Yellow Mustard

So I have been chasing down homemade mustard for about ten years. I have a very specific mustard in mind: I want a spicy yellow mustard. And I want the heat to come from the mustard, not horseradish or jalapeño. This turned out to be a lot harder than I imagined. The recipes I tried which called for cooking the mustard were too bland. And the ones I tried without cooking were too hot for anyone in the house besides me to use. They were often bitter too.

Two or three times a year, I pick up some mustard seed or ground mustard and give it a try. This latest batch is pretty impressive after only a half day on aging. Just noticeably spicy on the tip of the tongue. The bitterness from the initial mixing has already faded into the background. Hopefully in two or three days, it will be all the way gone.

Please note this recipe is still developing so I will make another round in a couple of months. I used fairly inexpensive, Spice Supreme brand mustard that I found at Woodman’s. That is why the mustard measurements are kind of odd. I used whole bottles of each type of mustard. It is important to use hot water. The heat retards the heat from the mustard. The time between the blending with water and adding the vinegar also has a profound impact on the heat of the mustard. Those were the key changes this time that I focused on for this batch.

 Recipe

     142g yellow mustard seed

     540g water

     71g ground yellow mustard

     12g salt

     1 teaspoon garlic powder

     1 teaspoon Turmeric powder

     180g cider vinegar

In the vita-mix blender: Soak the mustard seed in 540g hot tap water (120 degrees F) for an hour. Add the ground mustard, salt, garlic powder and turmeric and blend at the highest speed that keeps the mixture moving for 3 minutes. Allow the mixture to hydrate for 20 minutes. Then add the cider vinegar and blend again for 3-4 minutes. The mixture will initially taste very bitter, but will taste better the next day.

I used my Vita-mix blender because that is what I have on my counter. I have had pretty good results texture wise with a basic 2-speed Oster blender in the past though the soak times for those recipes were much longer – typically overnight.