mustard-msg – 12/1/18
Mustard seed in period. sauces. recipes.
NOTE: See also the files: Mustard-Making-art, Mustard-art, Balled-Mustrd-art, sauces-msg, herbs-msg, ham-msg, sausages-msg, pretzels-msg, meat-pies-msg, spices-msg, murri-msg.
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.
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Thank you,
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
harsh, as it is hard to tell at first just how powerful the mustard will
turn out to be when it is fully macerated with the other ingredients.
Prepared mustard gives you a little more control in this regard, at
least. And, I didn't think the vinegar in the mustard would be
especially out of place here.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 11:15:51 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard and hiney saulce
Robert Beaulieu wrote:
> Does any one have a period recipe for a honey and mustard sauce to go
> with a roasted faisan?
While I don't have a period recipe for honey mustard, I can tell you a
couple of things that may interest you. The first is that Taillevent
recommends serving roast pheasant with fine salt only, and the second is
that the addition of honey to mustard in the Middle Ages was a signature
of Lombardy. Lombardy mustard appears to have been fairly coarse, almost
like whole grain mustard, and slightly sweet from the added honey.
I suspect that the coarse variety of Grey Poupon, with a little honey
added to taste, and some white wine and/or white wine vinegar added to
thin it down to a sauce, rather than a spreadable consistency, would be
a good approximation of Lombard mustard sauce.
You could, of course, make your own in more or less the same way.
Adamantius
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 15:42:47 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Mustard soup
James and/or Nancy Gilly wrote:
> I can't find either of my copies of Baron Salaamallah's mustard soup recipe
> (one from the *Nocking Point* a few years back, one from the A&S issue of
> the *Pikestaff* around the same time). Do any of you folks from the
> Eastrealm have it? (Margali? Ras? Adamantius?) And does anyone know what
> documentation His Excellency has for it?
I regret that I've never tasted His Excellency Salaamallah's mustard
soup, but it does appear to have quite a wide reputation. The only
mustard soup I can think of, offhand, from a primary source, is in le
Viandier de Taillevent. He's got a recipe for egg sops, with a similar
recipe for mustard sops, as a sort of partner to it. I don't recall if
the mustard sops is a variation on the egg sops, or if it is intended
that they be served together.
Are poached eggs, or, for that matter, eggs in any form, involved in the
mustard soup you know? This might provide a clue as to whether this soup
has some basis in the Viandier's recipe.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 17:18:39 -0500
From: waks at world.std.com (Jane Waks)
Subject: SC - Fo: Mustard soup recipe
Forwarded from the East list. Since I didn't transcribe it myself,
I can't comment on whether there was source info in the A&S article.
- --Caitlin
ORIGINALLY From sca-east-approval at world.std.com Mon Oct 27 15:28:01 1997
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 15:28:01 +0000
From: "Dr. Memory" <JVINCENT at wesleyan.edu>
To: sca-east at world.std.com
Subject: Re: [EK] Seeking a Salaamallah recipe...
From Pikestaff A&S '95...
Mustard Soup
A) Feast Size:
Ingredients:
- ------------
2 lbs butter (unsalted if possible)
2 lbs flour
20-50 oz cans of chicken broth
4 dozen eggs
120 oz of Gulden's spicy brown mustard
2 gallons milk
8 pints whipping cream
3 lbs frozen peas
Heat the chicken broth and milk together until it is hot but not
boiling (takes about 1 hour on fairly high heat)
Make a roux by melting the butter in the bottom of a large pot,=20
gradually adding the flour while stirring constantly until you have a thick
paste.
Add the chicken broth/milk mix to the roux, stirring CONSTANTLY so
it does not lump.
Beat the egss in a seperate bowl. Add the mustard and mix well. Add
the cream to that mixture and mix well.
Mix a little of the hot broth into the egg/mustard/cream mix to warm
it so the egss don't curdle. Then add the entire mixture to the large pot
of broth.
NOTE: The soup is usually made in 2 large pots, so adjust this procedure
accordingly.
Rinse the peas in colander with enough water to melt any ice, but
not cook them. Serve the peas in seperate bowls as a garnish for the soup.
B) "Initmate" size (ie serves 1-6)
Ingredients:
- -----------
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs Flour
2.5 cups chicken stock
2 eggs
0.5 tsp salt
dash of pepper
1 tsp of onion juice
3 Tbs Dijon Mustard (or a spicy brown)
1.25 cups milk
0.5 cup heavy cream
10 oz package of frozen peas
Except for the addition of the salt, pepper, and onion to the
egg/mustard/cream mix, this is made just like the feast version.
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 10:09:17 EDT
From: Kallyr <Kallyr at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - homemade mustard
<< Does someone on the list have a recipe for homemade msutard? >>
>From Le Menagier de Paris, (1390's)
MUSTARD. If you want to provide for keeping mustard a long time do it at
wine-harvest in sweet must. And some say that the must should be boiled.
Item, if you want to make must hastily in a village, grind some mustard-seed
in a mortar and soak in vinegar, and strain; and if you want to make it ready
the sooner, put it in a pot in front of the fire. Item, and if you wish to
make it properly and at leisure, put the mustard-seed to soak overnight in
good vinegar, then have it ground fine in a mill, and then little by little
moisten it with vinegar; and if you have some spices left over from making
jelly, broth, hypocras or sauces, they say it may be ground up with it, and
then leave until it is ready.
Properly made Mustard from Le Menagier De Paris
redaction by Minna Gantz
1 cup whole mustard seed
1-2 tsp Powder Fort*
16 oz. red wine vinegar (may not use all)
1) Mix the seeds and spices in a non-metal bowl
(A glass jar works great, leave about a cup headroom though.)
2) Cover the seeds with about 1 1/4 cup of the vinegar and soak overnight.
3) Grind in a mortar or food processor to desired fineness.
4) Add more vinegar to get to consistency you want, use up all left from
soaking first.
*Powder Fort: I have used 3 parts each of Cinnamon & Ginger, 2 parts each of
Black Pepper and Galengal, and 1 part each of Cubebs, Grain of Paradise, and
Cloves.
I have found it easier to make batches of Powder Fort blend as was the period
practice, than to try calculating fractions of spoons for a given recipe.
For people wanting to try mustard making, it's easy & wonderful. If you don't
have all the Powder Fort spices, use those you do-- the source recipe was not
all that specific, though Powder Fort is the spice of the era.
~~Minna Gantz <KALLYR at aol.com>
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 00:42:04 -0400
From: mermayde at juno.com (Christine A Seelye-King)
Subject: Re: SC - homemade mustard
>Does someone on the list have a recipe for homemade msutard?
>Phillipa Seton
This is not a period recipie, (although, having read the post
that listed one, this is not far from it), but rather one from a (I
shudder to mention this) Sunset Book - Gifts From Your Kitchen. I made
this for Christmas this year, and I am sold! It is so easy to do, and
the results are just great.
French Old-Fashioned Mustard
Soak 1/2 cup White Mustard Seeds and
1 Tbsp. Dry Mustard in
1/2 cup cold water for 3 hours.
In a 1 - 2 quart noncorrodible pan,
combine 1/2 cup each:white wine vinegar and dry white wine;
1 small onion, chopped, (or 1/2 cup chopped shallots);
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced;
1 tsp. each salt and sugar;
1/2 tsp. dry tarragon;
1 bay leaf;
1/8 tsp. each ground allspice and ground turmeric.
Simmer, uncovered over medium heat until reduced by half, (10 -
15 min.) Pour liquid through a wire strainer into mustard seed mixture;
whirl in a blender until coarsely ground. Cook in the top of a double
boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionaly, until thickened (8 -
12 minutes). Let cool, pack into a jar or crock, and cover tightly.
Store in a refrigerator for at least 3 days or up to 2 years. Makes
about 1 cup.
Other spiced recipies include Dijon-style -use 1/2 cup water and 1 cup
dry mustard. For Honey-Dijon, add dark corn syrup and honey.
Green peppercorn - as above with 2 tbsp. minced green peppercorns.
Spiced German - use cider vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, dill
seeds, tarragon and turmeric.
I actually used Hot Chinese Mustard Seeds in the Old-Fashioned recipie,
and it is very good, with just a hint of bite when you bite into a seed.
I don't like hot stuff, and this isn't hot, just a little piquant. Yum.
Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 06:27:48 -0500From: vjarmstrong at aristotle.net (Valoise Armstrong)Subject: Re: SC - homemade mustard>Does someone on the list have a recipe for homemade msutard?>Phillipa SetonDas Kochbuch der Sabina Welserin has a sweet mustard recipe. I haven'ttried it, but it looks simple to do.34 To make the mustard for dried codTake mustard powder, stir in good wine and pear preserves and put sugarinto it, as much as you feel is right, as make it as thick as you prefer to eat it, then it is good mustard.Valoise
Subject: [Fwd: SC - re:period recipes and sources/mustards]
Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 17:56:54 -0400
From: Ceridwen <ceridwen at commnections.com>
To: stefan at texas.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Re: SC - re:period recipes and sources/mustards
Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 10:32:42 -0400
From: Ceridwen <ceridwen at commnections.com>
To: Seton1355 at aol.com
From An Old Icelandic Medical Miscellany ( supposed to be 15th C., from
a lost manuscript of the 13 th C.)
One shall take mustard (seed) and add a fourth part of honey and grind
all together with good vinegar. This is good for forty days.
One shall take mustard (seed) and a third of honey and a tenth part of
anise and two such of cinnamon. Grind this all with strong vinegar and
put it in a cask. This is good for three months.
Delights for Ladies - Cookerie and Huswifery, Hugh Plat, 1609
Mustard Meale
It is usuall in Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as
we doe flower and meale in England: this meale, by the addition of
vinegar, in two or three daies becommeth exceeding good mustard: but it
would be much stronger and finer, if the husks or huls were first
divided by searce or boulter: which may easily be done, if you dry your
seeds against the fire before you grinde them. The Dutch iron hand-mills
or an ordinarie pepper-mill may serve for this purpose.
The Closet Oened (sir Kenelme Digbie, KT) 1669
To Make Mustard
The best way fo making mustard is this: Take of the best mustard seed
(which is black) for example a quart. Dry it gently in an oven, and beat
it to subtle powder, and serse it. Then mingle well strong wine-vinegar
with it, so mush that it be pretty liquid, for it will dry with keeping.
Put to this a little pepper, beaten small (white is the best) at
discretion as about a good pugil (quantity?? how much is a pugil
anyone?) and put a good spoonful of sugar to it (which is not to make it
taste sweet, but rather, quick, and to help the fermentation) Lay a good
onion in the bottom, quartered if you will, and a race (root) of ginger
scraped and bruised, and stir it often with a Horseradish root cleansed,
which let always lie in the pot till it hath lost its vertue, then take
a new one. This will keep long, and grow better for a while. It is not
good till after a month, that it have fermented a while.
Some think it will be the quicker if the seed be ground with fair
water, instead of vinegar, putting store of onions in it.
My Lady Holmsby make her quick fine mustard thus: Choose true mustard
seed; dry it in an oven, after the bread is out. Beat and searce it to a
most subtle powder. Mingle Sherry-Sack with it (stirring a long time
very well, so much as to have it of a fit consistency for mustard) Then
put a good quantity of fine sugar to it, as five or six spoonfuls, or
more, to a pint of mustard. Stir and incorporate well together. This
will keep good a long time. Some do like to put to it a little (but a
little) of very sharp wine vinegar.
Ceridwen
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 05:47:08 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard
>Does anybody know when mustard - as the creamy, spreadable condiment we use
>today - was first used in Europe? I know mustard SEEDS were known way the
>heck back, from a New Testament quote regarding faith the size of a mustard
>seed.
Creamy spreadable stuff? Mustard? Well there are many types in Europe
even now, I prefer the type that has seeds in it but...
English Mustard (yellow & Smooth) was first recorded in 1730 in Durham
There are refs to Medieval mustard as a creaminy white sauce. White Mustard
was introduced in Britain by the Romans. The grains were pounded, blanced
with water, and cooking soda, mixed with sharpe white vinegar. It was
thickened with almonds and pine kernals for the table. Other recipes
include honey, oil & vinegar with powdered mustard !
French mustard is pounded & spices added
Lombard pounded & mixed with thick honey, wine & vinegar.
By Edward I there were proffesional sauce makers making mustard.
Mel
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 05:23:50 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: "INTERNET:sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu" <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard Roman
>I didn't know the Romans had "cooking soda." Can you please tell us where
>this information came from, and perhaps a little bit about the source or
>makeup of cooking soda?
From Food & Drink in Britain, C Anne Wilson, it is I think mentioned in
Apicius for enhancing the green of vegetables as well.
Mel
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 15:42:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Mustard
Sarah Garland, in _The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices_ says "The way to
reduce mustard seed to fine flour was only discovered in the mind-18th
century; before that the seed was pounded as needed in a mustard quern,or
the pounded seed was mixed with honey, vinegar and spices and formed into
balls that could be stored until needed. John Evelyn's instructions in the
_Discourse of Sallets_ written in 1699, are: 'Take the mustard seed, and
grind one and half pints of it with honey and Spanish oil and make it into
a liquid sauce with vinegar.'"
From my reading, I'd gathered the impression that pounding up mustard seed
and mixing it with oil & vinegar was a way of using it as a condiment that
was fairly common in period. However, their mustard would have been quite
different in flavor from most of our mustards, simply because it was made
right before consumption, while ours is ready made; most people say most
of the essential oil of mustard deteriorates within a day of mixing.
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa (Shire of Eisental; HERMS Cyclonus), mka Jennifer Heise
jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 17:33:26 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: LIST SCA arts <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard
According to Richard Mabey, mustard of medieval times was more like a salad
dressing that the yellow stuff we think of today.. He cites a recipe from
John Evelyn(later 1699 so not quite sure why he cites than but here goes):
Take the mustard seed, and grind one and a half pints of it with honey, and
Spanish oil, and make it into a liquid with vinegar......
To make mustard for the pot, slice some horse-radish, and lay it to soak in
vinegar, squeezing it well, and add a lump of sugar and an onion chopt. Use
vinegar from this mixture to mix the mustard.
Mel
Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 12:47:17 -0500
From: snowfire at mail.snet.net
Subject: Re: SC - Venison sausage-update
Here's a Welsh Horseradish based sauce. This "unusual" sauce apparently
should be served with veal. It was in a book of traditional Welsh recipes.
I don't know how old it is.
Suryn Cyffaith Poeth
6 lemons, 2 oz horseradish, 1 lb salt, 6 cloves of garlic, 1/4 oz cloves,
1/4 oz mace, 1/4 oz nutmeg, 1/4 oz cayenne, 2 oz mustard, 2 quarts malt
vinegar
Cut the lemons into eighths and cover with salt. Cut the horseradish very
finely, then place with the rest of the ingredients in a big jar that has a
lid. Place the jar in a boiler of water (with the water coming to within 2
inches from the rim of the jar). Bring to the boil and boil for 15 minutes.
Stir the mixture every day for six weeks, and keep the lid on. At the end of
six weeks strain the mixture into small bottles and cork tightly. This will
keep for years, a little will go far.
Elysant
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 16:02:08 -0500
From: Melanie Wilson <MelanieWilson at compuserve.com>
To: LIST SCA arts <sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Mustard & Soughdough Books
Two titles on the History of ....
A Dash of Mustard Katie Holder & Jane Newdick History of mustard from
Roman times to modern, 50 recipes etc
World of sourdoughs from antiquety ed Wood 1996
All these interesting books ...so little time...so unfair !
Mel
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 22:45:17 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
stefan at texas.net writes:
<< Take the mustard seed, and grind one and a half pints of it with honey, and
> Spanish oil, and make it into a liquid with vinegar......
>
> To make mustard for the pot, slice some horse-radish, and lay it to soak in
> vinegar, squeezing it well, and add a lump of sugar and an onion chopt. Use
> vinegar from this mixture to mix the mustard.
>
> Mel >>
I was speaking tongue in cheek but since you brought up the subject. The first
recipe sounds pretty straightforward to me as does the second. There were many
ways to make mustard. Al-Andalus contains a recipe with almonds added to the
ground mustard seed that has been soaked in water to remove the bitterness.
al-Baghdadi has a similar recipe where the mustard seed is soaked, drained,
crushed and mixed with vinegar and sweetener.
Barring the French's garbage all of the mustard making experiments I have done
turned out to be almost indistinguishable from certain modern products available
in the supermarket. Look for coarse ground mustards and brown mustards as well
as honey mustards. The difference is so minimal that it is really not worth
the bother of making your own.
Not all so-called modern foods differ in any significant way from it's
medieval counterpart. For instance modern canned tunafish packed in oil is
almost virtually the same as the Roman recipe for the fish which was cooked
and packed in oil. Anchovies are another example.
Admittedly the addition of ale to thin it down may or may not have been period
but it certainly was the best alternative considering I didn't bring any
vinegar with me. :-)
I never said it was a period sauce. I merely indicated that it was close in my
estimation to something that could have been period.. BTW, if you're looking
for actual redacted recipes from me at small affairs like our Shire 12th Night
which is exclusively held for shire members and their guests or our shire
picnic you will be sorely disappointed as I use those get togethers to
practice BEING a pewriod -like cook rather than parroting other cooks
recipes. They are a time for playing in the kitchen. :-)
Ras
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 06:17:15 PST
From: "Tipperith" <tipperith at excite.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Mustard & Soughdough Books
I have "A Dash of Mustard" and I really like it as a secondary source. There
are no period recipies, but the history portion of the book is reliable.
Tipperith
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 09:27:54 EST
From: WOLFMOMSCA at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Mustard & Soughdough Books
In a message dated 99-01-22 02:32:10 EST, Stefan wrote:
<< A Dash of Mustard Katie Holder & Jane Newdick History of mustard from
> Roman times to modern, 50 recipes etc >>
I bought this one a few months back. Wonderful coffee table book. Great
pictures. Historical information provided, but no bibliography, so you
pretty much have to take their word for it. Earliest (in their words) mustard
recipe given from De Re Rustica by Columella. There are some cool historical
pictures, though, including an artist's rendering of the Ancient Kitchen at
Windsor Castle, done in 1816, which shows a nifty scene of activity in this
huge cavern of a room. I don't know whether the kitchen at Windsor was
pre-1600 construction, but I'm willing to bet it was.
The rest of the recipes in the book are marvelous concoctions, with pretty
pictures. No historicity. Modern recipes from modern kitchens and cooks.
Valid as a spiffy 20th-century cookbook. The onion & rosemary focaccia
w/black mustard seed in the bread is just scrumptious.
