Tewkesbury mustard

Tewkesbury Mustard is a blend of mustard flour and grated Horseradish root.

The mustard was developed in the English town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and gained certain notoriety in the 17th Century becoming a staple condiment of the kitchens of the time.

Shakespeare mentions the mustard in Henry IV where Falstaff has the line: “his wit’s as thick as Tewkesbury Mustard” [cite web |url=http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=henry4p2&Act=2&Scene=4&Scope=scene&LineHighlight=1521#1521 |title=Henry IV, Part II, Scene 4 |accessdate=2008-05-10 |publisher=opensourceshakespeare.org] .

Mustard Balls

Originally the mustard was prepared by grinding the mustard seeds into mustard flour, combining this with finely grated horseradish (and sometimes herbs and spices) then forming the mixture into balls which were then dried to aid preservation. [citation
title = The History of Tewkesbury
first = James | last = Bennett
page = 201
publisher = James Bennett, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London
date = 1830] The mustard balls would then be transported and sold in this form.

To use the balls they would be broken apart then mixed with a liquid such as water, vinegar [citation
title = A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 8
first = C | last = Erlington
page = 137-146
publisher = Victoria County History
date = 1968] , wine, ale, beer, cider or fruit juice to soften them and mixed to a thick, creamy consistency. Often a sweetener such as honey would be added.

The resulting mixture would then be used as a condiment just as mustard is used today or as a cure for ailments [citation
title = A History of the County of Gloucester: volume 8
first = C | last = Erlington
page = 137-146
publisher = Victoria County History
date = 1968] .

Today

At the time of the Tewkesbury Festival in 1971 (a major program of events commemorating the 850th anniversary of the consecration of the Abbey and the 500th anniversary of the Battle of Tewkesbury) the mustard was re-created on a commercial basis from the original recipe [cite web |url=http://www.seatofmars.com/mustard/gourmetmustards/tewkesburymustard.html |title=Tewkesbury Mustard |accessdate=2008-05-11] , though it is not made in Tewkesbury. Hand-made mustard using local ingredients can still be purchased in Tewkesbury. The mustard can still be bought in ball format and even covered in gold-leaf.

There are now several manufacturers producing the mustard and it is readily found in Tewkesbury’s shops and elsewhere, Fortnum & Mason in London stocks it and Waitrose supermarkets sell their own-label jars of it.

Additional Notes

There is some evidence that “Tewkesbury Mustard” came to be used as slang for fire-balls. Robert Hugh Benson’s historical novel “Oddfish!” contains the text: “Workmen, too, were set to search and dig everywhere for "Tewkesbury mustard-balls," as they were called--or fire-balls, with which it was thought that the Catholics would set London a-fire” [citation
title = Oddfish!
first = Robert Hugh | last = Benson
publisher = Hutchinson, London
date = 1914] which suggests that the term was used to describe some sort of early day incendiary device.

Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer in his book “The Folk-lore of Plants” [cite web |url=http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=10118 |title=The Folk-Lore of Plants | first = Thomas Firminger|last = Thiselton-Dyer|accessdate=2008-05-11 |publisher=Project Gutenberg] (pub. 1889) gives evidence that the phrase “He looks as if he lived on Tewkesbury mustard” came to be used as slang in Gloucestershire for those "who always have a sad, severe, and terrific countenance".

References