Can anyone recommend a dijon mustard that doesn't have a metallic taste. I felt a salad I made was ruined by the what I used

Gwendolen, welcome to Foodlovers. I regularly use Maille Dijon mustard and have never encountered a metallic taste with it.

Grey Poupon or Maille.

I use Maille, and as I don't get through it quickly, follow the instructions to keep it in the fridge.

I agree about Maille

I don't understand the hype about Maille, why it's considered to be such good quality. It contains sulphur dioxide as a preservative. As preservatives go, sulphur dioxide isn't one of the good ones.

I don't think I've seen any other mustards in New Zealand that contain preservatives.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2020 10:04AM by DK.

So, DK, which mustard do you recommend?

At the risk of being a mustard heathen, I like master Foods Dijon. I use lots and have been lucky enough to be able to buy it from Gilmore’s in the 2.5kg jar! I don’t refrigerate it and decant into a mustard jar for use. Sadly my source has gone so Ill have to buy masses of little jars - or make it which would be my preference if I could find a recipe with the same flavour. So far I haven’t been able to find a mild enough recipe. For my first 50 years I avoided mustard like the plague hence me preferring something milder.

Janet or Emma, There's no such thing as 'being a heathen' where food is concerned. It's what YOU like that matters. Would be a pity if we all liked the same things, there'd be nothing to discuss!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2020 09:06PM by Lorna.

Thanks for that, Lorna. You’re right of course, but there’s often quite a bit of snobbery with food. I like what I like but also like it to be pretty and fun!

I don't eat organic purposefully but Countdown's Macro brand organic mustards are good.

I usually get my mustard from Bulk Food Savings in Mt Eden, Akl. The name of the brand I like escapes me because I'm on a horseradish kick (pun completely intended) at the moment so don't have any mustard in the fridge. Yes, I know mustard and horseradish aren't mutually exclusive but I'm trying to moderate my spending.

The one I like is an American brand and it's organic but I often try the various ones they have at Bulk Food Savings.

I ran out of dijon mustard this week so went looking at labels. Note "Dijon mustard does not have a protected geographical indication (PGI). 80% of seeds used to make the mustard come from Canada. A 1937 decree ruled that "Dijon mustard" can be used as generic designation and has no link to a specific terroir."

Note also "First used in 1336 for the table of King Philip VI, it became popular in 1856 when Jean Naigeon of Dijon replaced the usual ingredient of vinegar in the recipe with verjuice, the acidic juice of unripe grapes. The main ingredients of this condiment are brown mustard seeds and white wine, or a mix of wine vinegar, water and salt designed to imitate the original verjuice."
(Wikipedia - [en.wikipedia.org] ).

What a shame they're all vinegar versions instead of verjuice or wine, except for the Grey Poupon which charges you an arm and a leg for a dash of white wine... Really, the intent of Jean Naigeon in making Dijon mustard with verjuice has been completely lost in the commonplace offerings listed below (Grey Poupon excepted...)


Countdown Dijon Mustard, made in France, 200g $2.50 (1.25 cents per gram)
Water, Mustard Seeds (25%), Spirit Vinegar, Salt, Antioxidant (224), Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid)

Macro (Countdown brand) Organic Dijon Mustard, made in France, 200g $3 (1.5 cents per gram)
Water, Organic Mustard Seeds (26%), Organic Spirit Vinegar, Salt

Maille Dijon Mustard, Product of France, 215g $3.50 (1.6 cents per gram)
Water, Mustard Seeds (30%), vinegar, salt, acidity regulator (330), preservative (224)

Masterfoods Dijon Mustard, an Australian brand so probably made there, 170g $3 (1.7 cents per gram)
Water, Mustard Seeds (18%), sugar, salt, acidity regulator (acetic acid), spice (turmeric)

Delmaine French Dijon Mustard, made in France, 200g $4 (2c per gram)
Water, Mustard Seeds (32%), vinegar, salt, preservative (222)

Grey Poupon Dijon Mustard, Product of France, 215g very expensive
distilled white vinegar, mustard seed, water, salt, white wine, citric acid, tartaric acid, fruit pectin, sugar, spices

I don't really feel like buying any.....maybe I should make my own....sigh.....

