t expensive. But it’s damn good mustard. My personal favourite.

clement75009 5y ago

Reminds me of that classic Onion article: https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-world-of-diy-mustard-1819571371 https://www.theonion.com/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-w...

wyldfire 5y ago
> "There I was, a grown man, planning a trip to the Mustard Museum in Wisconsin, when suddenly I heard a voice deep within me say, 'This is not what you want your life to be about.'" "The Onion" was started in Madison IIRC, which is where the Mustard Museum [1,2] is. > The museum was conceived and founded by Barry Levenson, former Assistant Attorney General of Wisconsin. It centers on a mustard collection he began in 1986 while despondent over the failure of his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, to win the 1986 World Series. [1] https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Mustard_Museum
- dcchambers 5y ago
  The Onion article is funny but I highly recommend the Mustard Museum (and shop!). A fun quirky place to visit just outside Madison and mustard makes for a great gift for anyone that likes to cook.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - a9h74j 5y ago
    Came here to upvote for the Mustard Museum!

sam_lowry_ 5y ago

When I was touring Moutarderie Edmond Fallot [1] this summer they told us that mustard makers suffered the phylloxera crisis [1] more than the winemakers. Originally, mustard was made out of the mix of mustard grains and the juice of bordelais grapes. Since bordelais was quite sour, it was not of particular importance to wine production. Once phylloxera hit, winemakers started rescuing important grape varieties and lost all bordelais species. Since mid-XIX century, mustard is made out of, well, mustard grains, vinegar and water. [1] https://www.fallot.com/ https://www.fallot.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_French_Wine_Blight

kaidon 5y ago

Where is the Pitzman's??

bookofjoe 5y ago

From NPR: Barry Levenson, curator and CMO — "chief mustard officer" — of the National Mustard Museum, says a fit of despair led him to create the museum in 1986. "My beloved Boston Red Sox lost the World Series," he says. "Decided I need a hobby to get over my depression. That's the morning I began collecting jars of mustard." And Levenson, a lawyer by trade, quickly saw his hobby turn into an obsession. "I argued a case at the U.S. Supreme Court," he says. "On my way to the court, I saw this little jar of mustard on a discarded room-service tray. I didn't have time to go back to my room. So I brought it with me and argued — and I had a jar of mustard in my pocket." https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823724 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128823...

zenron 5y ago

Mustard was my go-to condiment. I loved Dijon and stone grounds Dijon's. However, I lost my taste and smell in 2020 due to Covid-19. When my taste came back everything was fine but my smell didn't return for months. When it did, MANY things have an acrid taste to it. Dijon mustard, Pepsi, Coke, even Iceburg lettuce in different cuts (shredded is fine but in whole leaf I have issues) all taste the same and its so acrid that I can't touch the stuff any more. Bog standard French's Yellow Mustard still rocks even if the taste is a little dulled due to my new smeller. So the story is a bitter sweet for me... almost literally lol.

dheera 5y ago
My new favorite is the dill mustard that IKEA sells. (Seriously. It's awesome.)
- altrus 5y ago
  I completely agree - the IKEA dill mustard is quite delicious: the flavour is remarkably well balanced, and the mustard itself is creamy but still has a bit of bite to it. My overall favourite mustard is Löwensenf extra sharf (extra hot) mustard. It's the one in the red bottle, and it's a good hot mustard - I find it's really hard to get a good hot mustard in North America, so that's my go to.
  - zmix 5y ago
    I did not find it outside of Hungary, yet, but there they have a mustard mixed with horseradish[1]. Since this type of mustard is unknown where I live, I tried to recreate it, but never achieved the same balance as in the commercial product, which is sad, because, in my opinion, it's a match made in heaven! It may be, that they use a milder mustard, than average, to balance out the hotness of the horseradish. [1]: https://www.univer.hu/en/products/mustard/horseradish-mustard-en https://www.univer.hu/en/products/mustard/horseradish-mustar...
    - pasquinelli 5y ago

lapetitejort 5y ago

There's a small but growing movement of people fermenting mustard. The process adds a je ne sais quoi to condiments that can't be replicated by simply adding vinegar. See also fermented salsa. https://insaneinthebrine.com/lacto-fermented-mustard/ https://insaneinthebrine.com/lacto-fermented-mustard/

sabujp 5y ago

Also missing asian preserved mustard variants, e.g. my favorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasundi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasundi . Any type of spicy brown is my goto in the US.

mfkp 5y ago

The author recommends a "hot Olde English mustard" from Beaver, but I can't seem to find it. Does it exist?

nilram 5y ago
It’s probably this brand, which I’ve seen in the Pacific Northwest (in the US). They do make good products but I don’t see a hot Olde English mustard among their current offerings. https://www.beavertonfoods.com/beaver-brand/ https://www.beavertonfoods.com/beaver-brand/
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  Yeah I can find pictures of it online, and it's the same Beaver, but looks like they stopped making it.
  - mfkp 5y ago
    This is as close as I could find (Amazon Canada, out of stock): https://www.amazon.ca/Beaver-Olde-English-Mustard-360ml/dp/B00O8NG1J4 https://www.amazon.ca/Beaver-Olde-English-Mustard-360ml/dp/B... Must be discontinued, but I wonder where the author of the article found it.

