Saturday, March 26, 2011

A spicy Guinness mustard, part two

"Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!"

I feel like Alice's White Rabbit lately (though sans waistcoat or pocketwatch...or whiskers, thankfully). Rushing about, muttering to myself. Maybe I've fallen through my own personal rabbit hole because the Red Queen's comment feels very apropos. "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" Which sums up my past few weeks perfectly.

So...here's my much delayed part two of the spicy Guinness mustard.




First, I had to use a blender and not a food processor to grind up the mustard seeds. It was magical how everything thickened from a soupy mess into...mustard.

Second, the recipe makes a lot of mustard. Repeat. An enormous quantity of mustard. A quart of mustard. Unless you run a deli out of your home or have a mustard fetish (that I don't want to hear about), you will not be able to consume this amount of mustard in six months. We gave some mustard to friends. Yes, I give mustard to my friends. And sometimes granola. Or scones. Or cookies. The downside of writing a food blog is that somebody has to eat all this food that I cook. And now that my metabolism is well into its 40s, that someone had best not be me.

Finally, after blending, refrigerate the mustard for a few days and let it mellow before eating. At first, it's quite prickly and pungent. After a few days, all of the disparate flavors blend into a nice balance. Delicious.

Really, making mustard is unbelievably easy, and the raw ingredients are quite cheap (especially compared to the cost of the specialty mustards in the stores). I think I'm inspired to make another mustard soonish.

(Spicy Guinness mustard, part one, the recipe)

4 comments:

  1. Every now and again, I think, "I really need to stop baking so much or I won't be able to fit through doorways anymore." But then my 14yo's friends come over, and every last scrap of food in the house disappears. Your mustard looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. for storing do you just jar it and put it in the fridge or are you supposed to hot pack it or pressure can?

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  3. Thanks for the additional tips!

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  4. Deva, Sorry, I thought I'd already replied. The recipe said you can just jar it and put it in the fridge. That's what I did, and it has been fine. I'd love to hear if you're experimenting with mustards.

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