 |
| |
Stone-ground mustard with horseradish: one of the stars of the line. Photography by Saidi Granados. |
| WHAT IT IS: Artisan mustards made with organic ingredients. |
| WHY IT’S DIFFERENT: Sparkling taste with enjoyable nuances of flavor. It’s possible to taste and appreciate the individual ingredients. |
WHY WE LOVE IT: The freshness and quality of the ingredients make this line stand out as much more than “specialty mustard.” |
| WHERE TO BUY IT: TrueNaturalTaste.com. There is no e-commerce, but you can make your selection and place an order by email or phone. |
|
|
|
True Natural Taste:
Artisan Organic Mustard
CAPSULE REPORT: America’s specialty food stores are packed with gourmet condiments. Yet, as good as we would like them all to be, different brands vary in the degree of excitement they present to the demanding palate. That’s why it’s especially rewarding to discover a line that should be on the shelves everywhere: True Natural Taste Organic White Mustard. The Honey Mustard alone is the best we’ve ever tasted, and proves that you can find sophistication and layers of flavor in a product that is generally pleasant, with a one-dimensional sweetness. The rest of the mustards are so well crafted, you can taste the quality of the ingredients (where can we buy apple cider vinegar that’s this good?).
Here is an artisan at work, preparing small batches of mustard with the very best ingredients available. You’ll know it the minute you taste it, and may start eating the mustard from a spoon (as we’ve enjoyed doing over the past few weeks). There’s also an organic Atomic Horseradish, marrying horseradish root with parsnip to create a very different and earthier, more flavorful style than the prepared horseradish in the refrigerator case (or our grandmother’s own eye-opening recipe of horseradish and beets). The line is certified kosher and (like all mustard) is gluten free.
Mustard is a terrific condiment. Low calorie, no fat or sugar (no cholesterol, no carbs), it has a spate of health benefits that are discussed in the main review. When you find a line this good, it’s worth clearing the shelf of your current inventory and trading up to a truly terrific taste. The Dijon flavor won the “best organic mustard” gold medal at this year’s Napa Valley Mustard Festival; but read about our favorites in the full review below.
|
| |
|
|
THE NIBBLE does not sell the foods we review
or receive fees from manufacturers for recommending them.
Our recommendations are based purely on our opinion, after tasting thousands of products each year, that they represent the best in their respective categories. |
Easy Cooking For Delicious Mustards
 |
 |
| DeLonghi Countertop Grill. Sleek Italian-made indoor grill with adjustable thermostat lets you cook meats on high and vegetables on low. Stainless-steel drip tray captures excess grease, so there’s less fat and no smoke. Item #21044. Visit Chefs Catalog for more information. |
Lodge Logic Sizzleware Set. Solves the problem of food growing cold as the festivities grow hot. With this set from the world leader in cast iron servingware, food sizzles on arrival and stays hot through the last bite. Item #22288. Visit Chefs Catalog for more information. |
Find These And Other Great Products
At Chefs Catalog Online |
 |
True Natural Taste Mustard: Artisan Organic Mustard
INDEX OF REVIEW
PLUS
|
MORE TO DISCOVER
|
Introduction
To many people, the word “mustard” evokes that yellow stuff on a ballpark frank—hardly a connoisseur product. Alas, those people have never enjoyed a great, specialty mustard. The great ones are so good, they can be enjoyed by the spoon from the jar. Aromatic, spicy and layered with flavor, mustard can add immensely to many different types of food, with almost no calories, no cholesterol (or fat of any kind), no sugar or other carbs. Many people reach for less healthy condiments such as barbecue sauce, ketchup and mayonnaise because most mustard is too sharp and pungent. But a great mustard is like a great wine: layers of flavor, round and supple.
For almost 10 years, Deborah Brock has focused her culinary passions on creating a line of creamy, organic white mustards—a delicious enhancements for many of the foods we eat daily. She began with a 5,000-year-old recipe for stone ground mustard. While the Egyptians sprinkled whole mustard seed on their food, the Sumerians ground it and mixed it with verjus, the juice of unripe grapes, which is still used today in some artisan recipes. They dunked their meat in this rough mustard, the seeds stone ground with husks. It worked as a tenderizer and a preservative as well as a condiment; and because it was made as needed, it was hotter—the oil in the mustard provides the heat, and the fresher it is, the hotter it is.
|
Creamy Honey Mustard on a bed of yellow mustard seeds (not the white seeds from which these mustards are made—they’re hard to come by!). |
True Natural Taste mustard is not hot, but delightfully tangy from the excellent cider vinegar (we asked if we could buy it directly). Even people who never thought twice about mustard will appreciate the finesse of these. Made from white mustard seeds instead of yellow seeds, they are pale, and can be added to sauces and other foods without changing their color.