silisili 5y ago

This is the kind of stuff I love this place for. I'm a huge mustard fan, and love trying new varieties I see at the store, but would never think to Google for such a review(would it help? it's all blogspam anyways). Seems I've got a lot of mustard to try.

nikkinana 5y ago

I shit on a shingle. I win!

davidw 5y ago

> Italy’s Mostarda di Cremona, Not actually mustard, which in Italian is "senape". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostarda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostarda

knightofmars 5y ago

30? That's nothing in the world of mustards. https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/

jedberg 5y ago

If you love mustard, check out https://mustardmuseum.com https://mustardmuseum.com And if you happen to find yourself in Wisconsin, you can enjoy their tasting room in person!

SavantIdiot 5y ago

I used to go to the Napa Valley Mustard Festival every year in the 2000's. I'd taste hundreds of mustards and bring home a year's supply. Granted, they were all local, so you'd miss some classics, but every year I looked forward to getting semi wasted and eating a ton of mustard. Ironically my favorite go-to is Edmund Fallot. Got hooked on it in France and luckily it is easy to find now that I live 3000 miles from Napa.

jimmygrapes 5y ago
This one and the Fairfield Tomato Festival were the best experiences I've had at any such town events
- SavantIdiot 5y ago
  Never heard of that but it sounds delightful. Where I live now, good tomatoes are extremely hard to find and growing them is out of the question (upper Northeast USA). Did you ever do Lambtown USA in Dixon? You get to pet lambs, watch lambs get sheared, watch lambs get herded in competitions, and then eat lambs. It's a lot of fun. If I ever go back west when its own I'd totally do it again.

WaitWaitWha 5y ago

"I think there’s a scientific reason for this, but I’m too lazy to look it up." I enjoy the levity and care free writing. I would have been bogged down with crafting a proper matrix of things that were tested, the method of comparison for each column, the exact tests themselves to produce the tests, sorting, and so on... Drives my progeny crazy.

mrpippy 5y ago

I’d love to know how the Trader Joe’s Dijon mustard compares. It’s made in France, cheap/available, and I always thought it tasted better than Grey Poupon

pazimzadeh 5y ago
The first thing I did was search for Trader Joe's mustard in the article, sad they didn't review it. As a French person I can tell you Trader Joe's mustard beats all the premium mustards in this article and it is cheap too.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  I really like that one, but it is a bit on the spicy side for me. Just on the edge of what I can tolerate, horseradish-wise. Their mustard garlic aioli is good as well. My favorite was one from Germany I bought at a specialty shop, can't remember the name of course. But, it did come in a little bottle that looked like a beer mug, with a soft top. :D

hondo77 5y ago

Gotta mention Boar's Head. Great deli mustard. As for Coleman's, I get the powder and mix up some with water when we bring spring rolls home. Clears up your brain quick!

burnished 5y ago

Fucking three popups before I even get through the introduction. No thanks.

hydroreadsstuff 5y ago

Bautzener Mittelscharf or bust

notacoward 5y ago

I was surprised not to see Honeycup on this list. It's pretty widely available, and many delis/restaurants use it (I think I discovered it at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor). It's sweet, of course, but also has quite a strong horseradish-y bite. It's very distinctive, and some people are really really into it, though I personally only like a little and even then only in the right dish/mood.

WorldMaker 5y ago

> Honey mustard is usually horrible I love the idea of honey mustards but dislike that almost all of them are dijons. Admittedly, that's partly in my case to do with a sensitivity issue with eggs and trying to avoid dijons generally, but beyond that I find dijons naturally already tend to be lighter/sweeter to start with and adding honey to that just moves things way over the balance scale to "too sweet" territory. My favorite relatively recent discovery was a Kentucky honey mustard that is not at all a dijon! https://www.kentuckysmokingrill.com/product/grand-reserve-spiced-honey-mustard/ https://www.kentuckysmokingrill.com/product/grand-reserve-sp... It's also unapologetically spicy, not just in a very strong mustard tang, but also a very nice balance of a good amount of pepper heat to really counterbalance the front sweet of the honey with some sinus tang and throat heat. As someone that goes through jars of Colman's and Chinese Mustards somewhat regularly, and loves a variety of mustards for different occasions in my fridge, it's the perfect honey mustard for my tastes and almost exactly what I'd been searching for in a honey mustard for something like years.

jdkee 5y ago

National Mustard Museum for the curious: https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/

djrogers 5y ago

Agree with a lot of his choices - Beaver makes great stuff, but also want to cape up for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale mustards. They're both good, but the honey one is particularly great - just a hint of sticky-sweet that doesn't overpower the vinegar.

partiallypro 5y ago

My favorite general purpose mustard is probably Vienna's Dusseldorf mustard. It's not listed in this article but it's great on sandwiches and brats. The only problem is that it's fairly expensive online and no one really sells it here in stores.

