Welcome to another episode of Eating the Past. I'm Laura Gelfand, and on today's show, I'll be continuing this season's spice theme with a look at something truly hot, a condiment that is ubiquitous on English tables, Coleman's mustard.
As I prepare to move to England in a few weeks, this seems like a particularly appropriate topic. The English are adamant about mustard, and Coleman's is the clear winner in terms of popularity. I have to admit that I've never really thought much about what goes into mustard or how to account for the varieties you find in gourmet stores, but it's actually pretty interesting.
Mustard is, of course, made from mustard seeds, and there are three different types. Black mustard seeds are the smallest and most difficult to find, and they have the most heat. Brown mustard seeds are larger than the black and fairly common, and then the yellow or white seeds are the mildest of the bunch. To release their flavor, you have to grind them up, which is apparently much easier if you soak the seeds first.
Water is the best liquid to soak them in to release their heat, and it produces the cleanest mustard flavor. It's also possible to use vinegar or beer to soak your seeds, but this will mellow the flavor, and it results in things like ballpark mustard, which is pretty mellow stuff.
Once you've ground your seeds, then you can add vinegar, cider, beer, or other flavorings like honey or herbs to create whatever kind of flavor profile you like.
Now, to Coleman's, the company was founded by Jeremiah Coleman near Norwich, England in 1814. Jeremiah used a mixture of brown and white mustard to achieve his extra spicy blend, and the company remained in the family for several generations and adopted its distinctive bright yellow packaging with the, I think, adorable bull's head in 1855
It was granted the royal warrant as producers of mustard for Queen Victoria in 1866 and this still appears on their labels. And it is also the official mustard of King Charles the Third.
The Coleman family were extremely forward thinking, and they opened a school for employees children in 1857 Before education was compulsory.
A few years after that, they employed a full-time nurse to care for those who worked in the factory, something absolutely revolutionary at the time. Coleman's also provided housing, pension schemes, sick benefits, and even coffins for their workers. Some of the terraced houses they built were said to have mustard-colored front doors.
At the turn of the 20th century, Coleman's acquired their biggest competitor, the producer of French's mustard, and by 1909 they employed 2300 people. The Coleman's brand was pulled out of the larger company, though, in 1995 and acquired by the huge food giant Unilever, who still own and run it.
Their mustard recipe has apparently remained unchanged since its founding, and they're particularly proud of the fact that they sieve their mustard seeds nine times before grinding them as well as using the original seed dryer building from 1890.
All of their mustard seeds are sourced from English farmers and are milled in Norfolk. Unilever moved most of the production out of Norwich in 2018 but because the condiment is so strongly associated with the town, there was a huge public outcry, and the corporation made several concessions, including continuing to mill the mustard in Norfolk.
In future shows, I'll be exploring English food and its traditions as Eating the Past's foreign correspondent. So, stay tuned.
And join me and my colleagues next week for even more tasty talk that's on Eating the Past every Sunday at noon, right before The Splendid Table on your UPR station.
