Homemade mustard

I've been meaning to make my own mustard condiment for years, but never got around to it for one reason or another. If I had realised how easy it is to get a really tasty result, I would have done it years ago, instead of prevaricating. The only (mildly) difficult part is sourcing the mustard seed. You can buy one of three mustard seed types: white/yellow, brown and black. The three seed types are increasingly hot in that order. If you live in a city you probably have access to a wholefoods supplier, and for everyone else you can probably get mustard seeds fairly cheaply via the Internet. Now that we have the difficult part out of the way, we can proceed to the easy part: making the mustard condiment (sometimes called prepared mustard).

Equipment used for grinding the mustard seeds

Introduction

To release the fiery taste in mustard seeds you need to grind them and add a liquid, usually cold water. However, once this liquid has been added, the fieriness starts diminishing, within minutes. To arrest the decline in the fiery flavour you need to add an acid, usually vinegar or you could use something like lemon juice. Using warm water also reduces the fieriness of the mustard. That is all you need for a mustard condiment, everything else is optional flavourings.

Many mustard condiment recipes include a sweetener such as sugar. I prefer not to have sugar added and I really think it isn't needed.

Ingredients

Equipment required

• Spice mill, coffee grinder or mortar & pestle
• Small mixing bowl
• Jam jar (approx 250 ml size), sterilised

Method

This particular recipe worked for me, but if you fancy something different you can vary the seeds used, try a different vinegar or use warm water instead of cold.

1. Grind the mustard seed. You can grind coarsely for a country style mustard or to a powder if you want something more refined.
2. Place the ground mustard into the mixing bowl and mix in the water.
3. If you want a hot mustard add the vinegar straight away to arrest the decline in fieriness. If you want a more mellow mustard wait for 10 minutes, or even 20 minutes, before adding the vinegar.
4. At this stage the mustard mixture will seem thin. Don't worry, the ground mustard seeds will soak up some of the liquid and the wholemixture will become thicker.
5. Sprinkle on the salt and turmeric, mix well.
6. Spoon your prepared mustard into the jar, screw on the lid and place it in the refrigerator.
7. Leave the mustard in the jar to mature, for at least 8-10 hours.

The finished mustard in a re-purposed jam jar.

Nasty bacteria don't like the combination of mustard seed and vinegar, so your jar will probably keep for many months, even once you have opened and used some. Though, I am certain you will find it so tasty it won't last anything like that long.