The authors are Katy Holder (she wrote the recipes), a home economist and
writer, and Jane Newdick, a freelance journalist & writer specializing in
interiors & gardens, flowers and foods. Has a book called Period Flowers to
her credit (no, I haven't got it, so I don't know what period it discusses,
but if it's like Period Houses, it includes a lotta centuries).
My prime beef (with or without mustard) is the lack of a bibliography. To her
credit, the writer of the non-recipe material has, in some cases, given you
the source in the actual writing but, hey, I've got this thing about
knowing where ALL the info came from.
Great cookbook, especially for mustard lovers. Tells you how to grow and make
your own mustard. And the recipes are quite yummy. From this cookbook
collector, a general thumbs up.
Wolfmother
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1999 22:50:18 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
I know of three late period "Spanish" recipes for mustard. (I use
quotation marks, because two of them, though appearing in a
Spanish cookbook, are referred to as French mustard.) All of them
call for the mustard to be ground in a mortar. One specifies that
the mustard should be well ground up, and it describes the result
as "polvo" -- powder. The same recipe calls for honey to be added,
and lists "a little vinegar" as an optional ingredient, so I guess that
makes honey mustard period.
Brighid, who wishes she could still eat honey mustard.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 11:16:00 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
And it came to pass on 23 Jan 99,, that Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Lady Brighid ni Chiarain said:
> > I know of three late period "Spanish" recipes for mustard.
> Could you please post these recipes and translations? Or at least give a
> better idea where these can be found?
They are in the "Libro de Guisados" (1529) I have no finished
translation (nor any redaction) that I can post immediately.
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 10:36:17 -0500
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
"The Medieval Kitchen; Recipes from France and Italy" 1998) Odile Redon,
Francoise Sabban and Silvano Serventi translated by Edward Schneider, The
University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0-226-70684-2 pages 177 through 178 has a
mustard recipe from "Le Menagier de Paris". The recipe is the the soul of
simplicity and consists of soaking 1.5 cups of white mustard seeds (250g) in
about 1.75 cups of excellent quality white wine vinegar (40cl). You cover
the mustard seeds with 1/4 inch of vinegar until the mustard seeds swell and
are soft enough to crush with your fingers, they say over night but I let it
soak longer. Drain the mustard seeds and grind to a thick paste gradually
adding the reserved vinegar until you get the consistency you want. Salt to
taste and one teaspoon of from the following prepared spice mixture from
page 222 item c: Strong Black Spice Mixture. 1/4 cup freshly ground black
pepper(30g) 1/4 cup ground long pepper (or additional black pepper) (30g)
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 whole nutmeg, grated. The spice mixture is from
. Ludovico ;Frati, editor Libro di cucina del secolo XI, Livorno, 1899;
reprinted Bologna, Forni, 1970 ("Test Antichi di Gastronomia," 7) Le
Menagier's recipe as translated calls for using left over spices from making
aspics, clare', hypocras, or sauces.
I entered this mustard in a recent Art/Sci serving it with sliced beef as
called for in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" along with some beer bread
so that people could make little sandwiches. It did quite well. If any
one wants a copy of the full documentation as writen up I will attach it to
a separate E-Mail privately.
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 14:50:58 -0500
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
Hello! There are 3 mustard recipes in Le Menagier, but this is the one you
are referring to (from Power's Goodman of Paris, p. 286):
"Item, if you would make good mustard and at leisure, set the mustardseed
to soak for a night in good vinegar, then grind it in a mill and then
moisten it little by little with vinegar; and if you have any spices left
over from jelly, clarry, hippocras or sauces, let them be ground with it
and afterwards prepare it."
His recipes for hippocras (p. 299) call for either
"a quarter of very fine cinnamon*..., and half a quarter of fine flour of
cinnamon, an ounce of selected string ginger (gingembre de mesche), fine
and white, and an ounce of graine [of Paradise,] a sixth of nutmegs and
galingale together... two quarters of sugar..."
[*spelled canelle in both instances in Pichon's edition]
or
"five drams of fine cinnamon, selected and peeled; white ginger selected
and pared 3 drams; of cloves, cardamom, mace, galingale, nutmegs, nard*,
altogether a dram and a quarter, most of the first and less of each of the
others in order... a pound and a half a quarter (by the heavy weight) of
lump sugar..."
[*Pichon notes this is spikenard.]
His recipe for meat jelly (p. 279) calls for the following spices:
"a quarter of an ounce of saffron... ten or twelve heads of white ginger,
or five or six heads of galingale, half an ounce of grain of Paradise, two
or three pieces of mace leaf, two silver penniworths [10d.] of zedoary;
cubebs and nard three silver penniworths [15s.]; bay leaves and six
nutmegs..."
There is no salt listed in the original mustard recipe. He does not give a
recipe for clarry (a spiced wine drink). I am confused as to where this
spice mixture you give fits in to the original recipe.
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 17:11:16 -0500
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
Yes my lady your are correct regarding the source of the recipe I provided.
You are also correct regarding the spice mixture added, it is clearly from a
different quite possibly a non-period source. The salt to be added is not
specifically mentioned in the orginial recipe either. In truth I did not
add salt to the mustard I made. Regarding the orginal recipe as redacted,
sans the spices, what would be your take on the composition and volume of
the spice mixture to be added?
Daniel Raoul
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 18:17:31 -0500
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
Well, it's clear from Le Menagier that the spices to be used for the
mustard are leftovers from making the hippocras, jelly, etc. So, I suppose
I'd start by making the hippocras (since it's the easiest), & straining out
& reserving the spices. (The recipes for hippocras are each to make a quart
of spiced wine; the recipe for meat jelly also calls for a pig, 4 calves'
feet, 2 chickens, 2 young rabbits, 3 quarts white wine or clarry, 1 pint
vinegar, and 1/2 pint verjuice. While the spices serve to season these
mixtures, the spices in turn are flavored by the other ingredients.) Next,
I'd grind the spices to paste, & add them to my mustard mixture a bit at a
time, until it was seasoned to my liking.
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 20:30:27 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - mustard sauce
The spice mixtures referred to in the Medieval Kitchen are from Ludovico
Frati's Libro di cucina del secolo XI and are quite period. While the
authors are not precisely following Menagier, they are being true to his
instructions by using leftover spice mixes from their kitchen.
The one thing that really doesn't fit in is the salt.
Bear
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1999 23:32:49 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Mustard Recipe #1
This is from 'Libro de Guisados" (Spanish, 1529). The translation
is mine.
MUSTARD
You must take granular mustard; and clean it of the dust and the
earth and the stones and grind it well in a mortar, and when it is
ground, pass it through a cloth strainer: and then take the mustard
powder and put it in a mortar with a piece of bread crumb* soaked
in meat broth; and crush it all together; and when it is well crushed,
dissolve it with a little bit of lean broth without fat which is well
salted and when it is gradually dissolved so that it should not be
too thin, take honey which is good; and melted on the fire, and
cast it in the mortar and stir it well until it is well mixed and prepare
dishes. Some cast a little vinegar in the broth, you can add peeled
crushed almonds with the mustard, toasted.
*note: the word here is "migajon" which means a chunk of the
inside part of the loaf, ie., not the crust.
Somebody want to play around with this one? I'd be tempted,
because it's nice and simple, but as a diabetic, I don't have much
use for honey mustard these days.
Brighid
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1999 22:05:12 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauce
The other mustard translations I promised.
Mustard recipe # 2
>From "Libro de Guisados" (Spanish, 1529)
my translation -- permission to reproduce in SCA publications if
credit is given
"French Mustard"
You must take a "cantaro" [a wine-vessel and/or unit of
measurement for wine] of the must of wine, either red or white; and
grind a dishful of mustard that is select and very good; and grind
with it, if you wish, after passing it through a cloth strainer or a hair
sieve, a little cinnamon and cloves and ginger and cast it all, very
well mixed, into the mortar, into the cantaro or jar of wine; and with
a cane stir it around a long while, so that it mixes with the must;
and each day you must stir it with the cane seven or eight times;
and you will boil the wine with this mustard and when the wine has
finished boiling, you can eat this mustard; and when you want to
take it out to cast it in the dish to eat, first stir it with the cane a
little, and this is very good mustard and it will keep all year.
Mustard Recipe # 3 (same source):
"Another Very Good French Mustard Which Lasts All Year"
Take a caldron which will hold two cantaros, and fill it with red
grapes and set it to cook upon the fire until it is reduced by half
and there remains half a caldron which is one cantaro; and when
the grapes are cooked remove the scum with a stick of wood; and
stir it now and then with a stick; and strain this must through a
clean cloth and cast it into a cantaro [used here in the sense of
wine-vessel]; and then cast in the mustard, which will be a dishful
well ground up, stirring it with a stick, and each day you should stir
with it, four or five times a day and if you wish you can grind with
the mustard cinnamon three parts, cloves two parts, and ginger
one part; this French mustard is very good and lasts all year and is
mulberry-colored.
Brighid
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 23:55:47 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - mustard sauces
him at gte.net writes:
<< I see that some of the mustard recipes calls for a wine must. How do I
make or fake that? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Helen >>
Wine must is unfiltered grape juice before it ferments. Grape juice would be
a substitute.
Ras
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 10:39:28 -0400
From: renfrow at skylands.net (Cindy Renfrow)
Subject: SC - mustard balls - was - First Feast
>Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu mentioned:
>> There's a recipe around here somewhere for dry balls of mustard,
>> that can be mixed with vinegar? when needed.
>
>Is this a period recipe? Or just a modern expedient? Either way I'd
>like to hear more details if anyone has more info on this.
>--
>Lord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Hi! I found it. It's from Epulario (1598), p. 32:
To make mustard which may be carried in Bals.
Beat the mustard seed as aforesaid*, then take grapes well stamped, adding
thereto Sinamon and Cloves, then make what fashion bals you will round or
square, and set them on a table to dry, and being dry, you may carry them
whether you will. And when you will use them, temper them with a little
veriuice, vinegar, sodden wine, or Bastard wine."
*"Take mustard seed & let it soke for the space of two daies, and change
the water often, that it may be the whiter..."
Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 06:54:21 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard balls - was - First Feast
Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 1) What does it mean by "grapes well stamped"? The grape outside after
> most of the juice has been squeezed out? Or the juice? I would guess
> the former.
Yeah, one might think so, since this is supposed to end up a dryish sort
of product. On the other hand, with respect, Lord, it's possible to, um,
think too much...; ) . If you get my drift. Take some grapes, and
pulverize them in a mortar, or however they're crushed for making wine,
I guess. Take the result, which is unfiltered must, and use it to make
mustard, which is why it's called mustard, apparently.
> 2) Any idea what "sodden wine" or "Bastard wine" is? The former sounds
> like old wine or wine that has been in contact with the air for awhile.
> The latter sounds like just "low grade" wine.
Sodden wine is presumably wine that has been sodden, or seethed, or
boiled. Bastard implies a mixture, but not necessarily low grade:
consider you might some day have to discuss your views with William the
Conqueror and Leonardo da Vinci, both bastards. Mixing various wines,
beers, and ales has a long history before the birth of Half-and-half
(half mild, half bitters?) in British pubs.
> "round or square bals". Ok. :-)
Hey, now there's an interesting point. I'm not gonna run to the
dictionary just this second, but I wonder if we have, over time,
developed a habit of putting the cart before the horse in the matter of
round balls. In other words, does the word mean round, or some kind of
projectile not characterized by its roundness, but by its
projectile-ness, if you know what I'm saying? If so, square balls would
be a perfectly sensible term. And if not, well, we seem to have figured
it out anyway... .
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 21:45:04 -0400
From: "Daniel Phelps" <phelpsd at gate.net>
Subject: SC - Re: OOP Neat Book
I recently picked up "The Mustard Book" by Jan Roberts-Dominguez, Macmillian
Publishing Co., NY 1993 ISBN 0-02-603641-X. Its a great little special
topic cook book with a short chapter on the history of mustard and chapters
on European, Eastern and American mustards. All in all a lot of fun to read
and use.
Daniel Raoul
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 1999 19:16:43 EDT
From: RuddR at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost
Kerri Canepa asks:
<Anyone want to take a guess on Greek wine and Lombard mustard?
I have adapted this the easy way; instead of grinding my own mustard seed,
etc., I start with commercial mustard already made with wine and vinegar, and
thin it with honey and wine:
LUMBARD MUSTARD
Take mustard seed and waisshe it, & drye it in an ovene. Grynde it drye;
sarse it thurgh a sarse. Clarifie hony with wyne & vyneger & stere it wel
togedre and make it thikke ynow\; & whan (th)ou wilt spende (th)erof make it
thynne with wyne.
Forme of Cury
1 C brown mustard made with white wine
1/2 C honey
1/4 C dry white wine
1. In a bowl, stir together mustard and honey.
2. Stir in wine until sauce reaches a desirable consistency.
Yields one and three-quarters cups of sauce.
Rudd Rayfield
Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 20:51:29 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost
RuddR at aol.com wrote:
> Kerri Canepa asks:
> <Anyone want to take a guess on Greek wine and Lombard mustard?
>
> I have adapted this the easy way; instead of grinding my own mustard seed,
> etc., I start with commercial mustard already made with wine and vinegar, and
> thin it with honey and wine:
Grey poupon makes a whole-grain Dijon mustard that's excellent for this
sort of thing. So does a company called Plochman's, whose product comes
in a distinctive "stoneware" pot.
Adamantius
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 09:53:26 -0400
From: "Nick Sasso" <njs at mccalla.com>
Subject: Mustard (was Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost)
>troy at asan.com writes:
><< So does a company called Plochman's, whose product comes
> in a distinctive "stoneware" pot. >>
>This is the brand i use because it is the closest to anything i have tried to
>make myself from period recipes. :-)
>Ras
Is the Plochman's made with white mustard seed? My understanding from a spice/herbal source is that white (yellow) seed was more common in Western European Middle Ages than the black.
I have been overjoyed with my success at making mustards from seed and from Coleman's Dry Mustard. I started with the Coleman's and the Menagier recipe, and loved it truly. It aged gracefully and was a delight after about 2 months. Lots of the sharp edges mellowed into a smooth, hot mustard.
The Forme of Cury (Lombard Mustard) recipe method is much simpler because of the dry seeds. When I try to soak the seeds before running through a mill or even a food processor, it gets a bit sticky and awkward to handle. The dry seeds went much better. Either is just delightful with Menagier's sausages and German soft pretzels.
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 1999 16:53:51 GMT
From: "Liam Fisher" <macdairi at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost
>I have adapted this the easy way; instead of grinding my own mustard seed,
>etc., I start with commercial mustard already made with wine and vinegar,
>and thin it with honey and wine:
Dunno, I think the only tedious part would be to grind the mustard. I'd
think you could use pre-ground mustard, but it would loose some of the oils
being pre-ground. I think this is something you could make well in advance.
Also, you can adjust it if you use the original.
But then again, people think I'm weird too..
Cadoc
- -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Cadoc MacDairi, Mountain Confederation, ACG
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 11:26:31 CEST
From: "Christina van Tets" <cjvt at hotmail.com>
Subject: SC - mustard
There is actually no need to use a food processor to grind mustard seeds:
to my mind the mortar does a nicer job, as I like the variation in size
which it gives. The only extra work is picking up all the seeds which fall
out onto the floor, because I invariably forget to put a bowl under the
mortar first, and the little blighters bounce. Is there a difference in
flavour between the various seeds? I only ask because I can't seem to
duplicate the flavour of my favourite mustard (stoneware jars labelled
Pommery) which has _brownish_ seeds, which I've never seen in shops (I've
only found black and yelow).
Cairistiona
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 13:18:56 -0400
From: "Nick Sasso" <njs at mccalla.com>
Subject: Grinding mustard (was Re: SC - Re: Need Help with Compost)
>macdairi at hotmail.com writes:
><< Dunno, I think the only tedious part would be to grind the mustard. >>
>
>Even this is not tedious. Food processor immediately comes to mind.
>Ras
I often use my Black & Decker 'Handy Chopper": a 2 cup capacity food processor. It works sufficiently well, especially for smaller quantities. The big processors would make lighter work of it, though when you get over a cup or so.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you grind with too much liquid, you'll get air incorporated and yield a moussey texture. I found that a rather annoying side effect the first time. grind dry or with scant liquid to make a paste to avoid that problem.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 15:45:12 -0600
From: Magdalena <magdlena at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Platina mustard
Stephanie Dale Ross wrote:
Does anyone have the original of Sinapidum Rubeum (reddish mustard) from Platina's De honesta voluptate with a decent translation? I have a redaction I picked up at an A&S University, but the translation says to use white corn meal, and the redaction uses 2 c. of burgundy wine in place of "a little must". I'd like to see how well done the redaction is in the recipe i have.
I won't swear as to how good the translation is...
Platina: On Right Pleasure and Good Health
trans. Mary Ella Milham
8.14 Red Mustard Sauce
Grind in mortar or mill, either separately or all together, mustard, raisins, dates, toasted bits of bread, and a little cinnamon. When it is ground, soak with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and pass through a sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one above (8.13 Prepared Mustard/ Sinapidum) and stimulates thirst but does not nourish badly.
Magdalena
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 08:54:39 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
>hi all from Anne-Marie
>does anyone have a favorite homemade mustard recipe they'd care to share?
>I'm especially interested in period ones, ie one like le Menagier, or
>Epilarios, and ones that don’t contain eggs.
Here is one from the Harpestreng-manuscript, Icelandic version, late 15th
century:
"Item sem salsa mustar
Taka skal mustard ok lata til ?ridiung af hunangi. ok tíunda hlut af afsi.
enn tvo slik af kanele. mala ?etta. alltt saman med stercktt edik. lata
sidan j legil. ?at dugir um ?ria manadi."
Another mustard sauce
Take mustard and add a third as much of honey, and a tenth of aniseed, and
twice as much cinnamon (as aniseed). Grind this all together with a strong
vinegar, then put in a cask. It will keep for three months.
The other versions of this recipe I have are very similar.
This is a hot mustard, very good for lamb or well-flavored ham. I do use a
bit less aniseed, though.
Nanna
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 19:08:36 -0000
From: "=?iso-8859-1?Q?Nanna_R=F6gnvaldard=F3ttir?=" <nannar at isholf.is>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
><< I do use a bit less aniseed, though. >>
Ras asked:
>How much less?
Weeell - let´s see. To each 300 ml of mustard seed maybe 100 ml honey, 4
tbsps cinnamon and 1-1 1/2 tbsp aniseed (should be 2 tbsps according to the
recipe). Come to think of it, I probably use a bit less cinnamon too - maybe
2 1/2-3 tbsps. Mixed with some vinegar and sometimes thinned with a bit of
water.
There is another, milder, mustard recipe in the 1616 Danish Koge Bog, with
mustard, roasted almonds, wine and sugar or honey.
