[Modernist Cuisine] Aromatic Alsatian Mustard (5•37 and 6•176)

[Judy Wilson]

On the Cooking with 'Modernist Cuisine' on eGullet, there has been some confusion as to whether or not you are supposed to drain the mustard seeds before putting them in the food processor. You are, in fact, supposed to drain them, and we've added this to our errata page.

Some eGulleters, however, ended up liking the taste of the added vinegar, though they agreed it made the mustard too thin. Have any of you tried this yet? Did you leave the vinegar in or drain the seeds?

[Bob McKeown]

Judy,

I'm new to the forum and you might have answered this previously, if so I apologize.

I just received my copy of MC and am interested in making this mustard, sounds delicious, and noticed the recipe calls for vac seal for at least 7 days and has an indefinite shelf life.  The question I have is, could processing the mustard (mason jars for storage) hurt the product? And should the vac seal remain as step if able to process?

Many thanks!

Bob

[Chris Hennes]

(I'm not Judy, obviously, but the Kitchen Lab team is pretty busy these days with Modernist Bread!)

 

I've made this mustard using the technique in the book, but I haven't tried canning it. I think it would work well, but would likely change the flavor somewhat since you'll wind up cooking the fennel and tarragon, and probably extracting more flavor from the other spices. If you have a vacuum sealer I'd suggest making it both ways and comparing (and then of course sharing your results here!). I'd be curious to know the effect of cooking the ingredients on the mustard, since I actually found the balance to be pretty heavily weighted towards the spices rather than the mustard in the raw version.

 

ETA: And no, I'd say you wouldn't need to vac seal if you're canning it.

[Bob McKeown]

Thanks Chris!,

I do have a Vac sealer and will try both ways. I'll keep you updated (when I find time to squeeze it in!).