I’ve been canning food for about 3o years (gasp). I’ve made ketchup, jams, jellies, pickles, icky canned meats, fruits, salsa, and a plethora of other goodies (and some not so good). However, I have never made homemade mustard.
Until now.
In my canning bible (aka Ball’s Canning Blue Book) I found the section on homemade mustards quite interesting. The recipe that stood out like none other was the Oktoberfest Beer mustard (umm, beer you say???). I was immediately ready to create.
The ingredients were simple:
Mustard seeds, beer, sugar, water, vinegar, onion and garlic powders. Easy peasy. Or so I thought. Finding the mustard seeds was a bit cumbersome. I called and searched and was just about to order from Amazon when I called one of the health food stores (or as Fat Daddy calls it, the Hippy Store) and low and behold, they had my seeds.
Let the creating adventure begin!
The process wasn’t hard but it was time consuming. You need to let the seeds sit in the delicious beer for about 2ish hours. I got the seeds soaking then ran an errand and did some laundry -who said Fat Momma can’t multitask?
After soaking blend the seeds and add to a large sauce pan and cook away with the other ingredients. I tasted along the way and decided to add a bit of salt to bring out the flavors a bit more.
After my creation was done I canned in a normal water bath for 15 minutes.
The mustard is a bit pungent with a hint of spicy undertones. I’m sure its because I used Guinness. I already have plans to use a berry weiss and a cherry wheat. I think maybe using a sweeter beer would be more useful. I’ve had my mustard on a good ol’ Wisconsin bratwurst and on a turkey Sammy and it was delicious (disclaimer: I love mustard. Yellow, Dijon, horseradish, deli, etc etc. But this batch does take a special liking. I honestly do like it but using Guinness may not be for everyone).
How I wish I could find a cash tree and just can and create kitchen goodies for my full-time job. It’s so rewarding and relaxing for me. I love giving my homemade goodies away; makes me so damn happy to see people enjoying my creations.
Have a great weekend everyone – I’m off to buy more beer for research. Yeah, research!
Diary of a Fat Mom 