Nanna
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 07:46:57 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Re: SC - mustard recipes
My redaction of the Le Menagier follows:
Mustard (Le Menagier De Paris, ca. 1393 (Powers)
MUSTARD. If you wish to provide for keeping mustard a long time do it at wine-harvest in sweet must. And some say that the must should be boiled. Item, if you want to make mustard hastily in a village, grind some mustard-seed in a mortar and soak in vinegar, and strain; and if you want to make it ready the sooner, put it in a pot in front of the fire. Item, and if you wish to make it properly and at leisure, put the mustard-seed to soak overnight in good vinegar, then have it ground fine in a mill, and then little by little moisten it with vinegar: and if you have some spices left over from making jelly, broth, hypocras or sauces, they may be ground up with it, and then leave it until it is ready.
2 tablespoons ground yellow mustard seed
2 tablespoons vinegar
pinch black spices
Mix the mustard and vinegar together into a smooth paste. Add spice mix and let stand to meld and/or mellow for a week or more. The mustard I entered in Kingdom A&S was nine days old, and aged gracefully for another two weeks (it was gone by then). The black spice powder is adapted from "The Medieval Kitchen": equal parts black pepper and long pepper (1/4 cup each) to 1/2 tsp ground cloves and a whole grated nutmeg. You only use a pinch in the small recipe above, so it lasts a long time. The black spices are also great on a pan roasted beef steak!
simple recipe with delightful outcome. Pungent taste followed 3-5 seconds later by an intense heat. Marvelous on lamb and pork.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 18:33:12 -0800
From: Valoise <varmstro at zipcon.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
Sabina Welserin has a sweet mustard recipe:
34 To make the mustard for dried cod
Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put sugar
into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you prefer to
eat it, then it is a good mustard.
I noticed that this calls for mustard powder. Does a coffee grinder
get mustard seeds that finely ground?
Valoise
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 23:03:34 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
varmstro at zipcon.net writes:
<< Does a coffee grinder get mustard seeds that finely ground?
Valoise >>
I grind in the coffee grinder and then sift, returning the large bits to the
grinder and repeat until it is all finely ground. I do this with all my whole
spices that need to be ground.
Ras
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 00:24:52 -0800
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <acrouss at gte.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
hey all from Anne-Marie
Valoise sez :At 06:33 PM 12/3/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Sabina Welserin has a sweet mustard recipe:
>
>34 To make the mustard for dried cod
>
>Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put sugar
>into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you
>prefer to eat it, then it is a good mustard.
>
>I noticed that this calls for mustard powder. Does a coffee grinder
>get mustard seeds that finely ground?
do you have access to the original German? is it positive that they mean
mustard powder, and not "mustard powdered", ie ground seeds (which could be
a bit chunky)?
I know that there's some English recipes that call for grinding things like
meat to "dust" and we take that to mean "grind really well", not literally
to dust (which would be very tricky with fresh meat :)).
this is gonna be fun! I like the idea of mustard with pear preserves added...
- --AM
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 1999 14:35:13 -0800
From: Valoise <varmstro at zipcon.net>
Subject: Re: SC - mustard recipes
>Anne-Marie Rousseau asked:
> do you have access to the original German? is it positive that they mean
> mustard powder, and not "mustard powdered", ie ground seeds (which could be
> a bit chunky)?
The recipe calls for senffmel which would literally be mustard flour.
Powder is one of the alternate uses for the modern word Mehl or flour.
Valoise
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 14:49:35 -0500
From: Christine A Seelye-King <mermayde at juno.com>
Subject: SC - Digby's Horseradish Mustard
> Digby has a Ginger horseradish mustard sauce: can someone get that
> for me?
>
> Caointiarn
Here you go -
From Sir Kenelme Digby's Closet Opened
"To Make Mustard
The best way of making Mustard is this: Take of the best Mustard-seed
(which is black) for example a quart. Dry it gently in an oven, and beat
it to subtle powder, and searse it. Then mingle well strong Wine-vinegar
with it, so much that it be pretty liquid, for it will dry with keeping.
Put to this a little Pepper beaten small (white is best) at discretion,
as about a good pugil, and put a good spoonful of Sugar to it (which is
not to make it taste sweet, but rather quick, and to help the
fermentation) lay a good Onion in the bottom, quartered if you will, and
a Race of Ginger scraped and bruised; and stir it often with a
Horse-radish root cleansed, which let always lie in the pot, till it have
lost it's vertue, then take a new one. This will keep long, and grow
better for a while. It is not good till after a month, that it have
fermemted a while. Some think it will be the quicker, if the seed be
ground with fair water, in stead of vinegar, putting store of Onions in
it.
My Lady Holmeby makes her quick fine Mustard thus: Choose true
Mustard-seed; dry it in an oven, after the bread is out. Beat and searse
it to a most subtle powder. Mingle Sherry-sack with it (stirring it a
long time very well, so much as to have it of a fit consistence for
Mustard. Then put a good quantity of fine Sugar to it, as five or six
spoonfuls, or more, to a pint of Mustard. Stir and incorporate all well
together. This will keep a good long time. Some do like to put to it a
little (but a little) of very sharp Wine-vinegar."
And here is another plain horseradish sauce.
<snip - see sauces-msg>
Christianna
Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2000 22:39:43 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Digby's Horseradish Mustard
Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> mermayde at juno.com writes:
> << > Digby has a Ginger horseradish mustard sauce: can someone get that
> > for me?
> >
> > Caointiarn
>
> Here you go -
>
> From Sir Kenelme Digby's Closet Opened
>
> What does "searse" mean?
verb, to sift or sieve
> "as about a good pugil,
> What is a pugil?
>From the context, probably a fistful [of pepper]. Pugilism is boxing.
> How much is a race (of ginger)?
A race is a rhizome or root. That doesn't tell you much, I suspect. A
piece of ginger. Some ; ) .
Adamantius
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 2000 23:18:21 -0400
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard
<<<<Thanks! I'll drag Markham out. I'm going to make the red mustard from Platina,
a German one, and the one in Digby that uses horseradish, onions, ginger etc,
but I reallly liked the one I tried at KC.>>>>
Foy your information, Platina's mustard ROCKS!! I'll give you what I came up with. I ground the mustard flour myself (a real chore in a Corona mill!). It is the hit of several events around these parts so far. Very complex and interesting flavor.
Red Mustard
(On Good Health and Right Pleasure -- Platina translated by Milham)
Liber ovtavus, <14> : Sinapeum Rubeum: Sinapum, passalas, sandalos, buccellas, pinas tostas, cinnami parum, seorsum autsimul conterito, vel molito. Trita cum acresta aut aceto cum-que modico sapae dissolvito, in patinasque per setaceum transagito. Hoc minus praedicto concalefacit, ac sitim movet, nec incommode nutrit.
Book Eight, <14> Red Mustard sauce: Grind in mortar or mill, either separately or all together, mustard, raisins, dates, toasted bread, and a little cinnamon. When it is ground, soak with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and pass through a sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one above and stimulates the thirst but does not nourish badly.
niccolo's Red Mustard (Makes about 1 ? cups prepared mustard sauce.)
1/2 cup mustard flour (yellow) 4 large pitted dates
3/4 c. cider/wine vinegar 1 slice toasted bread
1/4 c. white grape juice 1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbl zante raisins 1/4 tsp salt (to taste)
Combine the two liquids and stir; set aside. Moisten toasted bread in liquid to cover for two hours, then drain. In mortar or food processor grind mustard flour, bread, raisins, dates and cinnamon until fine. You may need to add a little of the liquid to loosen it. When ground, turn out into the mustard in large mixing bowl and add salt and add 3/4 of the liquid. Stir with a spoon or whisk until smooth. Pass this mixture entirely through a fine mesh sieve or food mill. This will make a very smooth paste and remove fibrous material left from raisins and dates. Let stand covered overnight. Stir in more vinegar/juice liquid to desired consistency. The complex sweetness surpasses any honey mustards I've made to date.
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:09:34 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard
Sure. No problem. I'm including the original translation and my redaction...with notes.
Sinapidum rubeum--Reddish Mustard
Platina--De honesta voluptate
Original:
"Grind up mustard, raisins, white corn meal and toasted bread crumbs and a little cinnamon, either separately or all together; when they are ground up, dissolve them in verjuice or vinegar and a little must. And pass this into dishes through a strainer. This is less warming than the [mustard recipe] above and stimulates the thirst and is agreeably nourishing."
Redaction:
1 cup mustard seed 3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar 1/4 cup bread crumbs
1 cup white cider vinegar 2 cups burgundy wine
1 cup raisins
1. Place mustard seeds in a blender with vinegars and wine. Liquefy.
2. Add cinnamon and raisins, and reduce this to liquid.
3. Add bread crumbs, enough to thicken the mustard enough so that a wooden spoon or spatula will almost stand in it.
4. Let cure for several weeks in a crock with a cloth cover.
Notes:
The translation called for "white corn meal". Because I am unaware of the existence of corn meal in 16th century Italy, I believe that this is a mistake in translation, but do not know enough classical Latin as it was used in the Renaissance to do my own translation. Therefore I simply omitted it. Possibly the original referred to "meal", which might have been oats or spelt, according to information found in "A Taste of Ancient Rome" and "The Original Mediterranean Cuisine".
Also, as must is not generally available, I have substituted burgundy wine, as it seemed to be a reasonable substitute.
Finally, this translation is from the edition published by Falconwood Press, and, as it did not include the name of the translator, I'm not sure who it was.
Kiri
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 02:13:49 EDTFrom: CBlackwill at aol.comSubject: Re: SC - Re: SC poppa's Mustard ringofkings at mindspring.com writes:> To my knowledge, "must" is the unfiltered grape juice that you get> with crushed grapes with all the pulp and bits still in it but the skins> and seeds strained out. It is your basic beginning point of making> wine from sratch rather from concentrates. As it has lots of natural> yeasts in it, it will begin to ferment unless kept cool, so putting it in> sealed bottles in the bottom of a pond makes sense. That's correct. 'Must' is, essentially, the same as 'wort' in beer brewing. The raw, unfermented building blocks for remarkably tasty beverages...Balthazar of Blackmoor
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 08:22:31 -0500
From: Magdalena <magdlena at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: SC poppa's Mustard
RANDALL DIAMOND wrote:
> As it has lots of natural yeasts in it, it will begin to ferment unless kept
> cool, so putting it in sealed bottles in the bottom of a pond makes sense.
I use a combination of partially concentrated grape juice and a touch of red
wine to simulate must. The real question, though, is whether the Latin word
"sapae" (I think that's the word) means "must" in a modern sense.
Trita cum acresta aut aceto cum-que
modico sapae dissolvito, in patinasque per setaceum transagito.
aceto=vinegar; acresta~verjuice
- -Magdalena
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 10:04:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard (recipe #1 - Platina red)
> A key phrase is ". . . and have it ground". Not begging any questions
> since I, too, ground my first couple of mustard flours, but it is quite
> apropos to get pre ground mustard flour to use as ingredient since the
> spicers in much of medieval Europe would have been doing the grinding
> for us.
Can I ask for further elaboration?
Because I've been wondering about that very subject. Sarah Garland, in
_The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices_ says "The way to reduce mustard
seed to fine flour was only discovered in the mind-18th century; before
that the seed was pounded as needed in a mustard quern,or the pounded seed
was mixed with honey, vinegar and spices and formed into balls that could
be stored until needed." On the other hand, Plat says, "It is usuall in
Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as we doe flower and
meale in England," but he then says, "but it would be much stronger and
finer, if the husks or huls were first divided by searce or boulter: which
may easily be done, if you dry your seeds against the fire before you
grinde them. " Which is a bit confusing. My theory is that the smooth
ground mustard powder that is available from modern merchants is probably
not accurate: what you get when you grind it yourself (in mortar or coffee
grinder, at least) is of a much rougher texture.
If you have more information to justify the use of modern mustard 'flour',
I'd feel a lot more comfortable (because I admit to using half-and-half
handground and commercial mustard powder in my mustard).
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2000 12:22:56 -0400
From: Nick Sasso <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard (recipe #1 - Platina red)
My belief is built on the directions in the recipe to 'have it ground'
and references in Scully's "Art of Cookery" (IIRC) that travelling
spicers would bring spices for the manors, and that spicers in
marketplaces would also do so. I also belief from reading and
experience that one can get a VERY fine grind with a mortar and pestle
given patience and muscle. Bolting will serve to give an even finer
product based on the weave of the bolting cloth. Consider the fine
flour needed for breads. It starts as a rather large, husked seed, and
can come out very fine in a grist mill. Le Menagier also talks of
buying whole spices rather than pre ground, but commends the wife to buy
prepared mustard, so that is a wash.
Given time and effort, I have gotten a fairly fine grind on the mustard
seed. I don't have an enormous mortar as a large kitchen must certainly
have had (compared to my 8 ounce jobber), but I can get .5 to one cup of
fine mustard over several hours of work with mortar and FINE sieve. I
end up regrinding a lot. Does that help? I can get page and source
reference next week if desired.
Also know that oxygen will react with compounds in the mustard to make
it hotter. That is one reason, I suspect, that aging smoothes the
taste. the oxygenated compounds degrade and resemble the more natural
ones in the mustard.
niccolo
Jenne Heise wrote:
> > A key phrase is ". . . and have it ground". Not begging any questions
> > since I, too, ground my first couple of mustard flours, but it is quite
> > apropos to get pre ground mustard flour to use as ingredient since the
> > spicers in much of medieval Europe would have been doing the grinding
> > for us.
>
> Can I ask for further elaboration?
>
> Because I've been wondering about that very subject. Sarah Garland, in
> _The Complete Book of Herbs and Spices_ says "The way to reduce mustard
> seed to fine flour was only discovered in the mind-18th century; before
> that the seed was pounded as needed in a mustard quern,or the pounded seed
> was mixed with honey, vinegar and spices and formed into balls that could
> be stored until needed." On the other hand, Plat says, "It is usuall in
> Venice to sell the meal of Mustard in their markets as we doe flower and
> meale in England," but he then says, "but it would be much stronger and
> finer, if the husks or huls were first divided by searce or boulter: which
> may easily be done, if you dry your seeds against the fire before you
> grinde them. " Which is a bit confusing. My theory is that the smooth
> ground mustard powder that is available from modern merchants is probably
> not accurate: what you get when you grind it yourself (in mortar or coffee
> grinder, at least) is of a much rougher texture.
>
> If you have more information to justify the use of modern mustard 'flour',
> I'd feel a lot more comfortable (because I admit to using half-and-half
> handground and commercial mustard powder in my mustard).
>
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 13:16:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at tulgey.browser.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Poppa's mustard (recipe #1 - Platina red)
> If you soak the mustard seed first, it would be easier to grind.
Um, er... I've tried it both ways, using wet mustard seed and dry mustard
seed, and in my experience, the dry is easier to grind in a mortar &
pestle, because when it is wet, the friction is reduced. I also find that
grinding seeds, etc. is much easier in a mortar with a rough inner
surface. (Somehow I ended up with FIVE mortar & pestle sets:
One regular pottery with a not-completely-smooth glaze and a shaped wooden
pestle (which has been demoted to pomander making since I can't get the
frankincense completely off the pestle)
One white ceramic with a roughened surface inside and on the pestle
(excellent for everything but lavender and roses)
One brass, smooth inside, with a smooth brass pestle (seems to work for
dried herb leaves but not seeds)
One marble set which I can't find!
One semi-conical mortar with a ridged interior (and cylindrical wooden
pestle) which is good on lavender flowers, roses, etc.-- I think this came
from a Japanese grocery)
I also have a cheap electric coffee grinder for large amounts of seeds...
(What's an herbalist without a M&P anyway?)
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net
Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 22:29:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terri Spencer <taracook at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Mustard question
I'm preparing some mustard and noticed a small discrepancy in recipes.
My edition of The Goodman of Paris (Powers, 1928) lists on page 286:
Mustard. If you would make provision of mustard to keep for a long
time, make it in the harvest season and of soft pods. And some say
that the pods should be boiled
The recipe as posted by several list members reads:
Mustard. If you wish to provide for keeping mustard a long time do it
at wine-harvest in sweet must. And some say that the must should be
boiled.
Must at harvest time makes sense to me, but I don't want to contradict
a source without further evidence. Anyone out there with a copy of the
recipe in the original French? Other translations? Educated opinions?
Tara
Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 14:37:59 +0200
From: tgl at mailer.uni-marburg.de
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard question
"269. Moustarde. Se vous voulez faire provision de moustarde
pour garder longuement, faictes la en vendenges de moulx doulx.
Et aucuns dient que le moulx [moust_ms. B] soit bouly."
Source: Brereton, G.E./ Ferrier, J.M. (eds.): Le Menagier de Paris.
Oxford 1981, p. 258 #269. The text in Pichon/Vicaire edition is
essentially the same, only "faites-la" instead of "faictes la" and
"moust" instead of the second use of "moulx".
Thomas
From: "Siegfried Heydrich" <baronsig at peganet.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2001 00:00:54 -0400
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Col. Mustard did it in the kitchen
I ran across this in my wanderings . . .
Sieggy
For the Love of Mustard
If you're fascinated by mustard - and who isn't? - you may want to plan a
trip to Mount Horeb, Wis. soon, in order to pay a visit to the Mount Horeb
Mustard Museum, home to over 3,000 varieties of everyone's favorite yellow
condiment. Founded in 1986 by curator Barry Levenson, the museum also
features "an extensive collection of mustard memorabilia and antique mustard
pots". If that sort of thing gets your heart racing, you'll probably need a
pacemaker after visiting the museum's official site, where you can buy
assorted mustard paraphernalia - a "mustard herbal bath" anyone? - or enroll
at the mock mustard college "Poupon U." where you can take courses in such
fascinating subjects as "Brown Spicy Mustard in Etruscan Literature". Um,
could someone pass the ketchup please?
From: "Patricia Collum" <pjc2 at cox.net>
To: <SCAFoodandFeasts at yahoogroups.com>, <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 09:20:03 -0700
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Sabrina Welserin Mustard Sauce
Yesterday was our A&S competition. I decided at the last minute (6:30am
that day) that I would bring this mustard sauce and make it right then. I
had made Sir Digby's mustard several monthe before, and the contrast between the two was really nice. My Kingdom MoAS suggested that I only enter one at Kingdom A&S, and Sabrina's won the most positive comments. I did not win the category with the mustard yesterday, because their were no other
cooking-condiments entries to compete against. This may also happen at Kingdom.
But the crowd's reaction was wonderful.
Original recipe (translated in english from Das Kuchbuch der Sabrina
Welser=
in (1553): To make the mustard for dried cod:
Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put
suga=
r into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you
prefer =
to eat it, then it is a good mustard.
