England / Mustard

Mustard, a member of the Brassicaceae family has been around for centuries. While there are about 40 species of mustard plants, only three of them are used to make mustard: black (Brassica nigra), brown (B. juncea), and white or yellow (Sinapis alba).

Archaeologists and botanists have found mustard seeds in Stone Age settlements and the tomb of Tutankhamun. Mustard plasters were applied to treat toothaches and also several other ailments. The Greeks preceded the Romans by using mustard as a cure for anything from hysteria to snakebite to bubonic plague. The Romans ground mustard seeds and mixed them with wine into a paste.

The use of the seed spread to Gaul, took root in Europe, and was there even before the commerce of spices traveled from Asia. In AD 1000, Pope John XII loved mustard so much that he created a Vatican position for a mustard maker, grand moutardier du pape (mustard-maker to the pope), who came from the Dijon region. In Europe, the French monasteries cultivated and sold mustard as early as the ninth century, and the condiment was for sale in Paris by the thirteenth century. Mustard appeared in Spain with the arrival of the Roman legions, then in India.

In Maine, Raye’s Mustard Mill is the last remaining traditional stone ground mustard mill in North America. Built at the turn of the century to supply mustard to the two dozen or so sardine canneries in Eastport, Maine and countless others along the coast of Maine.

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