Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Tale of Two Mustards

I'm a huge fan of most condiments, but mustard is one of my favorites. I love it sweet or hot or Dijon or stoneground...Just about any kind. In preparation for the Eat Local America Challenge in August, I'm getting my local mustard selection in order (Because a month without mustard would be a sad month indeed).

Silver Spring mustard is made by family owned business in Wisconsin and is really tasty. Last year I got a bottle of the dill mustard from either Lakewinds or Linden Hills Co-op for the Eat Local Challenge, but this year I wanted to try making my own. I was super excited to see a few recipes included in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving!

I couldn't decide between making the Ginger Garlic Mustard (p.272) and the Oktoberfest Beer Mustard (P. 274), so I made both. I ended up with a dozen 4 oz. jars of mustard in my pantry!

Mustard seeds soaking in Ginger-Garlic brine (L) and Mai Bock beer from Vine Park Brewing(R)

Sidenote: Anyone who lives in the Twin Cities should go to Vine Park Brewing Co. on West 7th street. You can go there to brew your own beer! And they make root beer, too! (It has honey, so beware if you're not a "bee-gan" vegan.).

And they sell their beer in refillable growler bottles. Pretty awesome.

Back to the mustard:

Here they are, boiling away!

I ended up with a little extra mustard to keep in the fridge to use right away, plus 6 jars of each canned.

Vine Park Beer Mustard

Ginger-Garlic Mustard

The beer mustard needed a bit more salt and sugar, but then I liked it a lot. I thought the flavor of the beer mustard was way better than the Ginger-Garlic one. The Ginger-Garlic mustard was REALLY spicy and a lacking in garlic flavor. Very horseradish-y. But maybe it mellowed a bit during processing, though- I'll have to wait to see because I have a lot of mustard to use up before opening a new jar!

8 comments:

aimee said...

Even though I'm probably older than you, I want to be you when I grow-up! You continue to astonish and amaze!

Jenni (aka Vegyogini) said...

That's so cool...I love mustard!

Catherine Weber said...

Homemade mustard . . . now THAT'S pretty effing awesome.

P.S. Regarding your earlier post, that's great that your stepson wanted to join you for a little canning! It's cool when kids get excited about cooking, and they can learn so much, too.

Anonymous said...

Yum! I love homemade mustard. I am so jealous of your canning magic!

Sarah said...

Had the Vine beer mustard on some smart dogs tonight. It was yummy and a little sweet. Thanks for the awesome b-day gift!!!

Amy said...

Wow! That's super impressive! I adore mustard, but I've never made my own. Yours sounds fabulous!

cbeaR said...

I tried the ball recipe and it came out very bitter. Horrible after taste. Followed the directions word for word. Where did we go wrong?

Liz said...

Yeah, I had to add extra sugar to mine because of bitterness. I have since heard that if you soak the seeds extra long before grinding (even a whole day), they'll mellow out more. Sorry it didn't turn out good! Maybe when you open each jar, stir in a little maple syrup, agave or honey to cut the bitterness?