I decided to use canned pears instead of pear preserves like the
redaction that I read in 'Making Medieval-Style Mustards' by Jadwiga
Zajaczkowa/Jenne Heise.(Thank you for a wonderful article!)
my redaction: 1 cup freshly ground mustard seed (starting with about 1
Tbsp of brown mustard seed to 3 Tbsp yellow)
2 small cans (8 1/2 oz.) pears in heavy syrup, drained well
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup cooking sherry
dump all contents into a blender and whirl until smooth.
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 22:43:30 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
Besides the seeds, are other parts of the plant also edible? Roots, for example?
<<<
The leaves and sprouts of white mustard are edible; they are eaten as
mustard greens.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2003 09:48:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
To: sca-east at indra.com
Subject: [EK] sauces/spreads from war camp
A couple people asked me for the recipes for this stuff, so here they are.
Dilled cream cheese:
<see spreads-msg –Stefan>
Sauce for Pigeons (the salsa stuff):
Original:
Sauce for Peiouns. Take percely, oynouns, garleke, and salt, and mynce
smal the percely and the oynouns, and grynde the garleke, and temper it
with vynegre y-now; and mynce the rostid peiouns and cast the sauce
ther-on a-boute, and serve it forth.
(Ashmole M.S. 1479, quoted in Take a Thousand Eggs by Cindy Renfrow)
* Snip parsley leaves from 3 large bunches off stems (I used a mixture
of curly and flat parsley).
* Grind about 3 cups of leaves in a food processor until seriously
minced; remove from food processor.
* Cut up about 4 medium onions into chunks and mince in food
processor.
* Add a handful of peeled garlic cloves.
* Remove and mix with minced parsley.
* Add red wine vinegar (about a cup) and mix so that the result is
moist with vinegar and salsa-like in texture.
(Can be made the night before and refrigerated. Should be let stand at
least 1/2 hour before serving in any case.)
Brown Mustard from Rumpolt:
Original: Brown mustard made up with clear vinegar/ is also good.
Grind brown mustard seeds. Add white wine vinegar to make a thin paste.
Let sit 2 days. Does not need refrigeration.
Cinnamon Mustard:
From The Viandier of Taillevent (13th century), translated by Terence
Scully [Cameline Mustard Sauce]: "Take mustard, red wine, cinnamon powder
and enough sugar, and let everything steep together. It should be thick like
cinnamon. It is good for any roast."
1 part chinese cinnamon powder
4 parts ground yellow mustard seed
Add burgundy wine to make a thin paste
Sweeten to taste with sugar.
Tournai-Style Cameline:
Spicy Green Sauce (the pesto-like stuff):
Prune Sauce:
<see the sauces-msg file for these sauces –Stefan>
n Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 09:50:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Mustards
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
I'd like to try some other fruit mustards. Does anyone have any recipes or
thoughts before I go wildly experimenting on:
Fig Mustard
Plum Mustard (or maybe prune mustard would be better)
Cherry Mustard
An Orange Marmelade sort of mustard
Olive mustard
<<<
Hm... I would try prunes and dried cherries rather than fresh plums and
cherries, they work really well. What about combining mustard with the
prune sauce that we already have from period?
Some fruit mustards:
with grapes:
De Nola:
155. Another Very Good French Mustard Which Lasts All Year-- OTRA
MOSTAZA FRANCESA MUY BUENA Y DURA TODO EL AÑO
Take a caldron which will hold two cantaros, and fill it with red grapes
and set it to cook upon the fire until it is reduced by half and there
remains half a caldron which is one cantaro; and when the grapes are
cooked, remove the scum with a wooden spoon; and stir it now and then
with a stick; and strain this must through a clean cloth and cast it into
a cantaro; and then cast in the mustard, which should be up to a dishful
well-ground, little by little, stirring it with the stick. And each day
you should stir with it, four or five times a day; and if you wish, you
can grind with the mustard three parts cinnamon, two parts cloves, and
one part ginger. This French mustard is very good and lasts all year and
is mulberry-colored.
Two mustards with dried fruit from Platina:
Red Mustard sauce: Grind in mortar or mill, either separately or all
together, mustard, raisins, dates, toasted bread, and a little cinnamon.
When it is ground, soak with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and
pass through a sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one
above and stimulates the thirst but does not nourish badly.
Mustard sauce in bits: Mix mustard and well-pounded raisins, a little
cinnamon and cloves, and make little balls or bits from this mixture. When
they have dried on a board, carry them with you wherever you want. When
there is a need, soak in verjuice or vinegar or must. This differs little
in nature from those above.
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 06:58:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Mustards
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Jadwiga wrote:
>What's your favorite mustard recipe?
I made this sweet mustard from Scappi about a year
ago. In the absence of quinces I used apples.
From Scappi Cap CCLXXVI, folio 95, 2nd book.
Sweet Mustard
Take a pound of sauce of grapes, and an other of
quinces cooked in wine and sugar, four ounces of
"appie" apples cooked in wine and sugar, three ounces
of candied peel of eggplant, two ounces of candied
lemon peel, and half an ounce of candied sour orange
peel, and paste all the candies together with the
apples and quinces in a mortar. When everything is
ground pass it through a sieve together with the grape
sauce, add to the said material three ounces of
cleaned mustard seed, more or less depending on how
strong you want it. And when it is passed (mixed) put
in a little salt and sugar finely ground, half an
ounce of cinnamon, and a quarter (of an ounce) of
cloves, and if you don't want to make a paste of the
candies then chop them minutely. If you don't have
sauce of grapes one can make it without, take more
quinces and apples cooked in the above said manner.
From Scappi Cap CCLXXIIII folio 95, 2nd book
To make sauce of black grapes
Take black grapes, that are firm, those that are
called "gropello", that is "cesenese", that have a red
skin, break them and put to boil in a casserole on a
low fire for an hour. After take the juice that they
have made and strain through a sieve. And for every
pound of juice take eight ounces of fine sugar and put
it to reboil in a casserole, scum it well and to this
add at the end a little salt and whole cinnamon and
let it boil on a slow fire until it takes the cooking
(the implication here is that the sauce reduces and
becomes syrupy) and when it is cooked conserve it in a
glass or glazed pottery vessel.
Mustardo amabile - sweet mustard
For the grape sauce:
1 lb red or black grapes
4 oz sugar
1 " stick cinnamon
For the apples cooked in wine and sugar (note for
feast apples were cooked in water only):
3 apples
1/2 cup wine
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
For the mustard sauce:
1 oz candied lemon peel
1 small pinch ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch cloves
1 oz mustard seed ground
pinch salt
Take the grapes, break the skins and place in a
covered pot on a low heat for one hour. Strain the
grapes through a sieve and then strain the resultant
pulpy juice through a jelly bag or cheesecloth. This
should yield 8 oz of grape juice. Add the sugar,
return to the pan and bring to a boil. As it boils
remove any scum that rises to the surface. Simmer for
about 20 minutes until the sauce reaches a consistency
that is tacky and thick and is before the jelly stage.
Core the apples, chop roughly and place in a pan with
the wine and sugar, simmer until tender. Remove the
apples from the liquid and press through a sieve or
other strainer, to remove skin and mash apples.
Blend 8 oz grape sauce with 8 oz of apple mush in a
blender with the lemon peel and remaining spices
including the mustard. Blend until smooth. This is a
sweet, tangy, fruity mustard, in every way friendly
(which is the literal translation of amabile). Makes
enough to fill a 16 oz canning jar, serves 30 for
feast.
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 11:22:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Mustards
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
I think the dried fruit would be good too, as it would concentrate the
sweetness and keep the mustard from being watery.
<<<
Someone used dried cranberries in her mustard and liked it very much.
>>>
Combining a prune sauce and a mustard sounds like a good combo. I looked in
the Florilegium for prune sauce, but didn't turn it up. And I tried a few
other google searches as well. Is it under an old language spelling?
<<<
It's in The Medieval Kitchen by Redon et al. Googling Dried Plum Sauce
found it in someone's list of redactions-- here's the original:
"Translation: Take prunes and put them to soak in red wine, and remove the
pits; pound them very well with a few unskinned almonds and a little
roasted or grilled bread soaked in the wine where the prunes had been. And
pound all these things together with a little verjuice and the above
mentioned wine and a little boiled grape must, or sugar, which would be
much better; mix and strain, adding good spices, especially cinnamon. "
>>>
Those grape and raisin ones sound tasty. Do you find that white or red
wine/verjuice is best from those ones in Platina. The spice-raisin balls
seem like a good food for travelers or campers as it would be easy to just
get out the number of little spice balls that you needed from your container
and would require minimal preparation at that point. It occurred to me that
this preparation is like jerky-for-spices.
<<<
I like red wine and white verjuice, the white wine mustards I've made seem
to turn pickle-ish over time.
BTW, my research indicates verjuice or must would be used in summer,
vinegar in fall and spring, and wine in winter because of the theory of
humors, but I think that info is from Scully's Medium Aevum article.
>>>
Did you teach your mustard class again this year at Pennsic? If so what
were people's favorites?
<<<
Well, mostly I give them a bunch of things to try mixing together. Many of
them make lombard mustards but a bunch of them made the cinnamon mustard
from the Viander, as that is one of the ones I had available for them to
try. (I used 3 parts mustard to one part chinese cinnamon)
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 14:27:26 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustards/Responses to Phlip's, Jadwiga's, and
Helewyse's posts
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>>>
Phlip,
is your pear mustard posted somewhere I could find it and try it out? I
have experienced some of the mustards that were very sweet--- on the order
of mustard flavored honey. But I think a lot of people like this version
too as they seem to sell well modernly.
Your thoughts did lead me to think though about other things that would add
sweetness and flavor without being overly sweet. One thing that occurred to
me would be beets. I haven't looked though to see whether white and yellow
beets are period as well as red. And while I think beet mustard flavor
could be really good, I am not sure how the color would come out with red
ones--beet red or a funny color of orangey yellow. A red one might or might
not be visually appetizing in combination with meat (or it might make for
one of those heart stopping soltilties).
<<<
This is from Valoise' translation of Sabina Welserin:
34 To make the mustard for dried cod
Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and put sugar
into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick as you prefer to
eat it, then it is a good mustard.
As I was unable to find pear preserves, and knowing that preserves are
cooked, I substituted fresh pears, which I had cored and lightly parboiled-
just to tenderness. I left the peels on, for a bit of added texture (never
mind it was late and I was tired ;-) and we ran them through the food
processor, with a bit of wine- semi-dry white- with the mustard powder. We
did add a bit of sugar, but very little, because these pears were
wonderfully sweet in their own right.
The consistancy was rather similar to a fairly firm applesauce, with a
lovely bite of mustard. It does mellow, given a couple of days, but is still
good in 24 hours.
Proportions were about 6 pears to one can (4 3/4 oz?) mustard. We served it
with roast pork loin, as one of 3 sauces, camelline and pevorade (sp?
Grape/black pepper combo) being the other two.
If I were to do it again, I'd likely make pear preserves, since they're so
hard to find, and do them in either thin slices, or small chunks, and work
from there. Regardless, it was very tasty as it was, and if I get a taste
for it in a hurry, I'll duplicate my actions.
This enough?
In the meantime, Jadwiga, while I have thought about doing the mustards with
dried fruits, I've been in a bit of a quandry about what to do to liquify
them, to a softer consistancy. I'm thinking about rehydrating them in a
light wine, but haven't come to any firm decision. Any suggestions?
Saint Phlip,
CoD
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 11:44:59 -0500
From: "Barbara Benson" <vox8 at mindspring.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] On Topic, Welserin's Pear Mustard (long)
To: "Cooks List" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
I am working on an A&S entry for this weekend, long story short, starting at
one spot ended up with me making a variety of mustards, one of them being
Welserin's Pear. There are many different redactions on the web, and even
several that were posted here I hope what I have done will add at least a
little interesting to the corpus. The following is the second Appendix to my
research that discusses the Pear Preserves I used to make the Mustard, I
have just copied and pasted so it is in "documentation" speak.
Appendix B
The Welserin recipe calls for pear preserves. I did not want to purchase
ready made preserves (assuming they could be found), but neither Welserin
nor her contemporary Rumpolt saw fit to provide us with a recipe for pear
preserves. Instead of moving to a parallel source from another region of
Europe I decided to look back in time to earlier German manuscripts, hoping
to keep the continuity of the region.
Luckily the Teutonic cookbook provides us with a sort of pear preserve.
18. Wilthu ein grune? von Huzellen machenn:
so wasche die Huzell gar schone und stos sie clein und streich sie durch
mytt Wein und seidt sye dann woll und thu dan darein guett Hoengk und wurz
genuck und wer es zu din, so reib Prott darein und thu es in ein Haffenn so
bleybett es dir 4 ader 6 wochen guett. das magst kallt ader warm gebenn und
stre(u) Zucker daruff und Zimettrindenn.
18. If you want to make a green (dish) of pears
Wash the pears nicely and pound them finely. Pass them through a sieve with
wine, boil them well and add good honey and enough spices. If it is too
thin, add ground breadcrumbs. If you put it into a crock, it will last
for 4 to 6 weeks. It can be served cold or hot. Sprinkle it with sugar and
cinnamon.
In keeping with the theme of this line of research I chose to update the
recipe to coincide with what I have found by comparing the texts, namely
that the use of honey had been all but phased out by the 16th century in
most things. So, to this end I substituted sugar for honey in the recipe and
I utilized the same Reisling wine that I chose for the end sauce.
To determine what spices to use I reviewed the Welserin manuscript and
identified five recipes that were for dishes in which pears were the main
ingredient. The break down of the seasoning was: two with cinnamon only; two
with cinnamon and cloves; and one with cinnamon, ginger and cloves. The
original recipe calls for cinnamon at the end, so I chose to go with
cinnamon and cloves to fulfill the mandate of "enough" spices.
Lastly, the issue of pears, I went to the market and looked at all of the
pears available to me. Of all on display the ones that were labeled
"Forelle" looked the best in quality, so those are what I bought. Upon
returning home I decided to see what I could find on the pear, fully
expecting it to be a modern variety, but hopefully better than a Bosc. What
I was able to find was fortuitous:
"Forelles are a very old variety, and are thought to have originated
sometime in the 1600's in northern Saxony, Germany. The name Forelle
translates to mean "trout" in the German language. It is believed that the
variety earned this name because of the similarity between the pear's
brilliant red lenticles and the colors of a Rainbow trout.."
Pear Bureau Northwest. Forelle Pears - History.
http://www.usapears.com/varieties_forelle.php#history
With no further research to substantiate this claim, I would not hold it as
fact. But possibly luck was with me that day.
Ingredients:
6 small Forelle Pears
3/4 C Reisling Wine
1 1/2 C Sugar
1 t Cinnamon
pinch Cloves
Peel pears and cut in half, remove seeds and chop coarsely. Place in food
processor with wine and process until smooth. Force mixture through a sieve
into non-reactive cooking pot. Add spices and sugar, stir to combine. Bring
to a boil and hold at a low boil for 30 minutes. Stir frequently to avoid
scorching. Refrigerate or can using sanitary methods.
There have been plenty of redactions of the mustard itself posted, so unless
someone wants it I will not make this any longer. One point that I was a bit
confused on tho, in most of the redactions by SCA'ers that I have seen they
have added vinegar. In the Welserin it calls for wine. I was wondering why
people added the vinegar.
Glad Tidings,
Serena da Riva
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 10:05:52 -0500 (EST)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: [sig] Re: Period Mustard Recipes
To: Slavic Interest Group <sig at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org, EKCooksGuild at yahoogroups.com
> I'm confused; a recently acquired source on Polish
> herbs and plants lists references to black mustard and
> white mustard, one firm source being in the 1500's,
> but no mention of Brown Mustard, yet someone here said
> that brown mustard is more appropriate? I'm not
> contesting them, since this is just one source, but
> asking for clarification.
> Eluned
Join the club of confused people. Black mustard and brown mustard are both
terms used for Brassica nigra, but if Gernot Katzer's spice pages can be
believed:
"Botanically different, though of equal use in the kitchen, are the
Sarepta mustard or Romanian Brown Mustard (Br. juncea) from Eastern Europe
and the Indian Brown Mustard (Br. integrifolia or Br. juncea, a fertile
hybride from Br. nigra and Br. campestris) from India and Central Asia.
Of all three species, the latter is probably most commonly sold in the
West.
Although the pungency of black mustard is slightly stronger than that of
brown mustard, black mustard is hardly planted in Europe anymore, and
brown mustard is the dominating quality on the European market. The reason
is that brown mustard, unlike black mustard, can be harvested by machines
which make production much cheaper in countries where working force is
expensive. "
I should re-write my pages to explain that. If you can get real black
mustard, by all means use it-- otherwise, brown mustard is a decent
approximation of black, and is the preferred approximation.
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:03:44 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pear Mustard?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> If anyone has it, PLEASE e-mail me privately, as i get the Digest of
>> this list and i probably won't see your response until Sunday night
>> when i get back from Beltane.
>
> I think this is it... From Sabina Welserin, via Cariadoc's website...
>
> 34 To make the mustard for dried cod
>
> Take mustard powder, stir into it good wine and pear preserves and
> put sugar into it, as much as you feel is good, and make it as thick
> as you prefer to eat it, then it is a good mustard.
>
> Adamantius
If my redaction will help (and you can't find pear preserves, which I
haven't found yet), quarter and core 4-5 pears, parboil them to just tender,
then throw them in the blender with a dab of cinnamon and the white wine.
and an entire (small, supermarket size, not a honking great food services
size) can/jar of mustard. It really should sit in the fridge about a week,
to mellow the flavors, although it's OK in a day or two- just a bit
harsh.
I added the cinnamon because all the recipes found for pear preserves had
cinnamon in them, and it really did do a nice job of brightening up the
flavor, and I never added sugar because the pears I had were so sweet. If I
were to add sugar, though, I think I'd do it as a syrup, to thicken the
texture just a bit and make it a bit more like normal preserves.
Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 15:43:38-0400
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler1 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] long pepper?
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
OK...here'tis. The original says to eat it right away, but I have
found that letting it age for about 6 weeks makes it really delicious.
Otherwise, IMHO, it's a little too sharp.
Red Mustard Sauce – Platina, p. 357 (Mary Ella Milham edition)
Grind in a mortar or mill, either separately or all together, mustard,
raisins, dates, bits of bread, and a little cinnamon. When it is
ground, with verjuice or vinegar and a bit of must, and pass thorugh a
sieve into serving dishes. This heats less than the one above ad
stimulates thirst but does not nourish badly.
2 cups mustard seed
2 cups must
4 tsp. Cinnamon
3/4 cups raisins
3/4 cups dates
1 1/2 cups white wine vinegar (or verjuice)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 cup bread crumbs
Place mustard in a blendr with vinegars and must. Liquify. Add
cinnamon, raisins and dates and reduce this to a liquid. Add enough
bread crumbs to thicken the mustard so that a wooden spoon or spatula
will almost stand in it. Let cure in a crock with a cloth cover for
several weeks.