Well, I did make my own. I bought some verjuice (Alison McKee, VineCo, Hawke's Bay [www.foodlovers.co.nz]) and used that. I used these two recipes as guides but kept mine very simple (no garlic, onion, rosemary, etc - ...maybe another time...).
[www.allrecipes.com]
[flouronmyface.com]

I'll see what it tastes like after sitting for a few weeks. I made a small portion (200g).

Alison McKee on foodlovers talking about mustard - [forum.foodlovers.co.nz]
[www.foodlovers.co.nz]

I looked at the ingredients of my fav, the masterfoods one, too, and discovered there was no vinegar, which from my reading was supposed to make it sharper. It made me wonder if that was why I liked it! I’m thinking of having ago but using water instead of vinegar, although logic tells me that the vinegar is also a preservative. One of the main things I use it for is mayo. I understand that Dijon is the emulsifier...... lots to think about.

Duh! The master food one has ascetic acid in it, so am going to give a vinegar one a whirl. I wonder if homemade will work in mayo. Try it I guess. Good work on the price comparison, J1. I’ve only just noticed it. Really surprising. It will be interesting to see how much home made works out at (if I can be bothered. It’s a feel good factor though if it’s cheaper. Haha)

Janet/Emma, your comment made me wonder about the cost so I worked mine out. I can see why they don't put verjuice (or wine) in their manufactured versions, as it causes significant cost increases. If I'd used vinegar like they do...much cheaper.

I used:
VineCo verjuice 375ml bottle $8.49 (fabulous price for it, from my local Moore Wilson's), which is 0.02264 cents per ml and I used 134ml of it so this cost me $3.03
Gregg's yellow mustard seeds 40g packet $2.20 and my scaled down recipe used ¼ cup (40g) so $2.20 for that
Colman's dry mustard 57g tin $2.80 (0.0491 cents per gram) and I used 7g of it, so that cost me 34 cents
salt - cost me less than 1 cent so won't include

I got 200g of Dijon mustard from my recipe, total cost $5.57, which makes my mustard cost 0.2785 cents per gram (just under 3 cents per gram), which is more expensive than all of the shop ones except for Grey Poupon.

However, if I'd used vinegar instead of verjuice, like the shop ones do, then:
134ml of malt vinegar at 0.003066 cents per ml = 41 cents
134ml of apple cider vinegar at 0.004933 cents per ml = 66 cents
134ml of white wine vinegar at 0.0098 cents per ml = $1.31

which is significantly cheaper than my 134ml of verjuice cost of $3.03

so if I'd used, say, apple cider vinegar instead of verjuice, the total cost of my 200g of Dijon mustard would have been $3.20 which is 1.6 cents per gram, which is in the mid-range of shop mustard cost and is equal to the cost of Maille Dijon mustard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2020 10:20PM by J1.

I tasted my homemade Dijon mustard again today, after it'd been sitting for a couple of weeks. It's good - mild, interesting. My other half said I could put more mustard seeds in it and I presume he said this because he wanted more of a mustard kick to it. So I'll make the next lot with brown mustard seeds instead of yellow. All the supermarket Dijons use yellow mustard seeds, which are the mildest ones and also very cheap. Dijon mustard is traditionally made with brown mustard seeds which are "hotter" and more expensive.

Good work, J1. Interesting about the cost. I guess verjuice is the gourmet option, but I was surprised it wasn’t significantly cheaper to make your own. Nice to know what’s in it though, and always satisfying to know you made it yourself. Janet

Hi Janet/Emma, yes it was fun and informative making it. I've just bought some brown mustard seeds which are slightly more expensive than yellow mustard seeds (brown ones 100g $6, yellow ones 100g $5.50). I thought, instead of making a new lot with the brown mustard seeds, I might pulverise them and just add them to my first lot of Dijon mustard...

J1 , sounds like you’re having fun, maybe the most important thing about being in the kitchen. You might need to add more liquid too? Will be interesting to see how it goes. I had made some ages ago, which I hadn’t liked, but thought I’d throw some in a roast pork to use it up and it was quite nice. Pity it was so long ago I have no idea which recipe I used. Haha. What that shows is that it gets much mellower - good for me, but obviously not for your husband. I always have a jar of really hot mustard, as my husband likes that on ham, etc. I’m going to try some more (will label with what I’ve done) while I’ve still got the masterfoods one left to compare.