Comment: Today a recipe calling for mustard is likely to specify style (country, dijon, plain yellow etc) but will be assumed to be a thick liquid substance. Cookbooks of the 19th century were the reverse: “mustard” came as either plain mustard seed or else in pre-ground form known as “flour of mustard.” Pre-mixed mustard of the modern sort–packaged in jars or pots–was starting to be available in stores but only in major cities and at much higher prices. As the all-purpose grocer still lay in the future one would seek out the condiment at an apothecary or drugstore. Kitchener’s book reveals its English origins by use of the term “oil shop,” an expression most often seen in books by Charles Dickens or other British writers of the mid-century. They sold oil of types from sweet (olive oil, used for cooking) to sperm (from the whale of the same name, used for lamp lights.)
Flour of mustard (dry mustard, mustard powder)
vinegar, white wine or other liquid (see recipe)
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 forgnight [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 ismixed 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.
Obs. Mustard is the best of all the stimulants that are employed to give energy to the digestive organs. It was in high favour with our forefathers; in the Northumberland Houselhold Book for 1512, p. 18, is an order for an annual supply of 160 gallons of mustard.
Some opulent epicures mix it with sherry or Madeira wine, or distilled or flavoured vinegar, instead of horseradish water. The French flavour their mustard with Champaigne and other wines, or with vinegar flavorured with capers, anchovies, tarragon, elder, basil, burnet, garlic, eschalot, or celery; warming it with Cayenne, or the various spices; sweet, savoury, fine herbs, truffles, catchup &c, &c., and seem to consider mustard merely as a vehicle of flavours.
N. B. In Mons. Maille et Aclocque’s catalogue of Parisian “Bono Bons,” there is a list of twenty-eight differently flavoured mustards.
From: The Cook’s Oracle or Household Manual, by William Kitchiner M. D. 1832.
Comment: The making of herb-flavored vinegar is neither complicated nor, as we see here, at all a new idea. But this receipt is of interest for another hint about life in the 19th century. Note the phrasing for directions on when to pick the herb: “..between midsummer and Michaelmas.” People simply did not think about specific dates that often, in part because printed calendars were rare to nonexistent. Just as time of day was denoted vaguely as before or after sunrise, noon or sunset, and days of the week were noted. But dates of the year were more often described by easily remembered signposts. Midsummer is easily detected, and usually the occasion of large scale celebration in cultures in temperate climates. And the calendar of saints, or at least the notable ones like Nicholas and Michael, was familiar to all in a day when Christian church attendance was nearly universal. As those days are long gone we will simply note that the feast day of St. Michael is September 29.
Take a pound or two of steaks, two or three pounds of veal, some pickings of fowl, carrots and onions, put all these into a saucepan with a glass of water, and set it on a brisk fire; when scarcely any moisture remains, put it on a slow fire, that the jelly may take color without burning; and as soon as it is brown, moisten it with stock (or water), add a bunch of parsley and green onions, two bay-leaves, two cloves, and some champignons, salt it well, and set it on the fire for three hours, then strain; dilute a little roux with your liquor, and boil it an hour over a gentle fire, take off all the fat, and run it through a bolting [strain through fine cloth].