Kiri
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 10:21:19 -0700
From: Ruth Frey <ruthf at uidaho.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Still hashing this about. My hope was if 9 out of 10 of your
> ingredients and 90% by volume of your ingredients must be
> documented to period, this may well disqualify many commercial
> sauces or limit their percentages in final sauces.
>
> All commercial mustards would still fall within your guidelines.
> Unaltered.
What about the tumeric? I believe that's what give some of the
commercial mustards that screaming-yellow color, and I don't recall
tumeric on any Period European spice lists . . . That would at least
take out *some* of the commercial mustards.
Just to chime in with a mustard kids might like (if they have a
tolerance for hot stuff), I've come up with a slightly-faked version of
Sabina Welserin's pear mustard ("For Stockfish," though it goes
wonderfully with beef, too). The faking comes in with the pear
preserves; I haven't been able to find any pre-made, and when I don't
have time to make my own, I substitute pear "nectar" (juice) for flavor
and a little applesauce for texture. Also, she calls for wine in the
recipe, but I've substituted a little vinegar to avoid uncooked-alcohol
issues (especially important when serving to kids!). If you're serving
to adults only, however, a little white wine would probably be
excellent. The recipe goes as follows:
4 parts ground yellow mustard seed
2 parts pear juice
1 part apple cider vinegar
2 parts unrefined cane sugar
plus a little "dab" of applesauce
Mix, let stand for about 10-15 minutes, stir again to dissolve all the
sugar, and you're ready to go.
Sweet, hot, and popular with all my "tasters." :)
-- Ruth
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:37:35 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> What about the tumeric? I believe that's what give some of the
> commercial mustards that screaming-yellow color, and I don't recall
> tumeric on any Period European spice lists . . . That would at least
> take out *some* of the commercial mustards.
Well, actually, tumeric was imported to Europe at the end of period, and
it, and preservatives, probably don't add up to 10% of any given
commercial mustard.
The brown mustards mostly don't have tumeric in them.
By the way, should I start bringing Pear butter and "pear sweets"
(boiled pear juice) to events and handing them out? Everyone seems to
love Welserin's Pear mustard but says they can't get pear preserves.
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 14:53:44 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> So the "pear sweets (boiled pear juice)" ... boiled how long? To a
> syrup stage?
Yes, definitely a syrup. I picked it up at the Amish health food store
in the next county. I thought, hm... we know that the Teutonic knights
stored boiled down berry juices to add to drinks and we are pretty sure
same are mentioned in the Domostroi... so boiling down pear juice in
Germany to get the 'pear preserves' is a good guess.
According to Wax Orchard's online store, it is concentrated pear juice
with unsweetened pineapple and peach juices. But it definitely tastes of
pear juice specifically.
Anyway, I did try a version of the Welserin mustard with pear butter and
someone else tried it with pear sweet-- it was good but I wasn't really
paying attention to what I was doing, as it was filling a slow space in
a small class I was teaching. I need to do it again.
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 16:43:38 -0400
From: Avraham haRofeh <avrahamharofeh at herald.sca.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Pear Mustard (was Re: Commercial Mustard
ingredients)
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Anyway, I did try a version of the Welserin mustard with pear butter and
> someone else tried it with pear sweet-- it was good but I wasn't really
> paying attention to what I was doing, as it was filling a slow space in a
> small class I was teaching. I need to do it again.
When Phlip and I did the Northpass Tavern feast two years ago (gee, is it
really that long?), due to a misreading of Petru's recipe, we made the pear
mustard with fresh pears. It was nummy. :-)
****************
Reb Avraham haRofeh
(mka Randy Goldberg MD)
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:01:00 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pear Mustard (was Re: Commercial Mustard
ingredients)
To: "Cooks withn the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> Anyway, I did try a version of the Welserin mustard with pear butter and
>> someone else tried it with pear sweet-- it was good but I wasn't really
>> paying attention to what I was doing, as it was filling a slow space in a
>> small class I was teaching. I need to do it again.
>
> When Phlip and I did the Northpass Tavern east two years ago (gee, is it
> really that long?), due to a misreading of Petru's recipe, we made the pear
> mustard with fresh pears. It was nummy. :-)
>
> ****************
> Reb Avraham haRofeh
No we didn't, Avraham, we did that deliberately, since I was totally unable
to find any pear preserves anywhere. Still looking, still haven't found any.
What I did was to reverse engineer preserves, and include the ingredients
that would normally be put into pear preserves, including cooking the pears
(remember the parboiling) and work from there. Sugar was adjusted to my
taste- since the pears I got were already so wonderfully sweet, I didn't add
any. In later versions, I have added a bit of cinnamon, since later research
(by others on this List) indicted that almost every pear preserve recipe
they had found had a bit of cinnamon in it (like I ever need an excuse to
add cinnamon to anything ;-).
Saint Phlip,
CoDoLDS
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:03:47 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlik.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Sabina Welserin's Pear Mustard... i used baby food pears and some
sugar (since - hurrah! - baby food doesn't have sugar in it anymore)
for the pear preserves, when i couldn't find any.
Anahita
Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 21:46:27 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Commercial Mustard ingredients.
To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Sue Clemenger:
> Okay, I was actually wondering this, recently, anyways, but:
> What exactly makes a mustard a "dijon" mustard? I thought maybe
> consistency, but I've seen it for sale as both smooth, and chunkier
> (still showing evidence of the seeds, almost a whole-grain mustard).
> I was a bit disgruntled, having to actually buy some of the stuff
> (for a modern recipe) when I could so easily have made my own (in
> the broad middle of a mustard project for A&S Competition).
I believe Dijon mustard is a style characterized today by the
addition of salt, vinegar and white wine to the ground mustard.
The Larousse Gastronomique sez:
"In 1390 the manufacture of mustard was governed by regulations: it
had to be made from 'good seed and suitable vinegar', without any
other binder. The corporation of vinegar and mustard manufacturers
was founded at the end of the 16th century at Orleans and in about
1630 at Dijon. In the 18th century, a Dijon manufacturer called
Naigeon fixed the recipe for 'strong' or 'white' mustard, the
production of which was synchronized with the wine harvest, as the
black and brown seeds were mixed with verjuice. Today, Dijon mustard
is prepared with verjuice and white wine, Orleans mustard with white
vinegar, and Bordeaux mustard, which is milder and brown in color,
with grape must (the French word for mustard is derived from moute
ardent, i.e. 'piquant must'). Meaux mustard, which owes its flavor
and color to coarsely crushed seeds of various colors, is made with
vinegar, particularly at Lagny."
I'd bet there's a Grey Poupon web site with a little more historical
information. Some of it might even be accurate, but in general when a
place name is attached to a wine, a cheese, etc., there are some kind
of standards for determining style, outside of which it is illegal
(somewhere) to use that name...
Adamantius
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 20:43:44 -0700
From: Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Gifts in Jars
To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise wrote:
>> A period Mustard (such as that from Le Menagier de Paris)
> Lots of period mustards. Anyone ever try canning any of these? Some
> people don't feel comfortable distributing them without safety seals.
Yes. Me, at least. I do it a LOT (contributions for royalty gift
baskets, most frequently). I waterbath the jars (4 oz or 8 oz) for
10-15 minutes, and check seals after they cool. Works just fine, and
then there are no safety concerns, or leakage issues.
--maire
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:17:48 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustards
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> Didn't I read somewhere that beer was used in some mustards?
Hm... I have not found any recipes from pre-1650, let alone pre-17th c.
that specify beer, but that doesn't mean that nobody did it, just that
nobody wrote it down. :)
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 02:52:51 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fw: [mk-cooks] Periodness and a query....
To: "SCA-Cooks" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Was discussing corned beef with a fairly new person on MK Cooks, and Huen
chimed in with the following story. Not only did it lead me into a bit of
online research, which brought me toan interesting website, but the story
itself is great, not only for Jadwiga and her many mustards, but for the
gentle asking about Scottish foods.
> Do you know what powdered beef is? I've seen references to it in early
> 17th c manuscripts.
> My former mistress once told me that she thought it was related to
> corned beef, but she wasn't sure.
(Website is http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/381.php- putting it here for you
guys will now make sense).
> Here's a funny story bout powdered beef - it's from Taylor's Feast,
> 1638.
> Three Gentlemen of the ancient race of Redshanks, (now called
> Highland-men, because they inhabite in the Mountaynous parts of the
> North of Scotland) these three having occasion to come into Engand,
> being at their Inne, had to their Dinner a peece of powderd Beefe and
> Mustard: now neither of them had never seene Mustard before,
> wherefore one of them demanded what Deele it was? the Host
> answered, that it was good sawce for their meate; Sace said the
> other? it hath an ill looke, I pray let me see you eat some first, then the
> Host took a bit of Beefe, and dipt it in the Mustard, & did eate it: the
> Highland-man presently tooke his meat and rowl'd it in the Mustard, and
> began tochaw, but it was so strong, that it was no sooner in his mouth,
> but it set him a snuffing and neesing, that he told his Friends, (Ducan
> and Donald) that hee was slaine with the grey Grewall in the wee-dish;
> he bid them draw their Whineards, and stice the false Lowne, (their
> host) hee pray'd them to remember his last love to his wife and Barnes,
> and withall to have a care to beware of the grey grewall, for the Deele
> was in't. But after the force of the Mustard was spent, the Gentleman lef
> neesing, all was pacified, mine Host was pardoned, and Mustard was
> good sawce for powderd Beefe.
> Huen
Saint Phlip,
CoD
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 00:39:53 +0100
From: Fred Schwohl <wladislaus at mac.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cook] Period German Mustard Recipes (long)
To: "sca-cooks at ansteorra.org" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Am 21.01.2005 21:15 Uhr schrieb "Irmgart" unter <irmgart at gmail.cm>:
Hello from Germany
(being a native German speaker and interested in medieval cooking and
collecting all those fancy books comes quite handy here :o) )
> And here are mustard recipes that *aren't* translated, at least
> anywhere I can find them, an my rather pathetic attempts to translate
> using online sources:
>
>> From Koch vnd Kellermeisterey 1566
> (http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/kochkell.htm)
>
> Senff zu machen.
> Süssen Senff mal mit der Würtz/ vnd wann er wol gemahlen ist/ so gib> jm ein wall in einer Pfannen auff einem Fewr/ rür jn wol mit wenig
> Saltz/ behalt jn/ vnd mehre jn mit deren Würtzen gesotten/ vermach jn
> gar wol. Wiltu den zu essen machen/ so seud einen guten Honigwein/ vnd
> temperier den darmit/ saltz jn/ vnd würz jn/ kom zu prüffen/ so ist
> er gute
>
> Sweet mustard time with the sausage/ and when it is well ground/ so
> give at a wall(bank/parapet/rampart?) in a pan from the fire/ [rür] in
> good with a little salt/ keep in/ and more in with their sausage hard> boiled/ to give in well cooked. You will then make to eat/ also [seud]
> a good Honeywine/ and temper the stomach/ salt in/ and sausage in/
> [kom] close testing/ so is it good.
To make a sweet mustard ground it with spices/broth ("Würtz" is derived from
"Würze" which means normally seasoning, or spices, in the given context it
has to be the liquid something is boiled in or a simple meatbroth, and it
has nothing at all to do with sausages, which would be "Würste". The Term
"wort" used in beer brewing is the english term for that.)/and when it is
well ground/so give him some heat ("Wall" from the German "wallen,
aufwallen, aufwellen" which means to cook until the liquid is agitated
through heat convection)/stir it well with a little salt/keep it/ and add
("mehre" = "vermehre" = add some other liquid) some more broth (see
above)/store in a well closed container ("vermache" is an old expression
related to "einmachen" which means storing, the raw mustard is first cooked
and only prepared for eating whe needed). If you want to prepare it for
eating/cook a good mead (or Honeywine, i'm not absolutely sure which of the
many recipes for mead is used here)/and temper it (the honeywine) with the
prepared mustard (this term "temperier" is related to the Humoal Theorie of
Galenius where every ingredient has its own temper and a meal or dish has to
be well balanced to be healthy)/and salt it/ and season it/ and taste it
("prüfen" is "to prove" the taste)/ so it is good
> Ein ander behende weiß.
> Temperie Honig wol mit Essig/ Wein oder Fleischbrüh/ vnd rür den Senff
> darein.
>
> One other agile white. (Another easy white?)
> Temper honey well with vinegar/ wine or meat both/ and [rür] the mustard
> therin.
Another fast way ("behende weis" means in modern German "Behende Weise,
behende Art" = a fast way to do things)/temper (see comment above on humoral
theorie) Honey with vinegar/wine or meatbroth/ and stir ("rür" means
"rühren" = to stir) the mustard in
> Rosin vnd Feigen gesotten mit Wein oder Wsser/ damit Senff temperiret
> ist/ oder Rosenwasser/ vnd gestossen Zimetrinden darein gethan/
> subtilen Leuten.
>
> Rasins and figs hardboiled with wine or water/ so that mustard is
> tempered/ or rosewater/ and hardboil [zimetrinden - something
> crust... possibly cinnamon? Zimt is cinnamon] therein [gethan -
> possibly getan (done)]/ subtle people.
Rasins and figs boiled in wine or water /this used to temper (see again
comment on Humoral theorie above) the mustard/ or rosewater (in exchange to
the fgs and raisins)/ and add ground (actually "gestossen" is referring to
the way cinnamon is ground in a mortar) cinnamon rind ("Zimmetrinden" is
rind of cinnamon)/... The "subtle people" makes no sense for me at all, I
can see it in the original Text on Tomas´page but it makes no sense in any
context for mustard or sauce. It is possible the the complete part should
read "das ist von subtilen Leuten" meaning this is something
Extraordinary, not for common usage (due to the cinnamon of course), but this
is sheer speculation.
> OK, so none of these really makes sense, I think Ruhr might mean
> stir... Ruhr means dysentary in modern German, so I don't think that's
> right. But stir would make sense in context.
>
> So, 1) can anyone help me make my translations less mangled?
One is glad to be of Service!
> 2) does anyone know of other period German mustards?
I have to check in my Book collection and there should be many others
available, as German cooks seemed to be a bit possessed about mustard,
nearly s possessed as French cooks and Courts with their strange titles
like "Monsieur le Maitré Moutardier de Roi du France" was a very well paid
title with the rank of a Baronet or even Duke at the french court in 14 & 15
century.
> I'm going to be fairly cosmopolitan and not get region/decade specific
> with this feast, even though I really kind of want to, just because
> I'm afraid I'll get *too* bogged down in it.
You might consider using some of the sweet varieties, exchange at least one
of them with the Cherry sauce ("weichselmuss") mentioned earlier and add
some more stringent or spicier mustards.
> -Irmgart
Best wishes
Fred
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 21:25:34 -0500
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period German Mustard Recipes (long)
To: "Irmgart" <irmgart at gmail.com>, "Cooks within the SCA"
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> I am planning a German feast for Atlantia's KASF on March 5 (eep!),
> and was looking at sauces for the meats.
>
> I think what I want to do is make a mustard for each course.
>
> This is my first feast "all by myself" so, in some ways I'm afraid I'm
> over reaching, but it should all come out right, I've got a lot of
> backup :)
If I may make a couple of suggestions...
First, if you want to use Sabina Welserin's Pear Mustard, start looking for
pear preserves now- they're very hard to find- I'm still looking. If you
can't find them, my solution was to parboil the pears, and add the mustard,
white wine, and a dash of cinnamon ( a fairly recent discussion on the List
indicated that all the period pear preserve recipes available used cinnamon
in them). I haven't added sugar so far because the pears I've used have been
so sweet, so taste before you add that ingredient. If I were doing it again,
for a feast, I think I'd cook it down a bit, to thicken it more- as it is,
it comes out rather like apple sauce.
One thing you might want to do is plan on preparing the various mustard
sauces ahead of feast. I know for sure on the pear mustard that it needs a
few says to age and mellow ( 2 days is OK, a week is about ideal) and having
sampled a number of Jadwiga's mustards, I think hers would be best aged a
bit as well. Otherwise, they tend to be pretty harsh. I can enjoy them like
that, but I think the average feaster would prefer a mellower flavor.
And, I agree with the poster who suggested that you might want to have
alternative sauces, in addition to the mustard sauces. I love mustard, but
I'd get tired of it, even with variations, if it were the ONLY sauce flavor
available.
BTW, guys, I finally found something that the pear mustard doesn't go well
with- maple syrup. Clashingest flavors I've tried for a while.
Saint Phlip,
CoD
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 17:59:54 -0500
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period German Mustard Recipes (long)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> One thing you might want to do is plan on preparing the various mustard
> sauces ahead of feast. I know for sure on the pear mustard that it needs a
> few says to age and mellow ( 2 days is OK, a week is about ideal) and having
> sampled a number of Jadwiga's mustards, I think hers would be best aged a
> bit as well. Otherwise, they tend to be pretty harsh. I can enjoy them like
> that, but I think the average feaster would prefer a mellower flavor.
It's definitely a matter of taste. Some people love them fresh-made, and
the documentation suggests that they may have been made the same day.
However, I would generally give a mustard at least 3 or 4 hours before
serving, and 1-2 weeks mellows it quite a bit.
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 20:04:42 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Also sprach Terry Decker:
>> While I don't disagree with you, you are making the assumption
>>> that the mustard would have been added to improve the taste rather
>>> than be left out because it would be humorally harmful or
>>> inappropriate in the dish.
>>>
>>> As for the term authentic, I would point out that both dishes
>>> described are authentic, but yours is not historically accurate.
>>>
>>> Bear
>>
>> But, and I don't have a source with me, wasn't mustard often
>> on the table as a condiment? Sounds like such a case to me. "These
>> french fries are good, but better with some ketchup. Or, more
>> to my mind, I like mustard with corned beef but add it after the cooking
>> process instead of during. Now, the recipe doesn't state to add mustard
>> but neither do most modern recipes when discussing condiments
>> that can be used.
>>
>> Just a thought.
>>
>> Gunthar
>
> My understanding is the mustard was being added in the kitchen,
> which, in accordance to the recipe, would be historically inaccurate
> (unless of course there is an attribution to "scribal error").
>
> Condiments on the table are in the province of the diner not the
> cook, so they might or might not have been added to any individual's
> portion of anything. Without actual reference to how they were
> used, we can only assume they were used in the same manner we use
> them. Safe assumption, but not necessarily historically accurate.
