I'd like to make mustard soon. What's the basic process to start with?
Best Answer
Mustard is one of those simple condiments to make, and is fun to experiment with. At it's most basic mustard is two ingredients:
Mustard Seed
Liquid
There are endless variations from there.
Mustard seed comes in white, yellow, brown and black variations. I suggest buying whole and grinding them yourself using either a mortar & pestle or coffee/spice grinder. (Don't use a coffee grinder that you use for grinding coffee! You'll end up with mustard flavored coffee).
Liquids can be water, vinegar, wine, or even beer. Using vinegar/wine will help it last longer than water or beer would.
Once you've fine ground (of course there are coarse ground varieties too) your mustard simply mix it with the liquid until it is the desired consistency.
Additional ingredients can be added to taste. Honey, turmeric (gives yellow mustard its color), sugar, etc. are all possibilities.
Update: I forgot to mention that mustard needs time for the flavors to mix. This can take anywhere from a few hours to weeks. A fresher mustard tends to be hotter, but an aged mustard can often taste "better" with a slight loss of that initial heat. Refrigerated mustard will keep it's heat longer. Also note, mustard made with water should definitely be refrigerated and consumed quicker than others.
Dijon has a strong taste from the liquid they use in it (it's not quite vinegar, not quite wine). I'd probably try a blend of some other mustard + a little white wine vinegar (not white vinegar; white wine vinegar) or champaigne vinegar or apple cider vinegar. (Maybe even a dry white wine, if you have that on hand).
If you have dry mustard powder, and some time to let it sit, you could also try making your own; most of the recipes online seem to use a dry white wine as their base, a few use white wine vinegar.
Best Answer
Mustard is one of those simple condiments to make, and is fun to experiment with. At it's most basic mustard is two ingredients:
There are endless variations from there.
Mustard seed comes in white, yellow, brown and black variations. I suggest buying whole and grinding them yourself using either a mortar & pestle or coffee/spice grinder. (Don't use a coffee grinder that you use for grinding coffee! You'll end up with mustard flavored coffee).
Liquids can be water, vinegar, wine, or even beer. Using vinegar/wine will help it last longer than water or beer would.
Once you've fine ground (of course there are coarse ground varieties too) your mustard simply mix it with the liquid until it is the desired consistency.
Additional ingredients can be added to taste. Honey, turmeric (gives yellow mustard its color), sugar, etc. are all possibilities.
Update: I forgot to mention that mustard needs time for the flavors to mix. This can take anywhere from a few hours to weeks. A fresher mustard tends to be hotter, but an aged mustard can often taste "better" with a slight loss of that initial heat. Refrigerated mustard will keep it's heat longer. Also note, mustard made with water should definitely be refrigerated and consumed quicker than others.