Homemade Mustard

I just love homemade salad dressings that are made with whole grain mustard. And while I have found a dijon mustard that is additive free, I could not find a whole grain mustard in the same category. Sigh. I guess I'll have to make one.

My biggest issue with most of the homemade condiment recipes is that they are fresh and go bad quickly. Mayo, mustard, ketchup, all of them last for about a week. Whereas a bottle of store bought mustard can last for 6 months, or maybe longer. (Perhaps they don't last that long, but I have never had any trouble with them) I sure don't want to be making mustard every other week every time I make a salad. The whole point of this is to make life better, right?Eat better, feel better? Not slaving in a kicthen for an hour for every sandwich.

So I looked for a recipe in Nourishing Traditions, my go-to guide book now. And guess what I found. A recipe for lacto-fermented mustard. Now before you say "Ewwww That's Gross!" lacto-fermented really just means preserved, like yogurt is preserved milk. I saved the whey from my post How to Make Cream Cheese or Quark, and it keeps for several months in the fridge. So I used a tablespoon or so from that. This mustard will keep for several months in the fridge.

MUSTARD (This is for a half recipe, from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)

3/4 cup (6 oz) of ground mustard

1/4 cup of filtered water

1 tablespoon whey

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 cloves of garlic (optional)

1/2 tablespoon honey (optional)

1 tablespoon whole mustard seeds (optional)

Mix all ingredients together until well blended, adding more water if necessary to obtain desired consistency. Place in a right sized jar. The top of the mustard should be at least one inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage.

I, of course, aletered the recipe because I didn't have everything. (C'mon, you know your read this blog expressly for the hilarious stories of my screwed up overconfident cookery) I had a jar of mustard seeds, but no ground mustard. If you had a spice grinder that was clean that would work to grind your mustard seeds. But I was going for whole grain mustard, so I put my seeds in a mortar and pestle and crushed them. And crushed them and crushed them. And I tried to convince Thing 1 that he should crush some of them too, but he didn't fall for it. So I did some more crushing on my own. But I gave up after a while, because I am lazy, and my arm started hurting.

I then followed the recipe as directed and let the mix sit on the counter top for three days. It sat in the fridge for a couple more days, but that was just because I wasn't home. But the first full day I was at home, I made a sandwich and you know? The stuff really tastes like mustard, which I know is a dumb thing to say. But it has that sour kind of taste but instead of getting it from vinegar like store bought mustards, it got from the whey and the fermentation process. I liked the crunch of the whole grains. The following day I used the mustard in salad dressing. Since it keeps for a couple months, I could make room for this in my already packed cooking schedule. Next time, I am going to add a splash of white wine. That was really the only flavor missing. Yummmmm.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays at The Food Renegade!