>
> At the Protectorate feast where you presented me your Iris ribbon,
> I sent out fish with apple and wine sauce and chicken with orange
> sauce and there were mustard and marmalade on the table. At the
> tables, the sauces, mustard and marmalade got added to dishes in
> strange and curious ways. I hewed to the recipes and made the
> dishes as historically accurate as I could. They were eaten as the
> diners chose to eat them. Authentic, yes. Historically accurate,
> unproven.
>
> Bear
I don't know whether mustard would have been a discretionary table
condiment or not, except in certain cases. It may be as it often is
today, where you're more likely to find mustard on the table, or even
serve it, as an accompaniment to, say, corned beef or various smoked
sausages, but less likely when poached filet of sole is served.
Interestingly enough, one of the more fun aspects of the text of The
Enseignements, a short French cookery text (kind of a proto-Viandier
pre-Taillevent) is full of cases where it'll say things like:
Fresh pork is eaten roasted with fine salt and verjuice only, the
salted gets mustard.
Fresh herring are eten fried and then baked in a pasty, then removed
and served with green sauce made from parsley, garlic, and bread
crumbs moistened in verjuice. And the salted gets mustard.
Adamantius Bob says check it out:
http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~gloning/1300ns.htm
Adamantius
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2005 21:59:26 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamly.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> I don't know whether mustard would have been a discretionary tale
> condiment or not, except in certain cases. It may be as it often is
> today, where you're more likely to find mustard on the table, or even
> serve it, as an accompaniment to, say, corned beef or various smoked
> sausages, but less likely when poache filet of sole is served.
My impression is that mustard was the default condiment for most things,
except perhaps chicken. But I may be wrong.
This is from my notes:
'Le Menagier de Paris suggests mustard sauce with wild boar, beef
tongue, and lots of dfferent fish, including eel, shad, loach,
lampreys, cod, stockfish, and whiting. Anne Wilson, in Food and Drink in
Britain, says, "Mustard was eaten with fresh and salt meat, brawn, fresh
fish and stockfish, and indeed was considered the best sauce for ay
dish."'
I shall have to dig through my notes further on this one.
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2005 00:21:10 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net, Cooks withi the SCA
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> My impression is that mustard was the default condiment for most
> things, except perhaps chicken. But I may be wrong.
There are various instructions given for what mustard goes
with in The Book of Carving. Brawn is mentioned; certain fish
are listed, etc. I'll try also and pull my print-out
of what Buttes says in his book on mustard later on today.
Johnnae
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 20:57:32 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] light cream and also question on sauces
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Am Mittwoch, 22. Juni 2005 17:02 schrieb Alexa:
> I was thinking that also. Know of any really tastey
> mustard recipes?
Based on German recipes, two of my favorites are:
10 parts ground mustardseed, 1 part ground aniseed, 3 parts ground cinnamon, 5
parts liquid honey, diluted with white wine vinegar to taste. (Wolfenbüttel
MS, North German, c. 15th cent going back to the Harpestreng tradition)
10 parts ground mustardseed, 1 part ground cassia buds ('cinnamon flower'),
10 parts liquid honey, dilute with white wine to taste (Munich fragment,
south German, mirrored in several other manuscripts from the region, though
usually with caneel cinnamon rather than cassia flower)
Both are thick, creamy, of soft, slightly grainy texture, sweet and aromatic
at first contact, but with bite. I like them with all manner of white meat
and with salmon.
Giano
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 13:19:50 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustards was Curye on Inglysch
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
mollirose at bellsouth.net wrote: snipped
> Mustard...I want to know more about mustard.
>
> <Runs off to read mustard-msg - 9/30/01- Mustard seed in period.
> sauces.
>
> Molli Rose
Lest we forget--
Making Medieval-Style Mustards
a class in the Society for Creative Anachronism by Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/Mustards.html
and
Making Mustard The Medieval Way
An activity for youth by Jadwiga Zajaczkowa/Jennifer Heise
http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/pagemustard.html
A number of Mistress Jadwiga's papers are up at:
http://gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/herbs.html
Johnnae
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:31:02 +0200
From: Volker Bach <carlton_bach at yahoo.de>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking contest
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Am Sonntag, 30. Juli 2006 09:34 schrieb Stefan li Rous:
> Giano complained:
> <<< I entered an 'instant' mustard sauce and the
> translation of a German medieval cookbook with recipe redactions. The
> mustard
> sauce won the competition (it took a few hours to make and required no
> particular abilities). My feedback consisted of 'tasty', 'cool idea'
> and 'I didn't know they had instant food then'. >>>
>
> Oh? Interesting. This was the dried mustard balls which could be
> carried on travels and then added to liquid and mixed up and used?
> I'd be interested in your docs for the Florilegium or perhaps an
> article on this or other instant or travel foods.
I've been working on 'travel foods' since forever, but not getting
Anywhere close enough to write anything. But this one I've got:
Instant Cassia Mustard
The Sources
?Czuo ainem gouten senff nem senffs?men und d?rr den suber und sto? inn denn
In ainem morser gar klain und czuich in denno durch ain enges tuoch [probable
lacuna] czinmit pluot und tu es under den senff und ruerr es mit honig under
ain anders, recht als der wachs bertt undu wenn du wilt, so niem des selben
enwenig und rib es mit win; so haustu gouten czarten senff?
?For good mustard take mustard seed and dry it clean. Grind it very finely in
a mortar and pass it through a fine cloth. [Grind?] cinnamon flower, add it
to the mustard and stir it together with honey, just like wax. And whenever
you want, take a little of this and rub it with wine; thus you have good
gentle mustard?
Cgm 384 I #12 (second half 15th cent.)
?Item zu guetem seniff Nym seniff samen, und seuber in und st?? in schon und
reib in durch ain tuoch das enng sey, und sto? zimen pl?e misch dar under und
den seniff zwier mit hoenig samen unnder einander recht als ein muoss, und
wenn du in wild machen, So nym ein wenig und twier in mit wein So hastu ainen
guotn seniff?
?Also for good mustard take mustard seed and clean and grind it well. Pass it
through a fine cloth. Grind cinnamon flower , mix it in and then mix the
mustard twice (with twice the amount?) with honey, like porridge. When you
wish to make some, take a little and mix it with with wine. Thus you will
have good mustard?
Meister Hans #12 (1460)
The Reichenauer Kochbuch #99 parallels this recipe, but adds instructions to
dry the result.
Redaction
This recipe is attested in the south German tradition of the 15th century, but
to my knowledge nowhere else. It is an interesting condiment for several
reasons. Firstly it would be fitting for most tables from royal court to
bourgeois fare and available through most of the year, making it a good
choice for many personas. Secondly, it has an interesting sweet-hot, richly
spicy flavor with east Asian overtones. Thirdly, and most importantly, it is
easily transported to events (little danger of spilling or staining),
quickly prepared at need, and exotic enough to lend ?period-cred? to many a
mundane lunch. ?Cinnamon flower? is actually the flower bud of cassia, not
cinnamon, and is (sometimes) available under the designations ?Zimtbl? te? (in
Germany, where it was in common use until about 1920), ?Cassia Buds? and
?Guiding? (in Chinese shops).
Take powdered yellow mustard seed (or grind your own, but it must be very
fine) and add ground cassia buds (a pinch per tablespoon). Mix well. Then add
roughly one part liquid honey to one part powder and mix (the result should
be sticky and very hard to stir). It helps to use honey that has been
liquefied by warming. Allow to dry and harden a little (you can dry it in the
oven at a gentle heat, but be sure not to let it get browned). Store in a jar
until needed, then take out the desired amount with a spoon and mix it with
white wine to taste (I prefer a thick paste, but you can add more wine until
you have a thin, liquid sauce). Let stand for 20-40 minutes before serving to
allow the taste to develop.
Giano
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 12:32:33 -0500
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Final thoughts from my Laurel's Prize Tourney
entry
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>, "Elaine
Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
I frequently make the le menagier mustard as well...its dang tasty!
and I dont add much sugar at all, so its more a gentle spicing.
red wine vinegar
poudre forte
sugar
mix of yellow and black mustard seeds
let vinegar and seeds soak overnight (or longer). yo may need to top
off the vinegar, keeping seeds
submerged but not floating
whiz in your cuisinart, add spices
I hot pack can mine and give it as gifts :) but be sure to keep some
out for yourself. it keeps
forever on the shelf (if canned properly) or in the fridge (if opened)
--AM
On Tue Sep 11 11:49 , "Elaine Koogler" sent:
> How about sharing the recipe you came up with for this? I have made the red
> mustard from Platina, but haven't tried this one and it sounds like another
> really great sweet mustard. Do you think it might work with
> Splenda rather than sugar?
>
> Kiri
>
> On 9/11/07, Michael Gunter countgunthar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> I made mustard from Le Menaigier de Paris where the seeds
>> are soaked in red wine vinegar overnight and then ground and
>> strained. After that I added nutmeg, mace, cinnamon & sugar.
>> After sitting for nearly 3 weeks it was wonderful stuff.
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:09:00 -0500
From: "Michael Gunter" <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> How about sharing the recipe you came up with for this? I have made the
> red mustard from Platina, but haven't tried this one and it sounds like
> another really great sweet mustard. Do you think it might work with
> Splenda rather than sugar?
>
> Kiri
It's actually very simple.
Item, if you would make mustard in the country in haste, bray mustard seed
in a mortar & moisten it with vinegar & run it through the strainer & if you
would prepare it at once, set it in a pot before the fire. Item, if you
would make good mustard & at leisure, set the mustard seed to soak for a
night in good vinegar, then grind it in a mill & then moisten it little by
little with vinegar; & if you have any spices left over from jelly, clarry,
hippocras or sauce, let them be ground with it & afterwards prepare it.
I just took some brown mustard seed and soaked it in red wine vinegar
overnight. The next day I ground the seeds (a mortar and coffee grinder produced
nearly identical results). Vinegar was added until the correct consistency was
achieved. The result was a bit too lumpy for my taste so I scrapped the mass
through a strainer which removed the husks but still produced a fairly lumpy
mustard so it had a nice texture when bitten into. I checked out a recipe for
hippocras and looked in my cabinet for spices. Basically use what you have.
I used nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and sugar and then put it in a little earthenware
pot covered with wax paper and let it sit for almost three weeks. Every once
in a while I'd give it a little stir but that is it.
I'm not sure if it would work with Splenda. But experimentation is what we
are all about.
Gunthar
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 13:13:56 -0500
From: "Michael Gunter" <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Mustard
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> I frequently make the le menagier mustard as well...its dang tasty!
> and I dont add much sugar at all, so its more a gentle spicing.
Several of the tasters liked that the first thing you got when
trying it was vinegar and then the heat of the mustard and
afterwards there was this glow of the spices.
> red wine vinegar
> poudre forte
> sugar
> mix of yellow and black mustard seeds
You know, I didn't even think of poudre fort!
> let vinegar and seeds soak overnight (or longer). yo may need to
> top off the vinegar, keeping seeds submerged but not floating
I just kept mine moistened with the vinegar.
> whiz in your cuisinart, add spices
> I hot pack can mine and give it as gifts :) but be sure to keep some out
> for yourself. it keeps forever on the shelf (if canned properly) or
> in the fridge (if opened)
I just left mine in a crock and sealed with Cling & Seal and had
no problems with it going bad.
> --AM
Gunthar
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:58:50 -0700
From: aeduin <aeduin at roadrunner.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] recipe write-up
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
I just updated my website with a write-up of the Balled Mustard for
Trips recipe in "The Neapolitan Collection" by Terrence Scully. I
did it as a demo for Caid's Festival of the Rose (A&S event).
www.housemorien.org/cooking/mustardfortrips.htm is my step by step
progression
http://www.housemorien.org/cooking/mustard%20writeup.html is the
write up with conclusions.
aeduin
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:13:58 -0400
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] recipe write-up
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
It looks really great. It also sounds a lot like the Reddish Mustard from
Platina that I've done several times...the sweet spices, raisins and the use
of verjuice and/or must. The first time I made it, I didn't have either, so
substituted white wine mixed with a little white wine vinegar and, IIRC,
some red wine for the must. The last couple of times, I've been able to
acquire both. I found that if I served the mustard immediately, as the
recipe actually suggests, it is VERY sharp...almost unpleasant. But if I
put it in a crock and allow it to age, it takes on a really wonderful,
smooth flavor.
Kiri
> I just updated my website with a write-up of the Balled Mustard for
> Trips recipe in "The Neapolitan Collection" by Terrence Scully. I
> did it as a demo for Caid's Festival of the Rose (A&S event).
>
> www.housemorien.org/cooking/mustardfortrips.htm is my step by step
> progression
>
> http://www.housemorien.org/cooking/mustard%20writeup.html is the
> write up with conclusions.
>
> aeduin
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:49:39 -0600
From: Michael Gunter <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> If it's that good, make the 20 cups and mail the extras to me ;-)
From my LPT notes:
Mustard
Moustarde, Le Menaigier de Paris (1393)
Translation by Janet Hinson
Item, if you would make mustard in the country in haste, bray mustard
seed in a mortar & moisten it with vinegar & run it through the
strainer & if you would prepare it at once, set it in a pot before
the fire. Item, if you would make good mustard & at leisure, set the
mustard seed to soak for a night in good vinegar, then grind it in a
mill & then moisten it little by little with vinegar; & if you have
any spices left over from jelly, clarry, hippocras or sauce, let them
be ground with it & afterwards prepare it.
This is a pretty straightforward recipe. Since I had a few weeks
before the mustard was to be served I decided to ?make good mustard
at my leisure? and soaked the seeds in a good red wine vinegar
overnight.
The next morning I took the seeds and ground them in my marble mortar
and pestle. This is rather hard work and slow going when using
rather smallish mortar, so the other half I tossed into my electric
coffee grinder and let spin. Although it is a horrid mundanity, the
grinder produced virtually identical results. To add flavor, I took
the advice of the recipe and added some sweet spices. I ground whole
nutmeg, whole mace, cinnamon and some sugar together since all of
these are common in hippocras and sauce recipes of the time. I
ground the rest of the sodden mustard seeds with the spices to a
thick paste. More red wine vinegar was added until the correct
consistency was achieved.
I didn't care for the husks of the seeds so I took the aromatic mass
and placed it in a sieve above a bowl. A spatula was used to force
the mustard through the sieve and the result was a much smoother
mustard in the bowl and a lot of mangled husks in the sieve. The
final quantity was about half of the amount before the sieving but it
was just enough to fill my ?mustard pot?.
The mustard was rather harsh with a bitter aftertaste but not as hot
as I expected. It also isn't as vinegary as I thought it would be.
After two weeks stored in an earthenware jar and covered with wax
paper it had mellowed appreciably. The mustard has a nice bite and
also a complex flavor of the spices as well as a touch of sweetness.
This is a perfect mustard to be served with the sausages.
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:08:07 -0600
From: Michael Gunter <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> You ran soaked (damp) mustard seed through a coffee grinder? Does
> that work?????????
It does, more or less. You can get a pretty good grind and it came out about
the same as using the mortar and pestle. But it was still pretty full of hulls
so I took the completed mustard and scraped it through a screen which produced
a very nice thick paste.
> Hand grinding just isn't my cup of tea,
Considering I don't have a proper Medieval, gallon-sized mortar I'll be using
my grinder but this time I will probably try a batch ground first and then soaked in vinegar. After an overnight soaking I'll add the other ingredients
and then jar the results for a month of mellowing.
> and I haven't found a mechanical thingie yet that does an adequate
> job.
The coffee grinder is great, but if you pre-soak the seeds make sure you give
the grinder frequent rests so you don't burn out the motor.> Maggie
Gunthar
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:50:26 -0700
From: "S CLEMENGER" <sclemenger at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I use my food processor. Works like a charm.
--Maire, frequent maker of quantities and mathoms of mustard
<<< You ran soaked (damp) mustard seed through a coffee grinder? Does
that work?????????
That whole grinding concept has been my stumbling block to trying
more/better/fun combinations of mustard and other liquids. Hand grinding
just isn't my cup of tea, and I haven't found a mechanical thingie yet that
does an adequate job. >>>
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:04:30 -0800
From: "Maggie MacD." <maggie5 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
At 08:50 PM 11/22/2007,S CLEMENGER said something like:
> I use my food processor. Works like a charm.
> --Maire, frequent maker of quantities and mathoms of mustard
I tried using the food processor, it just didn't grind it enough. I got a
lot of bruised seeds, and lots of seeds that simply glared and refuse to
break. It was very frustrating.
Maggie
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:31:26 -0500
From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> At 08:50 PM 11/22/2007,S CLEMENGER said something like:
>> I use my food processor. Works like a charm.
>> --Maire, frequent maker of quantities and mathoms of mustard
>
> I tried using the food processor, it just didn't grind it enough. I got a
> lot of bruised seeds, and lots of seeds that simply glared and refuse to
> break. It was very frustrating.
I use my food processor too, but I soak the seeds in vinegar
overnight first.
Ranvaig
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 07:50:02 -0500
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I use my blender, but put a little of the liquid that I use in the
mustard in the blender with it. But soaking the seeds overnight
should work as well.
Kiri
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:08:40 -0500
From: "Cassandra Baldassano" <euriol at ptd.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard - Can you cut it?
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I've been playing with three different mortar & pestles over the last couple
of years (marble, stone, unglazed porcelain). When I teach my sauces class,
I have a bit of mustard seed in each type. I find the best result is to
start grinding the mustard seed with the stone mortar & pestle, then finish
it off in the unglazed porcelain to provide the finer grind.
Euriol
Euriol of Lothian, OP
Minister of Arts & Sciences, Barony of Endless Hills
Clerk, Order of the Pelican, Kingdom of ?thelmearc
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:30:06 -0500
From: "Elaine Koogler" <kiridono at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Well, that's actually what I use, though I usually just put a little
of the liquid I'll be using to make the mustard in with it rather than
soaking the seeds. However, I do get a somewhat grainy
mustard...which I happen to like. But if I soaked them (which I may
try this time), they might produce a less grainy mustard.
Kiri
On Nov 24, 2007 12:51 PM, Caointiarn <caointiarn1 at bresnan.net> wrote:
> How about using a blender for wet seeds? says the Mistress
> reading over my shoulder . . . .
> Then I guess one could run the stuff thru a sieve for a smoother paste
> Caointiarn
Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2007 11:20:34 -0800
From: "Maggie MacD." <maggie5 at cox.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] mustard
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
At 09:51 AM 11/24/2007,Caointiarn said something like:
> How about using a blender for wet seeds? says the Mistress
> reading over my shoulder . . . .
> Then I guess one could run the stuff thru a sieve for a smoother paste
> Caointiarn
I've tried a blender, and a stick blender. The mustard just bounced around
merrily laughing at me. There was some amount of crushed seeds after quite
a long while (LONG while).
So, yeh.
