Spicy Mustard

For the first 26 and a half years of my life, I never once thought about how mustard was made. It never, ever occurred to me that I could or should make mustard myself. In fact, for the vast majority of my life, I didn't even like mustard.

But, now that I think about it, I wasn't really exposed to good mustard until recently. There was an abundance of French's yellow mustard at cookouts when I was young--no one brought the equivalent of Sierra Nevada's Porter mustard to those things. Well, like a lot of things I didn't like when I was a kid, I've since discovered that mustard is really quite wonderful. Especially if it is coarsely ground and usually made with beer. And a little spicy.

The first time I realized that I actually liked mustard was at a local pizza restaurant. I ordered the stromboli which comes served with marinara and a house-made beer mustard. It blew my mind, and I've been into mustard ever since. (Mostly I've been importing a stock of Sierra Nevada mustard to Oregon every time I am near the brewery.)

Then last summer, I came across a recipe in Gourmet that began, "mustard couldn't be any simpler to make." What?! Why didn't anyone tell me about this?! Paradigm shift. I cut out the recipe and added mustard seeds to my shopping list, where they stayed for the last 4 months. I finally found out that New Seasons carries mustard seeds (yellow and brown) in their bulk spice section. And enough seeds to make this recipe will set you back less than a dollar! I personally find this truly mind blowing and exciting. (But maybe I'm easily impressed...) And there are so many different mustard possibilities!

Here is my version of the basic recipe. But, be warned, it is quite spicy!

Spicy Mustard

~Print Recipe~

• 1/2 cup brown mustard seeds (use yellow if you do not want it spicy)
• 3/8 cup red wine vinegar (I mixed the vinegars to equal 3/4 cup. You could use one or the other.)
  
• 3/8 cup distilled white vinegar 
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Soak mustard seeds in vinegar and water at room temperature for 2 days. Make sure all seeds are submerged. 
2. Puree mixture in a food processor with sugar and salt until almost smooth. Thin, if necessary, with water to the desired consistency. Season to taste with salt.