REPORT: Mustard Tasting Notes

[BradenP]

Okay, here is what we had:

Moutarde Violette (recette Charentaise) Nice mellow mustard that would be tasty with crackers and cheese. The sweetness of the wine mellows out the mustard seed really well.

Moutard de Truffe (Tubissime) OMG, that is not okay! Two tastes that came together as something you would shoot at a fancy fraternity party, as a dare.

Moutard au Miel (Champ's) Yummy, a discernible amount of honey created a delicious classic pairing. (While I didn't have time to bring it, the honey mustard from Les Abilles is amazing. It features a spike of horseradish that gives it another dimension).

Moutard de Picard (Champ's) I felt the cider didn't add anything to the taste. The flavor was as if plain whole grain had cider vinegar dumped into the batch.

Moutard au Vin Charentais Nice whole grain look, but tasted of dust and cider.

Verjus et Miel (Maille) Nothing special, tasted of your basic brown mustard.

Horshradish (Maille) I LOVE horseradish and assumed I would love this mustard. Unfortunately this mustard tasted nothing of the bite or tang of horseradish and instead offered only little pickled nuggets of the root.

Forte de Dijon (Monoprix) The strongest of the Dijons. A bit too powerful for most applications. Unless of course you want to clear your sinuses instantly.

French's ballpark Oh French's, this instantly takes me back to pulling those nasty encrusted udders at Fenway. How can I say anything bad about something so charged with good memories.

French's Dijon So either this one had gone bad, or just IS really bad. Tastes of flour and flowers, with hints of cardboard thrown in. The texture was pasty to boot.

Moutarde de Dijon (Champ's) Classic Dijon taste without being overwhelming like the one from Monoprix.

Moutarde de Meaux (Pommery) Big bits of whole grain but with a smooth taste that develops in the mouth. Hints of Champagne left a nice finish that felt as though it would cut through a fatty steak really well.

For me the best of the lot were the Champ's au Miel and Dijon, both of which represented the best of their respective genres. My other favorite was the moutarde de Meaux which was both original and delicious.

The French's Dijon and the moutarde de Truffe should be labeled as "not meant for consumption".

The French's ballpark gets high scores for nostalgia.

Here is a link to the labels and the pretzels: Mustard Gallery

Edited September 8, 2007 by BradenP (log)

[jayt90]

Glad to see this report.

Not many of these come my way, but I should beable to find Meaux (Pommery) again.

No Grey Poupon?

[BradenP]

I would have loved to seen Grey Poupon in the mix, but alas no one brought it. I guess will be just have to do another tasting of mustard in the future

[Forest]

For me the best of the lot were the Champ's au Miel and Dijon, both of which represented the best of their respective genres. My other favorite was the moutarde de Meaux which was both original and delicious.

The French's Dijon and the moutarde de Truffe should be labeled as "not meant for consumption".

The French's ballpark gets high scores for nostalgia.

thanks to you guys for another fun tasting!

My fav was the Moutard au Miel (Champ's). It's basic, but I found it a nice balance between the mustard & honey, a nice consistency and it wasn't overpoweringly hot. On the otherhand, i didn't care for the maille Verjus et Miel - not sure why, but I see on my tasting notes I just put "no" for that one.

Otherwise, all were good (and hard to compare with each other given the variety) with the exception of the truffe or the flowery one.

And, while I liked the Meaux, I wasn't as wowed by it as everyone else. The consistency wasn't my preference for pretzels (you know it was kind of hard to really dip and get a lot on the bread...the little seeds would kind of stick, but sort of just wiggle around on the plate.). I liked the aftertaste and I think I'd prefer that one in a salad dressing or on something other then pretzels. (which by the way were excellent, thanks Braden!)

[John Talbott]

As I commented that evening, I liked the strength (almost wasabi) of the Forte de Dijon (Monoprix), followed by that of both the Moutard au Miel (Champ's) + Moutard de Picard (Champ's). The truffle one was nasty.

As Braden says, so much depends on what you're serving it with.

Thanks Braden.