The CWI Cookbook

Posts Tagged ‘mustard’

 Food to be pickled (see recipe for details)
1 gal. strong vinegar
4 oz. curry powder
4 oz. dry mustard
1/2 pint salad (olive) oil
3 oz. ginger root, bruised
2 oz. tumeric
1/2 lb. shallots, peeled and lightly baked
2 oz. garlic cloves, peeled & baked
1/4 lb. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

The flavoring ingredients of Indian pickles are a compound of curry powder, with a large proportion of mustard and garlic.

The following will be found something like the real mango pickle, especially if the garlic be used plentifully. To each gallon of the strongest vinegar put four ounces of curry powder, same of flour of mustard (some rub these together, with half a pint of salad oil), three of ginger bruised, and two of turmeric, half a pound (when skinned) of eschalots slightly baked in a Dutch oven, two ounces of garlic prepared in like manner, a quarter of a pound of salt, and two drachms of Cayenne pepper.

Put these ingredients into a stone jar; cover it with a bladder wetted with the pickle, and set it on a trivet by the side of the fire during three days, shaking it up three times a day; it will then be ready to receive gherkins, sliced cucumbers, sliced onions, button onions, cauliflowers, celery, broccoli, French beans, nasturtiums, capsicums, and small green melons. The latter must be slit in the middle sufficiently to admit a marrow-spoon, with which take out all the seeds; then parboil the melons in a brine that will bear an egg; dry them, and fill them with mustard-seed, and two cloves of garlic, and bind the melon round with pack-thread.

Large cucumbers may be prepared in like manner.

The other articles are to be separately parboiled (excepting the capsicums) in a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an egg; taken out and drained, and spread out, and thoroughly dried in the sun, or before a fire, for a couple of days, then put into the pickle.

Any thing may be put into this pickle, except red cabbage and walnuts.

The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, New York, 1829

Comment: Pickle, as this recipe clearly shows, meant in the 19th century the preservative solution into which foods were packed, not the products practical people prudently pickled (sorry). The range of possibilities is amply described in the recipe, and we trust our readers are all entirely familiar with, for instance, the dimensions of a marrow-spoon so as to carry out the instructions given.

Some products–onions for instance–were pickled only to give them distinctive flavors, since they would preserve perfectly well on their own if kept in a dry cool place. Others, such as cucumbers, would perish and become pathetically putrid unless pickled for preservative purposes. We will stop now lest we P again.

 Dry mustard powder
Vinegar, white wine, or water
Horseradish, grated
Salt (optional)

Mix (by degrees, by rubbing together in a mortar) the best Durham flour of mustard, with vinegar, white wine, or cold water, in which scraped horseradish has been boiled; rub it well together for at least ten minutes, till it is perfectly smooth; it will keep in a stone jar closely stopped, for a fortnight [two weeks]; only put as much into the mustard-pot as will be used in a day or two.

The ready-made mustard prepared at the oil shops is mixed with about one-fourth part salt: this is done to preserve it, if it is to be kept long; otherwise, by all means, omit it. The best way of eating salt is in substance.

The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, New York, 1829

Comment: “Flour of mustard” is simply the result of grinding mustard seeds and sifting out any ungrindable bits until a fine powder is left. The resulting powder, if kept dry, will keep good indefinitely. “Made mustard” was normally made at home, although as Dr. Kitchiner notes it was beginning to be commercially available in larger cities.

As one can get a vast variety of mustards beyond the “standard” yellow goop suitable for anointing hot dogs at ball parks today, one could alter the homemade varieties to suit one’s taste or available ingredients. The prescription above is in fact four recipes, depending on whether one uses the vinegar, wine or water as a liquifying agent, and on whether the horseradish is used or omitted.

 1 oz. dry mustard
3 tbs. milk or cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. sugar

Mix very gradually, and rub together in a mortar, an ounce of flour of mustard, with three table-spoonfuls of milk (cream is better), half a tea-spoonful of salt, and the same of sugar; rub them well together until quite smooth.
Obs. Mustard made in this manner is not at all bitter, and is therefore instantly ready for the table.
N.B. It has been said that flour of mustard is sometimes adulterated with common flour, &c. &c.

From The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, New York, 1829

Comment: “Flour of mustard” is simply finely-ground mustard seed, sold today as “dry mustard.” As might be expected of the days before the development of mechanical grinding mills for such things, the process had to be done by hand with a mortar and pestle, explaining the motives for dishonest vendors to step on the resulting powder with cheaper stuff. Pure food laws lay far in the future as Dr. Kitchiner wrote.

“Made mustard” as we know it today was just starting to come on the market in the 19th century. Makers competed as much to find distinctive bottles to make their wares stand out on store shelves, as they did over the recipe for the contents. A thriving subculture of mustard-bottle collectors similarly competes today to preserve these unique items from the ravages of time.