Maggie
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:19:57 -0600 (CST)
From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard seeds merrily laughing
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Maggie MacD wrote:
> I've tried a blender, and a stick blender. The mustard just bounced
> around merrily laughing at me.
I use either a mortar and pestle (if you have kids around, you can get a
lot of grinding done for free) or an electric coffee/spice grinder. I find
that the consistency is close enough to the mortar and pestle method for
my purposes.
--
-- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 19:25:56 -0600 (CST)
From: jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard - Can you cut it?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> We are not after Durham mustard, later Coleman's which began to be
> developed in 1720 by a Mrs. Clements of Durham, England who discovered
> how to grind the seed in a flour mill to obtain the more flavor.
> Suey
J.O. Swahn in his _Lore of Spices_ (title from memory) suggests that the
process that was invented at that time was not a grinding process, but one
of bolting the mustard powder, that is, passing it through successively
finer screens to remove the outer hull of the mustard seed. I can find
that quotation for you if you like. I have found that sieving ground
mustard seed does make the texture more like that of dried English
ground mustard.
--
-- Jenne Heise / Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:01:44 -0600
From: Michael Gunter <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Mustard results
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
I've made the gallon and a half of mustard needed for my feast.
I used the blender and it worked just fine. The main thing to
remember is that you need enough liquid to bind it all.
The texture is smooth but with enough grain to make it a proper
period mustard. No sieving was necessary.
It took a bit of experimentation but I did get the stuff pureed
to the correct texture.
So, the blender works great!
Gunthar
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 15:12:32 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] English Food
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
On Fri, 4 Jul 2008, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:
<<< Mustard is always good, and you can make it up weeks in advance (in fact you should, usually) and store it for when you need it. I think my favorite
period version is a simple semi-wholegrain, semi-coarse ground Lombardy honey
mustard -- mustard seeds, vinegar, white wine, salt, and honey. Kinda like
that coarse Dijon with honey? >>>
The pear mustard from Welserin has been a *huge* hit around here whenever
I've served it. Mustard made from hypocras spices is also pretty tasty
(and gosh, you have to make hypocras, too, to have the leftover spices!)
as is the Welserin pear mustard with added horseradish.
Margaret FitzWilliam
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:51:20 -0600
From: "S CLEMENGER" <sclemenger at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Canning/Largesse
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
The vinegar probably does preserve the mustard, but I can mine anyways (at
our altitude, 15 mins in a boiling water bath). It helps ensure against bad
buggy-do's, and it also seals the lids against leakage if they're being
transported.
--Maire
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark S. Harris" <marksharris at austin.rr.com>
Gunthar commented:
<<< That's a cool idea. I'd love to hand out batches of
canned food or jellies as largesse. I'd personally
like to make a huge batch of spiced mustard
to hand out as gifts. I've been told that people have
gotten addicted to my mustards. >>>
Do you really need to can mustards? I thought the vinegar would
preserve them.
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:20:17 -0600 (CST)
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Another mustardy question.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
There's this mustard recipe in Rumpolt:
Max Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch
10. Seudt Birn in ssem Most / thu sie auauff ein saubers Bret/ vnd lakalt
warden / laden Most weiter siden / bier dick wirt / lain darnach kalt
warden / streichs mit braunem Senff durch / thu alsdenn die desotten Birn
darein / so wirt es gut vnnd wolgeschmack. Wiltu aber ein guten Senff
haben / so stoAnivnnd Coriander durcheinander / streichs durch mit braunen
Senffmehl / vnd ssen gesottenem Wein / so wirt es gut vnnd wolgeschmack.
10. Cook Pears in sweet cider syrup/ then put it off onto a clean Board /
and let it become cold / let the cider syrup continue to boil / until it
becomes thick / let it also become cold / press it through a sieve with
brown Mustard / then also put in the Pears / so it will be good and well
tasting. When you would have a good Mustard / so pound Anise and Coriander
altogether / press it through a sieve with brown Mustard flour / and sweet
boiled wine / so it will be good and well tasting.
******
My question is whether this is one mustard recipe or two, because it could
in theory be either.
Margaret FitzWilliam
Nordskogen
Northshield
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:34:05 -0400
From: ranvaig at columbus.rr.com
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another mustardy question.
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
<<< My question is whether this is one mustard recipe or two, because it could in theory be either. >>>
I think it is two recipes. When I made it for my feast last year, I took the first recipe as a pear mustard, but looking at it again, I wonder if it should be pears in mustard sauce.
You translated "Most" as cider syrup, while I translated it as grape juice. The dictionary says unfermented fruit juice, must (for wine), and that "Apfelmost" is cider. I'm not sure which is more correct.
Ranvaig
Zugeh?rung 10. Seudt Birne in s?ssem Most / thu sie au? auf ein saubers Bret / und la? kalt werden / la? den Most weiter sideden / bi? er dick wirt / la? jn darnach kalt werden / streichs mit braunem Senf durch / thu alsdenn die gesottenen Birne darein / so wirt es gut und wohl geschmack. Wiltu aber ein guten Senf haben / so sto? Ani? und Coriander durcheinander / streichs durch mit braunem Senfmehl / und s?ssen gesottenem Wein / so wirt es gut und wohl geschmack.
10. Seethe pears in sweet grape juice/ take them out on a clean board/ and let cool/ let the juice boil/ until it is thick/ let it also get cold/ press through with brown mustard/ and put the boiled pears in it/ like this it is good and well tasting/ if you wish instead to have a good mustard/ you can crush anise and coriander together/ strain through with brown mustard powder/ and sweet boiled wine/ like this it will be good and well tasting.
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:59:54 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another mustardy question.
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
<<< You translated "Most" as cider syrup, while I translated it as grape juice. The dictionary says unfermented fruit juice, must (for wine), and that
"Apfelmost" is cider. I'm not sure which is more correct. >>>
Ranvaig
_______________________________________________
Ranvaig, I think you are correct in saying it is two recipes, one for pears
in a mustard spice syrup and the other for mustard. I also think you are
correct in saying it calls for grape juice rather than cider. I also note
that the first recipe calls for brown mustard while the second calls for
powdered brown mustard. It occurs to me that the second recipe may be what
is referred to as Mostrich or French mustard.
Bear
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:41:21 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Another mustardy question.
To: <grizly at mindspring.com>, "Cooks within the SCA"
<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Interestingly enough, I presented mustards from 5 texts (4 German
sources and Libellius de arte coquinaria) and Rumpoldt was the only
one that called for Brown mustard. > > > > >
Now this begs another set of questions that I don't have answers for: Brown
as opposed to what? Yellow? Specifying brown seems logically to imply
another type.
Is this 'brown' a different species, or a different preparation/handling? (I
know there are several modern species available) Where and when was this
"brown" available first for use? What made the brown more appropos for this
as opposed ot other preparations? Was the original mustard all genenrically
called 'mustard' this brown, or some other kind . . . which came first,
basically.
niccolo difrancesco
-----------
Brown mustard is Brassica juncea. Yellow mustard is actually white mustard,
B. alba, to which tumeric is commonly added. Black mustard is B. nigra.
Each of these plants has slightly differing chemical characteristics
producing different flavors. For reference, Dijon mustard is a brown
mustard.
All of these mustards are of Eurasian origin and have been available in
Europe since Antiquity.
For more info, try Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages:
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Bras_nig.html
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Sina_alb.html
Bear
Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:43:48 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Meats to go with mustard
If you search through Early English Meals and Manners: The Boke of
Keruynge (Boke of Keruynge is 1508)
which is online at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24790/24790-h/keruyng.html
you'll find the traditional meats and dishes that require mustard,
such as:
Seruyce. 1. Brawn, &c. Fyrste sette ye forthe mustarde and brawne,
and
Take your knyfe in your hande, and cut brawne in ye dysshe as it
lyeth, & laye it on your soueraynes trenchour, & se there be mustarde.
Here endeth ye keruynge of flesshe. And begynneth sauces for all maner
of fowles.
Mustarde Mustard for beef; Verjuice for boiled chickens; Cawdrons for
swans; is good with brawne, befe, chyne, bacon, & motton. Vergius is
good to boyled chekyns and capon / swanne with cawdrons / rybbes of
beef. befe with garlycke, mustarde, peper, vergyus; gynger sauce to
lambe, pygge, & fawne / mustarde & suger to fesande, partryche, and
conye Mustarde is good for salte herynge.
There are several more mentions. Summer sausage might work well. It
doesn't need refrigeration.
Johnnae
Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:36:29 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Meats to go with Mustard....
Another way to more or less quickly search this would be
to go to medievalcookery.com and search under mustard.
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi/search.pl?term=mustard&;file=all
Then look for the interesting dishes that appeal to you from the list.
For example
Enseignements qui enseingnent a apareillier toutes manieres de viandes
(France, ca. 1300 - D. Myers, trans.)
The original source can be found at MedievalCookery.com
Fresh whiting with garlic, bread and mixed with verjuice of grain.
Salted with mustard.
This one is somewhat strange--
This is an excerpt from The Good Housewife's Jewell
(England, 1596)
The original source can be found at Chef Phains - Free Cookbooks
To make a close Tarte of Cherries. Take out the stones, and laye them
as whole as you can in a Charger, and put Mustard in synamon and
ginger to them, and laye them in a Tarte whole, and close them, and
let them stand three quarters of an houre in the Oven, then take a
sirrope of Muscadine, and damask water and suger, and serve it.
Johnnae
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:01:01 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
My understanding is "Dijon mustard" refers to a specific recipe created in
1856 by Jean Naigeon. It is a mustard from brown or black mustard seed made
originally with verjuice (rather than vinegar) and having the seed coats
sieved out. Spices may be used to enhance the flavor, but no dyes,
stabilizers or fillers are permitted in true dijon. Dijon mustard made with
wine, vinegar or some other acidic liquid are technically "Dijon style."
Naigeon's Dijon mustard shows up just a few years after the first mechanical
method of processing mustard seed. It makes me wonder if "Dijon mustard"
wasn't a marketing ploy for commercial mustard production in Dijon. Maille
and Grey Poupon, as commercial entities, both predate this recipe.
Bear
============
<<< What do you mean by Dijon mustard?
Do you mean did they eat mustard in France in period?
Or is there a specific recipe you are trying to re-create?
Eduardo >>>
Is Dijon mustard period? I am reading conflicting theories on it.
Am thinking of trying a recipe out but want it to be a period recipe.
Have tons of non-period recipe for mustards!
Gwyneth
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:29:21 +0000
From: yaini0625 at yahoo.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
When I went gluten free eons ago mustards were on the forbidden list. I had to do some deep research and found that mustard seeds are often processed with wheat. I will have to re-read my book to find out if it was for filler or to reduce the spicy flavor. It was later confirmed by Frenches and Dijon that this was true. Now, gluten free mustards are processed differently and use gf vinegars or wines.
Aelina
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:28:05 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
It is a modification of an existing recipe done in the 19th Century.
Commercial mustard production in Dijon began in the mid-18th Century. I
would suspect that commercial recipes were made from earlier recipes. To
quote Martino (15th Century), "French Mustard. It is merely thinned with
bitter or soddeen wine. This is French mustard--for what it is worth."
Bear
<<< I haven making my own mustard for 4 years now. But I mostly make stone
ground not smooth and light mustards and thought to try a Dijon. But was
uncertain if Dijon mustard was period or not or even if the name was added
to a mustard from an earlier time. A number of times I have seen mustard
recipes for period mustards or dishes use the term Dijon mustard and this
has puzzled me as to whether it was a mustard created in the mid 1800's or
a variation on an earlier mustard.
Gwyneth >>>
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 08:48:00 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
From: "Drucilla Meany-Herbert" <bookshop at charter.net>
<<< So, what I am reading is that Dijon was originally based on a mustard
called French Mustard? Am I right? Now to find the recipe for that. >>>
Not quite. Consider "Dijon mustard" a brand name based on Naigeon's recipe
of 1856 that has since gone generic. Dijon mustard did not exist before
1856. There are many mustard recipes that pre-date 1856 and the original
Dijon recipe is a modification of one of those recipes, exchanging verjuice
for vinegar.
Mustard comes in a variety of thicknesses. Think of the difference between
a heavy stone ground mustard that must be spread and a thin yellow ballpark
mustard that can be poured. According to Martino, French Mustard is a
thick mustard that has been thinned by adding poor quality wine creating an
inferior product that Martino apparently does not find worthy of the
name--mustard. This is apparently a regional difference between France and
Italy in the 15th Century as to how they prepared mustard rather than any
specific recipe.
Under Nartino's definition, Dijon, or more correctly Dijon style, mustards
that are thinned with wine are "French mustard" rather than Dijon being
derivative from French Mustard.
Bear
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:13:42 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
> Eduardo do you have any favorite Italian mustard recipes you can recommend?
My favorite is the Basic Martino recipe.
The Mustard the color of Peacocks sounds fun and I have all the ingredients now (Saba and Sauders) but I have yet to try it.
I am working on a paper comparing the three mustards in all 7 Martino sources.
Will let you know when it is completed.
I am sure I will have something on my blog about the trials in the next week or two.
Eduardo
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:26:25 -0700
From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
If the propaganda at the mustard museum in Dijon, France is to be believed,
they've been making mustard there for a thousand years. I would suggest that
the term dijon refers to a style, rather like champagne, or Buffalo wings ;)
refer to food items that started in one place and much later the term
started to be used to refer to a type rather than a specific terroire....
--Anne-Marie
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 21:29:18 +0000
From: CHARLES POTTER <basiliusphocas at hotmail.com>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
I have one from the Italian 1549 Banchetti/Libro Novo by Christoforo Messisbugo. A sweet and spicy mustard, enjoy!
Master B
Mostarda
Pigula a libra una di zuccaro chiarificato, di cannella pesta fina oncia una, di gengeuero oncia una, di garofani
oncia meza, di seneva pista oncia sei, et mescola insieme, e passa per lo setazzo, overo macina ogni cosa insieme
con macinella, e sera perfettissima, e non la volendo di zuccaro li porrai del mele.
Take a pound (345g) of clear sugar water, a ounce (28.8g) of fine ground cinnamon (use true cinnamon not cassia), a ounce of ginger, half-ounce of cloves, six ounces of ground mustard, and mix together, and pass through a sieve, or grind everything together with a hand held grindstone, and it shall be perfect, and if you do not want it with sugar, you shall put honey.
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:25:18 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
<<< Eduardo, could you please send me a link to the recipe of Martino's for
mustard? If you have it. The Peacock sauce does sound interesting. >>>
I don't think there is an online version of Martino.
There might be of the 1598 Epulario which includes the three mustard recipes in Martino (Translated into English about 130 years after Martino's original).
Eduardo
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:36:39 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
Has anyone made the below recipe?
I just tried it (with the honey not the zuccaro chiarificato).
The clove is OVERWHELMING all other spices (including the mustard).
The texture is pretty good (perhaps a bit thick) and the color is nice.
Master B is this your translation?
I have done a quick one of my own and there is not much room for interpretation.
The only thing I am still wondering about is the weight measurements.
I have Italian Weights and Measures (somewhere) I will head up and take a look.
As well as what is before and after this in terms of recipes as the mustard seed is not soaked (below) and I am wondering if it should be.
Eduardo
PS - I will put my redactions up on my blog (along with pictures) sometime tonight or tomorrow.
On Apr 29, 2011, at 2:29 PM, CHARLES POTTER wrote:
<<< I have one from the Italian 1549 Banchetti/Libro Novo by Christoforo Messisbugo. A sweet and spicy mustard, enjoy!
Master B
Mostarda >>>
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 21:59:30 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
Actually, you don't need to worry about the weights. The recipe, by weight,
is 24 units sugar water, 2 units ground cinnamon, 2 units ginger, 1 unit
cloves, and 12 units ground mustard. The gram weights shown suggest that
the translator is using the Roman pound of 12 ounces and are a hair off of
the actual weights.
Bear
<<< The only thing I am still wondering about is the weight measurements.
I have Italian Weights and Measures (somewhere) I will head up and take a
look.
Eduardo >>>
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:37:47 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Messisbugo Mustard - Was Dijon Mustard
I found the Mustard recipe in my copy of Messisbugo (FYI it is not included in the Messisbugo selections in Arte Della Cucina where I looked first!)
There are no Mustard recipes before this one but there are instructions for Mostarda d'altra sorte (Mustard of other sorts) following the original recipe for Mostarda.
Also Master B it seems there is at least one (insignificant) transcription error in the below. It should be Piglia libra not Piglia a libra.
Eduardo
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 20:45:35 +0930
From: "Claire Clarke" <angharad at adam.com.au>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Messisbugo Mustard - Was Dijon Mustard
I am fine with that interpretation as long as the ounce to pound ratio is 12
to 1 at that time and place in Italy.
I used the 12/1 ratio for the redaction I just made up.
It is however REALLY clove dominate.
This might change with a bit of age (the mustard is likely to come out) or
maybe the sugar water (instead of honey) might release more mustard flavor.
Another question - Anyone know what why sugar water was chosen instead of
clarified sugar or clear sugar (see below Florio translations)?
Could it be melted sugar?
Any thoughts on this? I would translate it as "clarified sugar" if I was
translating it.
Eduardo
****************************************
I thought the same things as you looking at this recipe. That is, I would
translate it as 'clarified sugar' and the ratio of 50% clove to ginger made
my eyes water just to think of it. When I make gingerbread I usually use
maybe half a teaspoon of cloves to four or five teaspoons of ginger (if not
more) so no more than 10% cloves to ginger. I wonder if there is a
transcription error, or if period cloves had a very weak flavour?
Angharad
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 18:29:30 +0000
From: CHARLES POTTER <basiliusphocas at hotmail.com>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
<<< I have one from the Italian 1549 Banchetti/Libro Novo by Christoforo Messisbugo.
Master B >>>
Are the pounds and ounces you are using from Italian Weights and measures?
What is clear sugar water? Or what do you suspect it is?
I am going to try this with the honey. Sounds delicious.
Eduardo
====================
I used Italian Weights And Measures From The Middle Ages To The Nineteenth Century by Ronald Edward Zupko and the weights I give are for Ferrara Italy in period. I think the sugar water is say one cup of sugar to one cup of water which with modern sugar you just mix till it is clear, but in period they would have boiled the sugar and water and skimmed the scum from the top and when it was clear it was done. For the recipe you would then use 345g of clear sugar water mixed with the spices.
Master B
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 18:53:13 +0000
From: CHARLES POTTER <basiliusphocas at hotmail.com>
To: <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
Yes this my translation and I have made this in the past. I do think that over time the mustard will come out more too fight back with the clove but I do admit that a half-ounce of cloves sounds too high and maybe Christoforo meant to say a quarter-ounce instead. This would be much more consistant with other recipes in the Banchetti/Libro Novo.
Master B
<<< Has anyone made the below recipe?
