Jars of mustard were occupying entire shelves in French supermarkets. Suddenly, in April 2022, these shelves were empty. Mustard relish had become unavailable.
Why? What is mustard and what is the origin of its name? Is it a single food item or a manifold? I shall endeavor to provide anwers to these questions.
Mustard has been with us for several millennia. The first known cultivars and use of mustard plants date back to 3000 BCE. Apicius, in the 4th century, in his cookbook De Re Coquinaria, offers several recipes, as a sauce to accompany venison, boar and other meats from hunting. Leaping to the sixteenth century, in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, in which she is depicted as ravenous, a servant tempts her thus: “what say you to a piece of beef and mustard?” The Latin name for the plant(s) whose seeds were used for mustard was sinapis, from the Greek σίναπι.
As for the name mustard, it came to Middle English from from Old French moustarde, in turn from the Latin mustum ‘must’ (mustard being originally prepared with grape must). It is interesting that it was for many centuries, at least in Western Europe, a wine byproduct. To the must were added mustard seeds, to which I shall now turn.
But first an explanation of the current scarcity of mustard in the French markets —elsewhere too. Global warming is to blame, together with the war waged by Russia against Ukraine. A leading grower and exporter of mustard seeds (35 % of the global output in 2016) is Canada and recent droughts there have dried-up the supply. Ukraine is a relatively minor producer (about 5 %), but it was supplying European producers, such as the French. Regarding those, it is mildly interesting that the name, Dijon mustard, is not a monopoly with manufacturers from that city — a decision in court dating back to the Thirties.
A chemical is the source of the bite, the pungencys of mustard. During its preparation, a chemical reaction gives rise to allyl isothiocyanate, a sulfur-containing molecule. As the mustard passes through the mouth, this molecule excites the sensory cells of the tongue, hence the taste. When this volatile molecule reaches the palate, it stimulates the trigeminal nerve. Hence the more violent, unpleasant sensation felt in the throat and nose: we the French thus often refer to (in translation) “mustard which goes up to the nose”.
There is no better illustration than mustards for the diversity of human cultures. The American so-called hotdog mustard consists, in addition to mustard seeds, of white vinegar, salt, curcuma and sugar. It dates to the beginning of the twentieth century and its introduction by George G. French under the name Cream salad mustard. Burgundy mustard is a strong or extra-strong mustard made with white Burgundy wine. It has a typical smell of white Burgundy wine, an intense spiciness and a pronounced taste indeed of the white Burgundy wine. Italian mustard features cinnamon and candied fruit. Karashi, Japanese mustard, is slightly bitter, very hot and spicy, with a distinctive peppery taste typical of plants like horseradish. Even in small amounts, it packs a strong punch. Bavarian mustard accompanies Weisswurst, the white veal sausage, bringing with it in its rich flavor a hint of cloves, apples, juniper berries, allspice and nutmeg. The list could be lengthened with several dozens other regional mustard types. Diversity of cultures is our collective wealth, its reduction due to globalization is tragic and we have, I submit, a moral duty to fight it.
As a consequence of its worldwide ubiquity mustard is, after only salt and pepper, the most widely used condiment. Coming back to allyl isothiocyanate, the entire family of plants to which mustards belong — the Brassicaceae — contain sulfur-containing molecules. Their morphology displays four sepals in median position of the flowers and four alternating petals arranged in the shape of a cross, which explains the former name for that plant family, Cruciferae — literally ‘cross-bearing.’
Health-related uses ? They are ubiquitous, worldwide, starting at birth. In Nepal, second only to Canada in production of mustard seeds. Newborn Nepalese babies are given a massage with mustard seed oil. Mustard seed oil massage of the newborn is unanimously practiced. It is meant to help keep the baby warm, build strength, and prevent sickness. In the Western world, for times immemorial, mustard seed was used in a plaster or poultice to ease a sore back or aching muscles — in my childhood, I was thus treated numerous times during ailments such as bronchitis. Shakespeare refers to such medical uses in A Midsummer Night Dream, where indeed one of the characters is named Mustardseed. Nowadays? Chemicals extracted from mustard seeds are efficient against various cancers, lung cancer in particular.
And what good does it bring to mustard plants producing pungent sulfur-containing molecules? It provides them with a chemical defense against herbivores, insects predominantly. Not only insects: there has been an incident when eight cows who had mistaken a Brassica field for pasture were discovered dead from abdominal wounds.
A fascinating piece of knowledge, dating to 1935, is the genetic relationship between the cultivated three main Brassica species, B. rapa, B. nigra and B. juncea. The genome of the latter is the sum of the genomes of the other two. When did that happen and was it derived from human cultivation? This happened between 8,000 and 51,000 years ago! And yes, one
may conjecture that it was a consequence of the use of the seeds by mankind.
I am grateful to my wife Valerie for the suggestion of including mustards in this Plant of the month series.