Classic Mustard Varieties
Bitter, pungent, sharp and tangy, mustards are a popular condiment as well as a recipe ingredient. In most mustards, you taste the burn of the mustard seed and the harshness of the distilled white vinegar. With these white mustards, there is no harsh burn. They are made with organic mustard seeds, organic apple cider vinegar and sea salt (Hearty Horseradish Mustard adds organic horseradish). The fine quality of the ingredients and care in production creates mustards that are never bitter or rough, but deliver fine mustard flavor with a surprising roundness—and lots of apple cider tang.
Stone ground mustards have more texture than the creamy varieties: crushed mustard seeds, delightful in texture, also add a bit more fire. |
Organic Creamy White Mustard
The basic product in the line delivers lots of tanginess, piquant vinegar and vibrant mustard flavor. Unlike products that claim to, this truly will awaken your taste buds.
USE IT: On burgers, franks, sandwiches, in dressings—everything you use your basic mustard.
Organic Hearty Horseradish Mustard
Like horseradish? This was the favorite at our tasting: stone ground mustard blended with fresh horseradish root. The texture of the crushed mustard seeds, the blend of flavors, make this a winner.
USE IT: On absolutely everything. If you like horseradish, you’ll find things to put it on, every day. Make a dip or sauce for fish and seafood, accent a roast beef sandwich, dip your crudités. This horseradish mustard rules! Unlike horseradish mustards that are hot and harsh, this has a lovely roundness, like the rest of the line.
|
Organic Smooth Jalapeño Mustard
Puréed jalapeño is added to the recipe here, to deliver a medium heat. It’s similar to Creamy White, but for those who like a little more spice in their lives.
USE IT: As an all-purpose mustard with a bit more heat. Add to deviled eggs or omelets with bits of fresh or canned jalapeños.
Organic Stone Ground Dijon Mustard
Another stone ground recipe, this mustard looks just like Hearty Horseradish in the dish. But on the spoon, it is a classic Dijon—so much so that it won the gold medal for best organic mustard at the 2008 Napa Valley Mustard Festival. The crushed seeds are a delight
USE IT: Instead of your current Dijon mustard.
Mustard Varieties With Honey
Adding a bit of honey to these mustards enhances the tangy profile with just a bit of sweetness—good, honey sweetness.
Organic Pure Honey Mustard
Organic clover honey is added to the basic recipe. If you enjoy honey mustard, this one is an epiphany. Instead of a very sweet mustard—many are made with sugar or high fructose corn syrup instead of the more costly honey—this one is made with a restrained hand so that it’s mustard delightfully flavored with honey, rather than what seems, in so many recipes, to be a 50:50 blend of mustard and sweetness. You can taste the clover honey, and it tastes great.
Organic Sweet & Spicy Mustard
And if you like sweetness along with your spice, Sweet & Spicy combines honey with puréed jalapeño. It’s a wonderful recipe, for people who want honey sweetness with a mild amount of back-of-the-throat burn.
We couldn’t decide to buy one over the other: We had to have both Honey Mustard and Sweet & Spicy.
|
Honey mustard is elegant and sophisticated—not simple and sweet. |
USE THEM: In dips or as a straight dip for pretzels and crudités, on sandwiches, with franks and sausages and charcuterie (we especially like Sweet & Spicy here), with cooked vegetables, fish and seafood. Great mixers for deviled eggs. Try Sweet & Spicy on grilled steak and salmon—add a touch a few minutes before you pull the meat or fish off the grill, and it will form a light crust.
Make Your Own Mustard
You can make your own mustard at home, just like the Sumerians and Romans. They used a mortar and pestle; if you have a spice grinder, it’s quite a bit easier. Try it or fun and make only what you need. Add bits of jalapeño or other favorite seasonings, and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator. See how much more flavor you get from freshly-ground mustard seeds.
Stone ground mustards have more texture than the creamy varieties: crushed mustard seeds also add a bit more fire. |
Atomic Horseradish
The “extra hot” billing given to Atomic Horseradish may scare some people away, but it’s quite manageable by anyone who is accustomed to prepared horseradish from the refrigerator case. More than that, it is excellent, with a rich heat—you want to nibble away at it. The secret is the parsnips, which round out the bitterness of the horseradish. The horseradish is more “atomic” than you can make at home, because it’s ground in a closed container that keeps in the potency and flavor.
In addition to parsnips and horseradish, the ingredients include distilled vinegar, water, salt and sugar. Some people buy it by the gallon, but you can put a toe in the water with a six-ounce jar. Of course, that could disappear with the first pitcher of Bloody Marys.