I just tried it (with the honey not the zuccaro chiarificato).
The clove is OVERWHELMING all other spices (including the mustard).
The texture is pretty good (perhaps a bit thick) and the color is nice.
Master B is this your translation?
I have done a quick one of my own and there is not much room for interpretation.
The only thing I am still wondering about is the weight measurements.
I have Italian Weights and Measures (somewhere) I will head up and take a look.
As well as what is before and after this in terms of recipes as the mustard seed is not soaked (below) and I am wondering if it should be.
Eduardo >>>
Date: Sun, 1 May 2011 23:16:47 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Messisbugo Mustard Re: Dijon Mustard?
Thanks for the confirmation on the weights.
Have you looked at other editions or versions of Messisbugo?
I only have access to the Arte Della Cucina transcription (mustard not included) and the Forni edition. There seems to be several other editions and it would be good to check the clove level in the other editions.
When you say that a quarter ounce is much more consistent with other recipes do you mean in relation to other spices in other sauces? It would be interesting to do an analysis of those recipes that have weights and cloves in them to make this determination.
The large amount of cloves is actually quite interesting. Almost red pepper like with the mustard and ginger.
I am interested in seeing how it ages.
Eduardo
On May 1, 2011, at 11:53 AM, CHARLES POTTER wrote:
<<< Yes this my translation and I have made this in the past. I do think that over time the mustard will come out more too fight back with the clove but I do admit that a half-ounce of cloves sounds too high and maybe Christoforo meant to say a quarter-ounce instead. This would be much more consistant with other recipes in the Banchetti/Libro Novo.
Master B >>>
Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 12:32:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: wheezul at canby.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
<<< Is this period? I am reading conflicting theories on it.
Am thinking of trying a recipe out but want it to be a period recipe. Have
tons of non-period recipe for mustards!
Gwyneth >>>
I thought to take a look at La Maison Rustique (1572) and the 1604 English
translation of it in The Countrie Farm. There are references to mustards
from Dijon - although I don't know if it will answer your specific
questions. I'll quote the English translation, but I will place in
brackets the additional information that is not in the French 1572
version. I'm also modernizing the u/v's. It seems from these entries
that the mustard of the Dijon region already had a reputation for quality.
For to make mustard, you must picke and cleanse your seed very well,
searce it, wash it in colde water, and after leave it a whole night in the
water, then take it out, and when you have wrung it or pressed it (as
neere as you can) dry with your hand, then put it in a new or verie cleane
mortar, and bray it with a peestle with strong vineger, and then after
that straine it. [Some make a very pleasant mustard in this maner.
Take two ounces of the see of Senme, halfe an ounce of cinamome, poune
them very small, and with hony and vineger make a paste, and of the paste
little loaves, which you shall dry in the sunne or oven : and when you
would use it, dissolve one or some of one of your loaves in verjuice or
vineger, or some other liquor.]
Some to take away the great sharpnesse that is in it, doe steepe the seed
in new wine, during vintage time, and them make it as we have sayd
already, after they put it in little barrels, such a mustard of Aniou is
woont to be put in. The people of Dijon make it in small loaves, and when
they will use it they dissolve it in vineger. The mustard of Dijon hath
woon the praise from all other, either because of the seed growing there,
which is better than that of other countries, or by reason of the making
thereof, which the inhanbitants there doe perform more carefully than in
other places.
Katherine
Date: Tue, 03 May 2011 08:39:07 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
Here are some dscriptions from EEBO.
The 1616 Maison rustique, or The countrey farme? says:
For to make Mustard, you must picke and cleanse your seed verie well,
pearce it, wash it in cold water, and after leaue it a whole night in
the water: then take it out, and when you haue wrung it or pressed it
(as neere as you can) drie with your hand, then put it in a new or
verie cleane Mortar, and bray it with a pestle with strong vine?ger,
and then after that straine it. But the most ordinarie way for the
making of your Mustard, is, onely to wash the seed verie cleane, then
put it into your Mustard Quernes, and grind it either with strong
vineger (which is the best) or with good Beere or Ale, or with Butter-
milke; onely the Beere will make it eat a little bitter whilest it is
new, and the Butter-milke will die soone.
Some make a verie pleasant Mustard in this manner: Take two ounces of
the seed of Senuie, halfe an ounce of Cinnamon, powne them verie
small, and with honey and vineger make a paste, and of the paste
little loaues, which you shall drie in the Sunne, or Ouen: and when
you would vse it, dissolue one, or some of one, of your loaues in
Veriuice or Vineger, or some other liquor. Some, to take away the
great sharpnesse that is in it, doe steepe the seed in new Wine during
Vintage time, and then make it as we haue said alreadie: after they
put it in little Barrels, such as Mustard of Anion is wont to be put
in. The people of Dijon make it in small loaues, and when they will
vse it, they dissolue it in vineger. The Mustard of Dijon hath woon
the praise from all other, either because of the seed growing there,
which is better than that of other Countries, or by reason of the
making thereof, which the inhabitants there doe performe more
carefully than in other places.
-------
An itinerary vvritten by Fynes Moryson Gent. from 1617
mentions Moutarde (Mustard) de Dijon,
---------
The French gardiner instructing how to cultivate all sorts of fruit-
trees and herbs for the garden : together with directions to dry and
conserve them in their natural from 1658 by
R. D. C. D. W. B. D. N., Evelyn, John, 1655-1699., Philocepos.
To make Mustard a la mode de Dijon, you shalf only take of this
Codiniack and put to it store of Seneve or Mustard-seed well bruised
in a mor?tar with water, & finely searced, and when it is exquisitely
mixed toge?ther, quench therein some live coles, to extract all the
bitternesse from the seed, then either barrel or pot it up, well
closed, and reserved for use.
Johnnae
Date: Thu, 5 May 2011 18:15:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: wheezul at canby.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Dijon Mustard?
Thought I was done but found one more thing in Petit Traite' Contenant La
Maniere de faire toute confitures dated 1589 on how to make mustard of
Dijon:
Pour fair moutarde de Dijon.
Prenez pour un sols de moutarde
commune , & trois ou quatre petites
cueillieres d'argent de la raisin?e qui se
fait de raisins noirs en temps de vendan-
ges, ou bien du moust qui est du vin cuit ,
qui se fait aussi en mesme temps que
vous d?layerez bien avec vostredite
moutard , y adjo?tant un peu de pou-
dre de canelle battu? dans un mortier de
marbre avec un grain de bon musc.
Rough translation:
To make mustard of Dijon
Take for a grinding of common
mustard and three or four small
silver spoons of raisins that are made
of black grapes in grape harvest
time, or as well the must that comes from cooked wine,
and at the same time as you will dilute the said
mustard, therein add a little powder
of cinnamon beaten in a mortar of
marble with a grain of good musk.
There are probably further nuances to 'vin cuit' that I don't have time to
investigate at the moment, but thought at least add this to the
discussion.
It sounds awful good to me, but definitely not gray poupon-like somehow,
venturing an uneducated opinion.
Katherine
Date: Fri, 6 May 2011 06:27:26 +0000
From: yaini0625 at yahoo.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Gluten Free Dijon Mustard
Before there was gluten free mustard I made mine own. It was based on this recipe I found in Sarah Garland's Complete Book of Herbs and Spices An Illustrated Guide to Growing and using culinary, aromatic, cosmic and medicinal plants.
It is in this book I found the description for the use of flour in the preparation of English mustard, "dry English mustard is a combination of ground black and white mustard seed and a little wheat flour colored with turmeric. Mix it to a paste with cold water or vinegar 5 minutes before needed.".
Further on it talks about how French mustards, Dijon and Bordeaux and German mustards were mixed with vinegars. White vinegar is an area of caution for many who are on gluten free diets.
I did play around with these mixtures in the past substituting the vinegars with gf vinegars or wine.
The one that has been popular in my house comes from John Evelyn's Discource of Sallets written in 1699 (I think this is later period for many of us)
"Take the mustard seed and grind one and half pints of it with honey and Spanish oil (I used olive oil) and make it into a liquid sauce with vinegar" (I used cider vinegar or verjuice). I have served this with roast beast or with salmon.
I am not a huge tarragon fan but I didn't have dill one year for my salmon so I substituted tarragon. It was pretty good.
Aelina
Date: Sat, 7 May 2011 17:54:19 +0000
From: yaini0625 at yahoo.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gluten Free Dijon Mustard
To answer Stefan's question to the tarragon. My apologies for the confusion. I made homemade mustard based on the recipe stated and added dill. I served it with smoked salmon. I had run out of dill for a second dish so I used tarragon instead. It was not part of the original recipe but a combination of two recipes for one dish.
As to use of turmic in the mustard I am not sure how old that use is in mustard. I know it has been uses as a clothing dye for centuries.
Aelina Vesterlundr aka the Saami
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 12:58:23 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fruit Mustard of Cremona
I am still looking through de Casteau, Ouverture
de la Cuisine - written circa 1585, published
1604 - for Cameline-like sauce - i have found one
so far. And i saw this. Perhaps this has been
posted to the list already, if so i don't recall.
It sure sounds delicious!
Pour faire moustarde de Cremone.
<<066>>
Prennez demye libure de pelleures
d'orenge confites en succre, demye libure
de poires de coing confites en succre
ou marmelade, & le tout haschez
bien ensemble bien menu: puis prennez
demye pinte de moustarde bien
espes, puis prennez succre fondu auec
eau de rose, & mettez dedans du tornesol,
& faites boullir auec pour donner
couleur bien rouge, & le laissez boullir
comme cirope, & meslez dedans ce que
vous auez hasch?, & meslez la moustarde
auec, mettez de la cirope assez, &
seruez dans des petits plats trois ou
quatre cueilliers pour mettre a table
auec le rosty.
To make mustard of Cremona.
Take half pound of orange
peels preserved in sugar, half pound
of quinces preserved in sugar
or marmelade*, & chop it all
[*Note: marmelade was generally of quinces at this time]
well together very fine: then take
half pint of quite thick
mustard, then take sugar melted with
rose water, & put in some <tornesol>**
[**Note: scholars are not quite certain what
turnsol is, but clearly it makes food reddish]
& boil with [it] to give
a very red color, & let it boil
like syrup, & mix therein that which
you have minced, & mix the mustard
with (it), put enough of the syrup, &
serve in some little dishes three or
four spoonfuls to put on the table
with the roast.
This is my initial rough translation, but i think it is clear enough.
Sure sounds delicious to me!
--
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 13:44:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Fruit Mustard of Cremona
-- On Mon, 5/23/11, lilinah at earthlink.net <lilinah at earthlink.net> wrote:
<<< I am still looking through de Casteau, Ouverture de la Cuisine - written
circa 1585, published 1604 - for Cameline-like sauce - i have found one
so far. And i saw this. Perhaps this has been posted to the list
already, if so i don't recall. It sure sounds delicious!
(much snipped)
?then take sugar melted with
rose water, & put in some <tornesol>**
[**Note: scholars are not quite certain what turnsol is, but clearly it makes food reddish] >>>
About turnesol:
According to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnsole
it was a common dyestuff, also used in food; you got blue, purple or red depending on acid/alkaline balance.
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict
Date: Mon, 23 May 2011 16:39:03 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Turnsole was Fruit Mustard of Cremona
Turnsole is a general reference to plants that turn to face the sun as it
progresses across the sky. It also specifically refers to the dye extracted
from those plants. The source of Medieval turnsole is most likely the juice
of Crozophora tinctoria AKA dyer's crook carrier or dyer's litmus. It is
also produced from the sap of Heliotorpium europaeum, but this plant is
poisonous.
Bear
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:26:12 -0700
From: K C Francis <katiracook at hotmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Wine from Navarro
I like the verjus from Navarro. It comes in wine bottles like their wine grape juices and it makes a very nice cold beverage when served with lots of ice. I've tasted the mustard, nice, but nothing special. OT, I am partial to the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout Mustard ($8 last time I bought some) from Anderson Valley Brewing, which is located in Booneville just down the road from Philo and the Navarro Winery. Recently made a trip to stock up at both places. Just lucky they are in the neighborhood!
Katira
From: StefanliRous at austin.rr.com:
================================
Alys K. said:
<<< Should any of you be aficionados of Edelzwicker wine or
Pinot Grigio, Navarro Vineyards has a one-cent ground shipping "sale"
going on right now until July 31 or sold out. Details at
http://www.navarrowine.com/casespecials/ . Got some verjus that way and
it was thoroughly packed! >>>
Unfortunately, it looks like that 1 cent shipping sale is only good on
'cases' of wine or verjuice.
I thought I might want to try their verjuice and maybe their mustard,
but the shipping on a single bottle of verjuice is more than the cost
of the verjuice! And I don't think I could use a case of verjuice,
even if the special included the verjuice, which I'm not sure it does.
They say this about the mustard. Is this correct? I don't remember
any medieval recipes using verjuice, but I may not be remembering
correctly. It does sound like an interesting item to try. I can go
through a lot of mustard, though. $17 per jar could get expensive,
though. :-(
<<< The name mustard derives from the Latin words mustum (unfermented
grape juice) and ardens (burning or fiery). Navarro's Medieval mustard
is made in the ancient manner by mixing the hot seeds with the green
must of Verjus. Mustard seeds and green grapes for Verjus are both
harvested in late summer and have been blended for centuries. This is
a coarse, savory mustard that will mind you of the origins of the more
modern versions.
Contains: Mustard seed, Navarro Verjus (contains sulfites), water,
salt, spice.
$12.00. 8.5 oz. >>>
Stefan
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 00:20:46 -0400
From: Sam Wallace <guillaumedep at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Who Likes Mustard?
Not Eustache Deschamps! He wrote a rather scathing review of Flemish food
in the 14th century that left no doubt as to where he stood on the subject.
It also provides a list of things that were (probably) served in taverns in
the region at the time. It is short enough that I am going to provide the
translation (from Eustache Deschamps: Selected Poems edited by Deborah M.
Sinnreich-Levi, Ian S. Laurie) as well as some links for reference.
Always, never asking, mustard
In Hainaut and Brabant I made
attempts to order sauce with care,
but in every in at which I stayed
they always brought me, with my fare,
with every roast and mutton dish,
with boar, with rabbit, and with bustard,
with fresh and with salt-water fish
always, never asking, mustard.
I took fresh herring, said I?d like
carp at the pub for midday dinner,
and called for a simple boiled pike
and some large sole, to be my supper.
In Brussels, I asked them for green sauce;
a cleric stared and looked disgusted
and a varlet brought me in, of course,
as always, never asking, mustard.
I couldn't eat or drink without it.
They add it to the water they
boil the fish in and ? don't doubt it
the drippings from the roast each day
are tossed into a mustard vat
in which they're mixed, and then entrusted
to those who bring ? they're quick at that
always, never asking, mustard.
Envoy
Prince, it's clear that ginger, clove,
saffron, pepper are never trusted.
There?s just on thing these people serve:
always, never asking, mustard.
It's a ballad, which the translators did a fair job of rendering into
English while maintaining the poetic structure. The content reminds me of
parts of Mark Twain's *A Tramp Abroad.*
- Guillaume
References
Deschamps, Eustache, Oeuvres compl?tes d'Eustache Deschamps, ed. Queux de
Saint-Hilaire and Gaston Raynaud, Soci?t? des Anciens Textes Fran?ais, 1894
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-5129&;M=tdm
Englebert, Annick, Eustache Deschamps et la moutarde, Gastronomie
Historique, 2015
http://www.diachronie.be/textes_gastronomie/1385-deschamps/1385-deschamps.html
Sinnreich-Levi, Deborah M., Laurie, Ian S., Eustache Deschamps: Selected
Poems, 2004
https://books.google.com/books?id=wJILngvQ-dYC
Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2015 00:49:50 -0400
From: JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Who Likes Mustard?
Deschamps is a good source in general for food of the time and a welcome
counterweight to all those aristocratic cookbooks. It's strange that he
attacks mustard so virulently, though, since it was one of the oldest French
condiments, It was even found in a meal in an early Frankish grave.
It's probably worth noting that Deschamps is a little Swiftian overall in
his bile. Check his poem on Brie.
Jim Chevallier
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 09:51:49 -0700
From: "Daniel Myers" <dmyers at medievalcookery.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Surviving medieval sauces?
There are recipes in the English corpus for "Lombard Mustard" that are
essentially honey mustard.
- Doc
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 13:11:10 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard powder
<<< I am looking for a mustard powder that doesn't have the harsh aftertaste and
bitterness. I have used Penzeys and Atlantic Spice.
Gwyneth >>>
It's not quite that simple. Within a seed type, most mustard powders are
very similar although there are some variations depending on where they are
grown (although, I'm still trying to figure out how Coleman's produced that
tongue blasting yellow I once tried).
Are you trying to prepare mustard condiment or are you using the powder as a
spice for other dishes? I'm going to assume condiment at this point. And
it would be nice to know the recipe(s) you are using.
There are basically three types of mustard seed available, yellow (white)
(Sinapis alba), brown (Brassica juncea) and black (Brassica nigra) and they
tend to be classed in pungency in that order. Flavor and bite of the
mustard powder is produced by enzymes in the seed.
In preparation, applying heat or increasing acidity of the liquid will
reduce the pungency. In other words, if you want a hot mustard use cold
water, if you want milder mustard try hot vinegar or wine. Different
vinegars will produce different tastes. Remember that most of the mild
commercial mustards replace mustard powder with tumeric to reduce the
pungency Also, most commercial mustards add "spices" to modify the flavor.
To cut bitterness, you might wish to try adding a little sugar.
My experience, admittedly limited to three period recipes, has been that
period mustards are generally more pungent than commercial mustards and that
all freshly made mustards have a harsh edge to them that requires aging for
two or three months.
You might check Stefan's Florilegium for other thoughts on your problem:
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-CONDIMENTS/mustard-msg.html .
Bear
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 14:20:07 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard powder
In addition to Bear's excellent comments below, You might take a look at
Making Medieval-Style Mustard, a class in the Society for Creative Anachronism by Mistress Jadwiga Zajaczkowa.
http://www.gallowglass.org/jadwiga/herbs/Mustards.html
Johnnae
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2015 14:31:07 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mustard powder
On Sep 16, 2015, at 2:11 PM, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
<<< It's not quite that simple. Within a seed type, most mustard powders are very similar although there are some variations depending on where they are grown (although, I'm still trying to figure out how Coleman's produced that tongue blasting yellow I once tried).snipped
Bear >>>
Once upon a time (like thirty years ago) we made trip over from Cambridge to Norwich and went to the Coleman's Museum.
http://www.mustardshopnorwich.co.uk
I've also been to National Mustard Museum in Wisconsin.
http://mustardmuseum.com/visit-the-museum/
Johnnae
<the end>