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German Mustard
Take half a pint of good white vinegar, a sprig of fresh tarragon, a bay-leaf, a small onion chopped, a clove of garlic minced small, six crushed cloves, half a tea-spoonful of black peppercorns crushed, and a salt-spoonful of salt. Boil these together, strain, and when the strained liquor has cooled a little, mix it with sufficient pure mustard to make it of the proper consistency for use.
A wet-spiced vinegar infusion stirred into dry mustard flour, in the Victorian manner of making table mustard fresh at home. The whole character of the finished paste depends on how hot the liquid is when it meets the powder.
- "Pure mustard" means the flourThis is dry ground mustard — mustard flour or powder, not a jar of prepared mustard. Roughly 4 to 5 oz (about 1 to 1¼ cups) of powder will take up half a pint of liquid, but add the liquor gradually and stop at the consistency you want.
- MeasuresCassell's is working in imperial pints, so half a pint is 10 fl oz, a scant 1¼ US cups. A salt-spoonful is about a quarter teaspoon; the salt-spoon was the smallest spoon on a Victorian condiment set.
- Liquid temperature is the hingeMustard's heat is produced by an enzyme acting on the ground seed once liquid is added. Liquid that is still hot destroys that enzyme and gives a mild, faintly bitter paste; fully cooled liquid gives a sharp one. "Cooled a little" points at the milder end, which is what a German-style mustard wants — cool it completely if you want bite.
- Vinegar fixes the flavourAcid stabilises whatever pungency has developed, so mustard mixed straight with vinegar stays where it starts. This is why the paste will not gain heat on standing the way a mustard mixed with plain water does.
- Let the raw edge goFreshly mixed mustard tastes harsh and slightly raw. Cover it and leave it a day, or two, before judging the seasoning.
- Straining and the spicesStrain the infusion firmly to get all the liquid out of the onion and garlic; the solids are spent. Six cloves in this quantity is assertive, and cloves dominate as the mustard ages — halve them if you want the tarragon to read.
- Yield and keepingThe half-pint of liquor plus the powder makes appreciably more than a cup of finished mustard. Keep it in a small jar in the refrigerator; it is acidic and salted enough to hold for a month or two, though it dulls and darkens with time.
Nineteenth-century English cooks generally bought mustard as flour rather than as paste — Colman's and its rivals sold the ground seed, and the pot of mustard for the table was mixed fresh at home. What made a mustard "German" to a Victorian palate was that it was mixed with a spiced, herbed vinegar and came out mild and aromatic instead of the bald water-mixed fire of English mustard; German mustards of the period were often built on brown seed and on a spiced vinegar, and the sweeter Bavarian style is a separate tradition again. The tarragon and bay here point as much to French vinegar-making practice as to Germany, a reminder that these national labels in Victorian cookery books describe a flavour idea rather than an authentic regional recipe.