Atomic Horseradish, is not organic, but it is all natural. Like the rest of the line, it is certified kosher and would make a great gift for gefilte-fish aficionados. There is a Kosher For Passover version.
|
USE IT: With oysters, to make dips and cocktail sauce, in Bloody Marys, to make an amazing horseradish sauce, with gefilte fish, to make horseradish crusts and in every recipe you have that requires horseradish.
The Health Benefits Of Mustard
The Greeks used mustard as both a condiment and a medicine: The mathematician and scientist Pythagoras prescribed it for scorpion stings and the physician Hippocrates used it as a medicine and for poultices, a use that continued until recent times as in the form of mustard plasters. They didn’t know what we know now: that mustard seeds are a very good source of omega-3 fatty acids as well as calcium, dietary fiber, iron, manganese, magnesium, niacin, phosphorus, protein, selenium and zinc. The effects of mustard are currently being studied for menopausal women and on migraine attacks. Modern studies show selenium helps reduce asthma, arthritis and certain cancers. Magnesium also reduces asthma and lowers blood pressure.
Robert Oranti of Sacramento won a first prize in this year’s Napa Valley Mustard Festival photography competition for this photo of mustard growing in California. |
Other benefits include positive impacts on:
- Asthma
- Blood Pressure
- Cancer Cell Growth
- Digestion
- Inflammation
- Migraine
- Metabolism
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
If you want to know more, there’a a lot of information on the health benefits of mustard online. |
Serving Suggestions
Mustard is far more versatile than most people give it credit for, the majority of mustard-owners never venturing beyond the first bullet. But, try it as a:
- Condiment: Enjoy with burgers, eggs, franks, potatoes, rice, sandwiches, vegetables
- Diet Food : Substitute for mayonnaise
- Dip: Combine with mayonnaise, sour cream or yogurt for crudités, pretzels and other dippers; or dip straight
- Dressing: Mix into mayonnaise for egg, pasta, potato, seafood and tuna salads
- Egg Dish Ingredient: Add to deviled eggs (mix with mayonnaise), fold into omelets
- Marinade & Barbecue Sauce: Add a tablespoon
- Rub: Rub or brush on red meat, white meat, poultry and seafood prior to grilling or roasting
- Salad Dressing Enhancer: Add a teaspoon to vinaigrettes
- Sauce & Gravy Spark: Add to taste
We’ll sign off with a bit of mustard trivia. The word mustard comes from the Latin mustum, the word for grape must, or young, unfermented wine. This liquid was mixed with ground mustard seed by French monks who made the condiment. While white wine and verjus are used to make several varieties of mustard today, most are made with vinegar. And in the case of True Natural Taste mustards, that very fine vinegar makes the line so distinctive and piquant.
— Karen Hochman
FORWARD THIS NIBBLE to anyone who likes mustard, or is looking for waist-watching ways to spice up food.
TRUE NATURAL TASTE ORGANIC MUSTARD
Creamy White Mustard, Hearty Horseradish Mustard, Pure Honey Mustard, Stone Ground Dijon Mustard, Smooth Jalapeño Mustard, Sweet & Spicy Mustard
USDA Certified Organic†
Certified Kosher By OU
- 7-Ounce Jar Mustard
6-Ounce Jar Atomic Horseradish
The more you buy, the less it costs.
Mix and match, including shipping:
1 Jar is
$12.00
2 Jars are $18.00 - But -
6 Jars
are $36.00
12 Jars are $66.00
Purchase via email*: Send your order to
info@truenaturaltaste.com, and you will be contacted re payment by check.
Or telephone 1.800.559.2998.
|
Try the whole group. Not shown: Smooth Jalapeño Mustard
and Atomic Horseradish.
|
For more information visit the website: TrueNaturalTaste.com
*Prices and product availability are verified at publication but are subject to change. THE NIBBLE does not sell products; these items are offered by a third party with whom we have no relationship. This link to purchase is provided as a reader convenience.
†Atomic Horseradish is all natural and kosher but not organic.
Read About These Favorite
Products:
|
Check Out These Other “Top Pick Of The Week” Condiments:
|
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, special offers,
contests, opinion surveys, THE NIBBLE
back issues archive, product gift-finder and more,
visit the home page of TheNibble.com.
Do you have friends who would enjoy THE NIBBLE?
Click here to send them an invitation to sign up for their own copy. |
© Copyright 2004-2024 Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights
reserved. All information contained herein is subject to change at any time
without notice. All details must be directly confirmed with manufacturers, service
establishments and other third parties. The material in this e-zine may not
be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with
the prior written permission of Lifestyle Direct, Inc.
|
|
|
|