vector_spaces 5y ago

Does anybody happen to know anything about the origins of the "Chinese hot mustard" condiment? It's ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants in the US, but my friend in China tells me that nobody in China actually eats the stuff. I spent a solid weekend researching this, even poring over Chinese language source materials + Google translate with no luck. Mainly I want to know: is it true that this isn't a thing in China, and when and why did it start appearing in American Chinese restaurants?

tptacek 5y ago

I went to a Sunday Dinner Club dinner in Chicago a few years ago and had a cassoulet with what I think was a mustard drawn from the mustard grinder tap at the (late lamented) cheese shop Pastoral. I'm 90% sure it was a Maille. It was so hot you couldn't taste it without your sinuses lighting on fire; far, far hotter than horseradish wasabi. I've gone through dozens of different mustards since trying to find it and have never succeeded. It's my white whale. We've gotten close by mixing up mustards in our kitchen (spicy Asian mustards get close). But then the texture is off, and it's not balanced.

thinkingkong 5y ago
Have you tried grinding and using cold water? Hot water actually mellows out the intensity.
kasey_junk 5y ago
https://mustardmuseum.com/ https://mustardmuseum.com/ Formerly Mt Horeb Mustard Museum

tauntz 5y ago

I'd recommend adding this to the list of mustards to try: https://ehtnejahea.ee/toode/poltsamaa-kange-sinep-65g/ https://ehtnejahea.ee/toode/poltsamaa-kange-sinep-65g/ it's one of a different kind..

AlbertCory 5y ago

He mentioned chicken, and that reminded me: I used to broil chicken breasts, skin on, with mustard spread on them. You would think they'd taste all mustardy, but they didn't. Note to self: try that again.

fsckboy 5y ago

ya know, he didn't even answer a really simple question, "how does Grey Poupon compare to French Dijon mustards?" he didn't whip out the GP when he was tasting the French ones, and he didn't mention Dijon when he was tasting the GP, and then he brought GP up again later and did mention it was Dijonnaise and simply said "but it's made in America". There is still a European GP being made, although it's unclear from wikipedia whether it's a Maille mustard or not, but why not grab some? And to give French's and Gulden's thumbs up without comparing them in any meaningful way (or any way at all) to similar taste profile mustards seems basically dumb. This shouldn't have taken all summer to taste. Oh, and a mustard has the wrong texture to go in a pastrami sandwich? wtf. as an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist autist, sorry, but this review does not cut it... it being the mustard. > "I’ll gladly watch ... Anthony Bourdain explain the world through food" if you pay attention to Anthony Bourdain, he rarely says anything about food beyond "oh, that's good". And some of the foods he says it about I've tried and they are not good (like when he did restaurants around NYC) but of course that's just personal taste. He was a highly entertaining food rascal to watch and listen too, and the production values of video were quite high, and he entertained us with a lot of interesting foodie travel, but strictly about food... eh, you couldn't even hypothetically argue with him, he never said anything, and he even said he didn't want to say anything. but "oh, that's good". (also btw, where he came up as a chef was pretty unspectacular, French brasserie food certainly is a great niche food-de-confort-wise, but pretty paint-by-number in terms of palette and technique.)

titanomachy 5y ago
I'm not sure if you mean palate rather than palette, it seems either word would work here with the painting analogy :)
- fsckboy 5y ago
  yes, i noticed the fun pun :) but thought bringing it to the fore would be distracting, and palette is what I wanted since I had referenced paint-by-numbers
tnorthcutt 5y ago
I don't disagree with any of this, but I also don't think the article/OP is saying otherwise... "I’ll gladly watch ... Anthony Bourdain explain the world through food" doesn't IMO imply Bourdain was any kind of incredible food critic. Rather, he went to interesting places and talked to interesting people and just used food as the vehicle to do that.

executive 5y ago

Best mustard is from Canada. https://www.redsoss.com/store/p25/THAT_MUSTARD_SAUCE.html https://www.redsoss.com/store/p25/THAT_MUSTARD_SAUCE.html

dcormier 5y ago

My favorite mustard is missing: Lusty Monk mustard[1] I fully admit to first buying it because of the branding, but it is the best mustard I've ever had. It is pretty potent, so if you like a subtle mustard don't bother. [1]: https://www.lustymonk.com/ https://www.lustymonk.com/

michalu 5y ago

Having moved to France recently, 30 doesn't seem a lot.

coder4life 5y ago

Kallas brand Creamy Dill is delcious

harrydehal 5y ago

There's an excellent lecture by Malcolm Gladwell: "Choice, happiness and spaghetti sauce" that touches both on mustard (and spaghetti sauce), and of course the topic of choice: https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_and_spaghetti_sauce?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_...

taylodl 5y ago

My go-to mustard is Nance's Sharp & Creamy. It's not the perfect mustard for everything, but it pairs well with everything! Has enough "sharp" to make it interesting, but not so much that it's obnoxious and detracts from what it's supposed to be complementing. Love it!