"Old Maids and Mustard"

I like mustard, especially the horseradish mustard blends...or the super hot mustards served with Chinese foods.  I love that strange crinkly, spreading pain that sweeps my sinus. Just the thought of it whiffles my nose with a ghost tingle and I think I smell egg rolls!  I'm not a mustard wonk, however, so my frig door only has a few bottles of different blends.  I always get Bookbinder's mustards because my husband was an antiquarian bookbinder for 35 years.  The other bottles are whatever brand catches my eye when I am at the store.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       This ad from 1895 is full of Mustard Fairies!  I just shared all the seed brownies with you the other day, and here are mustard fairies.  The world is filled with unexpected delights!

I was really surprised to read in this following charming article how late in history England adopted this popular condiment made of mustard seeds.  In this magazine piece from an 1893 issue of The English Illustrated Magazine the author mentions mustard was developed 173 years ago...which makes it 1720.  That's not right; perhaps a type of more refined mustard is what the author refers to. It is a good read, and the illustrations are first rate! 

Just so you know, from Wikipedia: The early use of mustard as a condiment in England is attested from the year 1390 in the book The Forme of Cury which was written by King Richard II's master cooks. It was prepared in the form of mustard balls — coarse-ground mustard seed combined with flour and cinnamon, moistened, rolled into balls, and dried — which were easily stored and combined with vinegar or wine to make mustard paste as needed.

Did mustard seed workers have fewer bouts of sinus congestion than the other trades, I wonder.

Allyl isothiocyanate, mustard oil, is the potent ingredient that does a job on your head. "Trigeminal chemosensory nerve endings in the nasal mucosa are in the first line of defense against noxious chemical challenges. Trigeminal excitation initiates the sensation of irritation and pain and initiates sneezing (10). Sensory-autonomic parasympathetic efferent reflex pathways induce secretions from nasal, lacrimatory and salivary glands, and the dilation of vessels in the nasal mucosa and sinuses." Link