Mustard

Mustard sauces were pretty popular in the Middle Ages. Rosetta Clarkson, in Green Enchantment: The Golden Age of Herbs and Herbalists, says that some monasteries actually had a monk called the 'mustardarius' whose duties includied mixing the mustard sauce for the community. Mustard sauce could be used on meat or on fish, and in the days when you ate fish three times a week at least, and people ate a lot of cold, pre-roasted meat, no wonder it was popular! Le Menagier de Paris suggests mustard sauce with wild boar, beef tongue, and lots of different fish, including eel, shad, loach, lampreys, cod, stockfish, and whiting.

Mustard sauces were constructed in different ways depending on what they were to be served on, and the season of the year. Foods which the humoral system considered 'hotter' and hotter seasons got less 'hot' and 'dry' ingredients (spices, wine) and cooler ingredients (verjuice).

Mustard sauces were generally made with ground mustard seeds-- black was considered better than white-- (sometimes mixed with other spices such as pepper), moistened with 'wine must' (fresh red or white grape juice), vinegar or wine. Honey or sugar was also added in a number of recipes; breadcrumbs, almonds and fruit such as raisins appear in some recipes. (Platina says, "If you want it sweet, add sweet things; if sour, sour.")

Parkinson, in his Paradisus in Sole (1629), says "The seede ground between two stones, fitted for the purpose, and called a Querne, with some good vinegar added unto it, to make it liquid and running, is that kind of Mustard that is usually made of all sorts, to serve as sauce both for fish and flesh."

The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, Arabic, early 13th century

Mustard; it is fitting to avoid old mustard seed, because if it is old, it acquires a bitterness, and for this reason it should be washed first with hot water and then made. Fresh mustard need not be washed, because it adds sharpness without bitterness.

How It Is Made

Take fresh mustard seeds and pound them a little in a mortar of stone or wood until they are crushed; wash it with hot water so the bitterness departs, and drain out this water. Then return it to the mortar and crush it hard, sprinkling with sharp vinegar little by little. Then squeeze it in a piece of thick cloth or a rough wool apron; then continue to pound it until it is disintegrated, and squeeze it until it comes out like fine talbîna [dissolved starch]. Then pound sweet, peeled almonds very hard, until they become like dough, and macerate until dissolved so that it moderates its bitterness, makes it white and lets it gain dregs and sweetness, because of the coolness and sweetness of the almonds; this is the benefit of the almonds, and their use to the mustard. When this recipe is complete, use it in kebabs and other heavy, fatty foods, God willing.

Le Viander de Taillevent (French, between 1380 - 1395)
"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."

Forme of Cury (1390)
Lombard Mustard "Take Mustard seed and waishe it & drye it in an ovene, grynde it drye, farce it through a farce, clarifie honey wt wine & vinegr & stere it wel togedr, and make it thikke ynowe, & whan thou wilt spende thereof make it thynne wt wine." 

Le Menagier de Paris (French, 1393)
"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."

Liber Cure Cocorum, Copied and Edited from the Sloan MS. 1430
For lumbardus mustard Take mustarde and let hit drye Anonyn, Sir, wyturlye; Stomper hit in a morter fyne, And fars hit thurghe a clothe of lyne; Do wyne therto and venegur gode, Sturm hom wele togeder for the rode, And make hit thyke inowghe thenne, Whenne thou hit spendes byfore gode menne, And make hit thynne with wyne, I say, With diverse metes thou serve hit may.

"Cuoco napolitano" 15th century. Translation by Terence Scully
121. French Mustard: It is distempered with ony tart wine or must. This is the French Mustard, with neither head nor feet.
122. Italian Mustard: Get the seed which is called sinapop and steep it for a   day or two, changing the water often; get balnched almonds and grind them up   and put them with the mustard seed grinding it all togther; then get good   must syrup to make it sweet, and for a tart taste use verjuice, and strain   everything and make it thick. Add spices if you want it with spices.   
123. Balled Mustard for Trips: Get mustard seed and when it has steeped a   day, grind it up with a handful of raisins, cloves, cinnamon and a little   pepper, and with this paste form balls, small or large as a walnut; then set   to dry on a borad; when dry, you can take them when you go riding; to   distemper them, use verjuice or must or wine or vinegar.

Nola's Libro de Coch (translated by Brighid), 1520
153. Mustard (124) MOSTAZA
You must take mustard seed, and clean it of the dust and the soil and the stones, and grind it well in a mortar; and when it is ground, strain it through a cloth strainer; and then take the mustard powder and put it in a mortar with a crustless piece of bread soaked in meat broth, and grind it all together; and when it is well-ground, blend it with a little bit of lean broth without fat which is well-salted; and when it is blended in a good manner so that it is not 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, toasted almonds, ground-up with the mustard.

Nola's Libro de Coch (translated by Brighid), 1520
154. French Mustard-- MOSTAZA FRANCESA
You must take a cantaro (125) of the must of wine, either red or white, and grind a dishful of mustard that is select and very good; and after straining it through a sieve or a sifter, grind with it, if you wish: a little cinnamon, and cloves, and ginger, and cast it all, very well-mixed in 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.

Nola's Libro de Coch (translated by Brighid), 1520
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.

Kuchbuch der Sabrina Welserin (1553)
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.

Scappi Cap CCLXXVI, folio 95, 2nd book, 1570
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.

Scappi Cap CCLXXIIII folio 95, 2nd book, 1570
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.

Marx Rumpolt, Ein New Kochbuch, 1581
"Brown Mustard Sauce: Brown mustard made up with clear vinegar/ is also good."

English Housewife, Gervase Markham, 1615
"The most general sauce for ordinary wild fowl rosted, as Ducks, Mallard, Widgeon, Teal, Snipe, Sheldrake, Plovers, Puets, Guls, and such like, is only Mustard and Vinegar, or Mustard and Verjuice mixt together; or else an Onion, Water, and Pepper..."

The Closet Opened (sir Kenelme Digbie, KT) 1669
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 serse 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 the 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 (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.