40 Fun Facts About Mustard

Which liquid, stirred into mustard powder and left to stand ten minutes, gives the hottest mustard?

Cold water makes the fiercest mustard, because heat and acid weaken the enzymes that create its bite. That is why a mustard mixed with a hot liquid tastes milder.

Which country supplies most of the mustard seed that France needs to make its famous Dijon mustard?

Canada has supplied about 80% of the seed, mostly from Alberta and Saskatchewan. After a 2021 drought cut its harvest, French shelves ran short in 2022 and shoppers stockpiled Dijon mustard.

Which spice, also a staple of curry powder, gives American yellow mustard its bright colour?

Turmeric is added mainly for colour rather than flavour, and it tints canned chicken broth the same way. Food makers often use it as a cheaper stand-in for saffron.

Which mustard brand became a byword for luxury through 1980s TV ads set in Rolls-Royce cars?

Grey Poupon is named after Maurice Grey and Auguste Poupon, who went into partnership in Dijon. By 1992 no product's use tracked a person's income more closely.

Which classic board game has a suspect called Colonel Mustard, played with a yellow token?

Clue, sold as Cluedo outside North America, nearly named him Colonel Yellow. The character was renamed Colonel Mustard before the game first went on sale in 1949.

Wasabi at most sushi restaurants outside Japan is really mustard oil mixed with which pungent root?

Horseradish stands in because fresh wasabi is hard to obtain outside Japan. Both plants are mustard relatives and owe their nose-stinging heat to the same compound.

Which condiment is famously unwelcome on a Chicago-style hot dog, where yellow mustard goes on instead?

Ketchup is refused outright by some Chicago vendors, who post signs mocking anyone who asks. One story traces the taboo to the Depression, when the sauce was used to mask the taste of poor meat.

Which supermarket vegetable is a close relative of mustard, sharing a plant family with cabbage and kale?

Broccoli is one species, Brassica oleracea, bred into a different shape from its siblings cabbage, kale and cauliflower. Radishes and turnips sit in the mustard family too.

Mustard gas, named for its yellowish colour and mustard-like smell, was first used in which conflict?

World War I saw Germany introduce the weapon in 1917. Despite its name it is often not a gas at all, but a fine mist of liquid droplets that blisters the skin.

The National Mustard Museum began with jars its founder bought after which team lost the 1986 World Series?

Boston Red Sox fan Barry Levenson began buying jars to console himself after the defeat. His first dozen have grown into a collection of more than 5,600 mustards from over 60 countries.

Which drink goes into most Dijon mustard today, replacing the sour verjuice that first made it famous?

White wine replaced verjuice, the sour juice of unripe grapes that Jean Naigeon of Dijon had swapped in for the usual vinegar.

Dijon, the city that gave Dijon mustard its name, lies in which historic French region once ruled by powerful dukes?

Burgundy's dukes were mustard lovers: guests at a gala thrown by one duke in 1336 reportedly got through 320 litres of mustard cream in a single sitting.

Which US state is home to the National Mustard Museum, where admission and mustard tastings are free?

Wisconsin's museum opened in the village of Mount Horeb in 1992 and later moved to Middleton. Its founder, Barry Levenson, is a former assistant attorney general of the state.

French's yellow mustard made its public debut, billed as a 'cream salad' mustard, at which grand exhibition?

St. Louis World's Fair visitors in 1904 are said to have been the first Americans to see mustard served on hot dogs, when the R.T. French Company launched its bright yellow recipe there.

American yellow mustard earned a nickname from its popularity on hot dogs at which sport's games?

Baseball crowds made it 'ballpark mustard', though some simply call it hot dog mustard. Abroad, the same mild style is often sold as American mustard.

Which religious teacher compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a great tree?

Jesus tells the Parable of the Mustard Seed in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The plant he had in mind is generally thought to be black mustard, which can stand nine feet tall.

Mostarda, candied fruit in a mustard-flavoured syrup served with boiled meats, is a speciality of which country?

Italy's northern cooks have paired fruit with mustard since the 14th century, and mostarda was said to be a favourite of the Dukes of Milan. The version from Cremona is the classic.

Sweet mustard is the traditional partner of Weisswurst sausage and soft pretzels in which German region?

Bavaria's white sausages are eaten without their skins, traditionally by sucking the meat out. The sweet mustard, called Süßer Senf, arrives with a pretzel and a wheat beer.

Which British dish of hot cheese sauce on toast is often sharpened with mustard, ale or Worcestershire sauce?

Welsh rarebit was first recorded in 1725 as Welsh rabbit, a joke name for a dish with no rabbit in it. Nobody knows how the name came about.

Which pressed sandwich from Florida layers ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese and pickles over yellow mustard?

Cuban sandwiches likely began in the cafes that fed cigar workers in Tampa and Key West. Tampa and Miami still argue over whether a layer of salami belongs inside.

