FarmSteady's Beer Mustard

One of my goals for this coming weekend is to make Soft Pretzels and Beer Cheese, using the kit that I purchased from FarmSteady:

http://farmsteady.com/instruct...-make-soft-pretzels/

In their instructions, they also include a recipe for beer mustard, so I'll be making that, as well.

I am adding this recipe to the collective knowledge here, in case anyone wants to try it:

quote:

How to Make Beer Mustard

Equipment

Food Processor or Blender
Sauce Pan
Non-Reactive Bowl

Ingredients

1.5 oz of mustard seeds
2 Tablespoons (30 ml) vinegar (Apple cider vinegar is best)
1/4 Cup (60 ml) Beer (Dark and malty German, Belgian, or English beer is best)
Spice Pack*

In non-reactive bowl, add mustard seeds.

Add vinegar and 2 tablespoons (30 ml) beer to mustard seeds. Cover and place in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours while mustard seeds acidify.

Note: Mustard seeds only start to taste hot, spicy, and mustard-like after soaking in something acidic. Otherwise, they taste more like seeds than mustard.**

After your mustard has sat in the fridge for 8-12 hours, combine spice pack and 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of beer in a small sauce pan.

On medium heat, bring to a boil while stirring, then remove from heat. Let cool for 10 minutes.

In a food processor or blender, combine the mustard seeds (with its liquid) from the fridge with the spice and beer mixture from the sauce pan.

Blend until desired smoothness is reached. A great mustard can be super smooth or quite chunky. Make it how you like it.

Transfer to a sealed container and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before eating. This allows for the flavor and consistency to meld.

Enjoy with pretzels and beer. If you don't eat it all right away, your beer mustard will keep in the fridge for a month.

http://farmsteady.com/instruct...o-make-beer-mustard/

*My kit didn't come with this, so I have written to the company so that they can send one to me. It will arrive too late to use it this time, but that's okay; more incentive to make it again! In the meantime, a quick internet search reveals that common spices used in various beer mustard recipes include salt, brown sugar, allspice, onion and garlic. With this in mind, I'll improvise something for my first attempt.

**I'm not sure that this note of theirs is accurate, but it could be; my understanding is that it is the water (or, in this case, beer) that triggers the mustardy-ness of mustard, but I am no expert, and am claiming no expertise. In any case, things seem to work well when their instructions are followed, so I follow their instructions.

I started this project last night, so that the flavours would have a chance to meld and mellow out in time for SuperBowl Sunday (which is like Christmas, the 4th of July, New Year's Eve and possibly even Saint Valentine's Day for my wife). This first stage is very, very easy - it doesn't really merit photos, but here they are. The lighting isn't as good as I would prefer; however, it will have to do.

First, we have the essential ingredients to get this started:



Mustard seed; a good, dark, HefeWeizen brewed in Montana by a man from Bavaria; apple cider vinegar.

Getting started, I measured out 1.5 ounces of the mustard seed:



Each container proclaims that it holds 1.4 ounces of mustard seed; however, the one I used had 1.49 ounces. I double-checked to make sure that I zeroed-out the scale; finding this to be an accurate measure, I added just enough mustard seed to reach the mark.

Next, I added 2 tablespoons each of the apple cider vinegar and beer:



That's all there is to it! I covered the container and set the mixture in the refrigerator; I'll finish the mustard tonight, which will give a couple-three days for the flavours to meld and mellow out.

More as it happens; etc. &c....

Ron

I finished my beer mustard last night, and it turned out very good, I think; I am guessing that it will be even better when the flavours meld and mellow a bit.

Continuing where I left off, I took the container with the mustard seeds, beer and vinegar out of the refrigerator and resumed my work. The mustard seeds had, by now, absorbed all but a few drops of the beer and vinegar.

The instructions call for the use of a spice pack that is included with the kit; unfortunately, mine did not come with one. FarmSteady offered to send a replacement; however, it would arrive too late to use for this weekend, so I made up my own after a little looking around and a lot of thought. For this recipe, here are the spices that I used:



1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

I also added 1 tablespoon of honey.

Except (perhaps?) for the garlic, it "seemed" reasonably German to me, which is what I was going for. I was fairly conservative with my measurements, since I was in new territory and did not want to overwhelm my mustard. Once I see how this works out, I can adjust for future batches; having said that, early indications are that it is going to go really well, by itself and with the pretzels.

Moving along, I measured each of the spices and added it to a small saucepan:



I then added the tablespoon of honey and 2 tablespoons of the same beer that I started with:



Following the instructions, I put this on the stove over medium heat and brought it just to a boil, stirring fairly constantly. The mixture darkened up a bit as (presumably) the Maillard Reaction did its wonderful work, and when the boil was achieved, I removed the saucepan from the heat and let the mixture cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

The spice mixture that I had improvised was proving to be a good one, in my opinion; the aromas coming from the saucepan were quite enticing, and it seemed to me that all spices were present and working together, with none taking over. The addition of the coriander was a last-minute decision, and one that I am glad that I made; it seemed to tie everything together really well.

Once the spice mixture cooled, I brought everything together for the final step of the process: mixing the mustard itself. I briefly considered using my mortar and pestle to do this, but ultimately decided that I'd be better off just tossing it in the Magic Bullet with the grinder "blade." Here's how it looked going in:



A few pulses and whirls later, I had a mostly-smooth mustard with a little bit of grain left in it, just as I intended; here is how it looked:



Not too bad, for a first attempt!

My only concern was that the mustard seemed a little thicker than it "should" be; when I showed this photo to Brook, he confirmed my first impression, stating that mustard tends to thicken as it mellows. Because of this, I'll probably transfer it to a larger container and stir in a little more beer tonight until it achieves the consistency that I am expecting; I am pretty sure that it won't take much. I'll then return it to the refrigerator and try to forget about it for a couple of days.

That's it, as far as the mustard is concerned!



Tonight, I will start my beer cheese, which is basically home-made cream cheese with reduced beer added (the same dark Hefeweizen that I used for this mustard). The procedure will be very much the same as the one I used when making cream cheese for my Everything Bagel project:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeb...teady_topic4708.html

The only difference will be the addition of the bottle of beer, reduced to 1/2 cup in volume.

Then, Saturday evening or Sunday morning, I will bake my home-made soft pretzels, completing the trinity!

As always, thanks for your continuing interest in this project. If you have any questions, comments or other feedback, feel free to post them as a reply to this thread, as discussion is never a bad thing. Also, if anyone is even thinking about trying this - or the related projects with the beer cheese and pretzels - I'd encourage you to do so. My opinion is that the FarmSteady kits are a very good "gateway" into some really nice things that you can and will discover, after you take the plunge.

Ron