'Burning mist' is booming
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 9 years, 11 months AGO
No fat. No cholesterol. Almost no sodium (2 percent DV) or calories (three in a teaspoon).
Very few foods can beat mustard. Idaho’s 36 mustard growers know it, enjoying increased prices and strong demand. So according to a recent Associated Press report, they’ve just devoted 250 percent more in acreage to grow this easy crop, which produces seeds in as little as 60 days. Nationwide growers produced 55,000 mustard acres in 2015, a huge upsurge from 2013’s 15,000 acres.
It’s a mustard megaboom.
Yellow mustard is made by grinding the seeds of a short plant with yellow flowers, the same one which also produces mustard greens. The simple recipe adds water and vinegar. That’s it for the basics, although there are several mustard seed varieties (e.g., brown or Dijon mustard) and fancier mustard makers add other spices.
Like so many classics, Ancient Romans may have introduced the food — or at least perfected it — although it was valued as a spice by ancient Egyptians and Asian traders. Its use as medicine may go back to the Bronze Age.
There’s much more to mustard. Did you know:
• The Romans added unfermented grape juice and called it must(um) ard(ens), which means burning mist.
• Mustard appears in the Bible’s New Testament.
• Since the 1600s, mustard seed has been credited with helping memory, toothaches, hiccups, joint pain, skin problems, and stomach aches.
Herbalists recommend mustard seed to strengthen the digestive system, metabolize fat, ease muscle pain (with a mustard seed plaster or poultice), and encourage appetite. Careful overdoing it; it’s also still used as an emetic.
Mustard is considered a “warming herb,” a stimulant to warm the circulatory system (dilate blood vessels, encourage perspiration, and burn fat) and cleanse the body of toxins. For chest colds some people drink mustard seed tea or add it to bath water.
A mustard bath? Think I’ll stick to burgers and Caesar dressing.
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Sholeh Patrick is columnist for the Hagadone News Network and big mustard fan. Contact her at [email protected].