Holiday Cooking – Mustard

Every Christmas I like to survey a few of the spices and flavorings that go into Christmas holiday meals, and learn about their origins and histories. Jan-Öjvind Swahn’s book, Lore of Spices, helps frame our research. It’s been a fun project, and, after this year’s theme of “plants on the move,” the project takes on even more meaning. Many of the ingredients we love and associate with holiday cooking and baking, actually originated somewhere else. This year I’m looking at some of the flavorings used in the savory dishes we love to serve and eat this time of year, starting with mustard!

Brassica nigra (or black mustard) is in the Brassicaceae family (formerly Cruciferae), which includes mustard, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. Mustard adds flavor to honey-mustard glaze on ham, deviled eggs, savory dipping sauces, and sandwiches and hot dogs. Mustard seeds are tiny. In fact, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed in one of his parables – from its tiny form, comes a large, life-giving plant (Mathew 13:31-32). When you grind mustard seeds into a powder and add vinegar, you create a delicious condiment. The mustard seeds can be finely or coarsely ground.

Botanical illustration of Brassica nigra from Koehler's Medicinal Plants.
Published before 1923 and public domain in the United States.

 

According to Swahn, mustard originated in Mediterranean countries, and was initially regarded as a medicinal plant. In the sixth century B.C., Pythagoras prescribed mustard as a cure for scorpion bites. Later, in the first century, the Roman cookbook Apicius includes mustard sauce recipes for game, sausage, and fish dishes. Mustard reached France in the ninth century A.D., and became an important crop in Dijon. It reached Germany and England in the twelfth century, and became widely used in cooking throughout Europe. Mustard plasters have also been used to treat respiratory ailments and toothaches (ouch).

Mustard plants are annual herbs. They are dicots, erect, tall to 6 feet high, many-branched, and glaucous. Leaves are small, pinnate, dentate, petioled, and often covered with short hairs. They have many one inch, yellow flowers, with four petals configured in many short racemes. Fruit is a silique, pressed close to the rachis, with multiple seeds in a chamber. The seeds are small, dark, and without aroma until crushed.