Spicy deli-style mustard is the classic topping for which sandwich, often called New York's signature?

Pastrami on rye is credited to Sussman Volk, a Lithuanian immigrant said to have been given the recipe by a Romanian friend and to have served it at his deli on Delancey Street in Manhattan.

A yellow, mustard-based barbecue sauce traced to German settlers is the signature of which US state?

South Carolina's golden sauce blends yellow mustard with vinegar, sugar and spices. It is most common in the stretch of the state that runs from Columbia to Charleston.

Which party appetiser, with mustard mashed into the yolks, is named after an old term for highly seasoned food?

Deviled eggs take their name from 'devil', an 18th-century word for fiery food that also gave us deviled ham. The yolks are usually mashed with mayonnaise and mustard, then dusted with paprika.

Cooks whisk a little mustard into Hollandaise sauce partly to help stop the sauce from doing what?

Curdling is less likely because mustard is an emulsifier, which helps oil and other liquids stay blended. The same trick holds a vinaigrette together.

The mustard plant keeps its pungent compound locked away until its cells are broken, as a defence against what?

Herbivores get a mouthful of the burning compound the moment they chew, which drives them off. It would harm the plant too, so it is stored in a harmless form until then.

The mustard family's older name, Cruciferae, describes its four-petalled flowers as resembling what?

A cross is the shape the four petals make, and Cruciferae means 'cross-bearing'. The name lives on in the kitchen, where cabbages and kales are known as cruciferous vegetables.

The word mustard goes back to a Roman condiment made by grinding the seeds into which liquid?

Unfermented grape juice was called mustum in Latin, and the fiery paste the Romans made with it gave mustard its name. One Roman recipe was a mustard glaze for spit-roasted boar.

In a Buddhist story, Kisa Gotami is sent to fetch mustard seeds from a household that has never known what?

Death has touched every home she visits, so she returns with no seeds at all. The Buddha set the errand so that the grieving mother would see her loss is one everybody shares.

Which English town's mustard, once sold as dried balls, did Shakespeare's Falstaff liken to a friend's thick wit?

Tewkesbury mustard was famous enough for Falstaff to use it as an insult in Henry IV, Part 2. Makers in the town still sell it in ball form, some of it covered in gold leaf.

Which hot Japanese mustard is served in small dabs with tonkatsu, oden and natto?

Karashi is considerably stronger than American or French mustard, so a little is enough. In Kumamoto it is blended with miso, stuffed into lotus root and deep-fried.

Which pungent Bengali relish is made by fermenting mustard seeds and was traditionally eaten with stir-fried greens?

Kasundi is sharp enough to bring tears to the eyes, much as wasabi does. Making it was once almost a religious rite in Bengali homes, hedged about with rules and rituals.

Which French mustard house began as a vinegar maker and supplied the court of Louis XV?

Maille's founding family first won fame in the 1720s by recommending vinegar as a treatment for the plague. Its Paris shop sells mustard straight from the pump.

Löwensenf, a sharp Dijon-style mustard, is made in which German city that also has a mustard museum?

Düsseldorf became the firm's home in 1920, after Metz, the city where it was founded, passed back to France. Its range now stretches to beer and fig mustards.

Pressed mustard oil cannot be sold for cooking in the United States because it is rich in which substance?

Erucic acid makes up about two-fifths of pressed mustard oil, so in America it is sold as a massage oil labelled for external use only. In Bengali and Nepalese kitchens it is an everyday cooking oil.

Coarse Creole mustard is the key ingredient in the New Orleans version of which classic French sauce?

Remoulade in Louisiana takes a tan or pink tint from the Creole mustard, cayenne and paprika. The French original is a pale mix of mayonnaise, mustard, capers and herbs.

Which crime novelist, creator of Lord Peter Wimsey, worked on Colman's 'Mustard Club' advertising in the 1920s?

Dorothy L. Sayers spent most of the 1920s as a copywriter at the agency S. H. Benson, where she was also responsible for introducing the Guinness toucan.

Colman's mustard, with its bull's-head logo, was made for 160 years in which English city?

Norwich's last jar left the line in 2019 with its best-before date swapped for a farewell message. While the mustard was made there, the brand sponsored the local football club's shirts.

Chicago's Plochman's is credited with America's first successful condiment sold in which kind of container?

A squeeze bottle shaped like a small yellow barrel has held Plochman's mustard since 1957. The firm began in 1852 as Premium Mustard Mills.

Meaux, the French town known for its grainy mustard, also gives its name to a famous variety of which cheese?

Brie de Meaux and the local mustard are the two things the town is best known for. The mustard recipe has belonged to the Pommery company since the 18th century.

Sarson ka saag, a warming winter dish in Punjabi cooking, is made from which part of the mustard plant?

The leaves are simmered with spices, and the dish is served most in the cooler months, when mustard is harvested. Its name joins the Sanskrit-derived words for mustard and greens.