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Diet Cooking and Healing Healthy mustard can do almost anything
Mustard is an indispensable part of German cuisine. Probably every German citizen should have a tube or a glass of it in the fridge. Often it is used as a "pungent" for the sausage, but with the yellow spice you can conjure up many tasty dishes. In addition, mustard has been known for millennia as a home remedy.
Mustard has long been known as a cure
For most Germans, a glass or a tube of it can be found in the kitchen: mustard is popular with the German citizens. However, those who know him only as a dip to Bockwurst, do not know what he misses. The paste is made from mostly brown or yellow mustard seed. Mustard is a millenarian remedy and is still used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. In this country, it is mainly known as a fine ingredient that gives the right spice to numerous dishes. In a message from the news agency dpa experts have some interesting information on the subject.
Mustard not only tastes good, it also heals. Image: bit24 - fotolia When cooking, add at the end
"Mustard fits in almost all dishes and completes the taste," says Helga Jungbeck of the cooking school "Senfonie" in Altenburg (Thuringia). For example, it is ideal for dressings in which it acts like an emulsifier and harmoniously combines vinegar and oil. The expert recommends, depending on your taste, either medium hot mustard or sweet fruit mustard for the dressing. When cooking mustard, according to Jungbeck always be added until the end, so that the heat does not destroy the essential oils. This also applies to the mustard soup, which may no longer be cooked after adding the mustard. And even with roasting and grilling, it is important to carefully dose the heat so that the mustard does not burn, according to the expert.
Quality may also cost something
When buying one should not necessarily be too frugal: According to a study by Stiftung Warentest expensive mustard is usually much tastier. Which variety fits which is, above all, a matter of taste. As Thomas Weber, operator of a mustard manufactory in Vilshofen, Bavaria, explained in the dpa report, one can assume as a basic rule that a mild mustard harmonizes well with mild dishes and heartier meals tolerate a stronger mustard. To soft cheese such as Camembert he recommends a ginger mustard, to strong mountain cheese it may like to be an intense wild garlic mustard. Even for baking mustard is. The operator of the organic mustard manufactory raves about cheese mustard muffins: In the basic dough from rapeseed oil, flour, milk, eggs, baking powder and spices fit for example Gorgonzola and an intense garlic or Chilisenf.
Just make mustard yourself
Although there is more and more diversity in the trade, but who does not find the right one among the mustard varieties offered, can also easily produce mustard itself. As Claudia Diewald, author of the book "mustard itself made", says, even inexperienced cooks can dare to make mustard. It could hardly go wrong. Good ingredients are especially important, a mild vinegar with at least five percent acid and long stirring, so that the ingredients combine well with the mustard flour or mustard seeds. According to Diewald could be improved again and again, if the taste on the first try is not quite true. "If the marjoram must not taste it, it will be spiced up with herbs from Provence." It makes sense to try the mustard only after a sufficient rest period, as it tastes fresh "horribly bitter".
Color says something about the sharpness
For those who want to get into their own mustard production, Diewald advises preparing a coarse mustard, for which the mustard seed is roughly crushed with a mortar or briefly ground with a coffee grinder. With light and dark mustard seeds, white wine vinegar, cane sugar, salt and orange syrup and grind, for example, they can conjure up a delicious orange mustard. After about a week of maturation, it goes well with cheese or fried poultry. According to dpa, the ratio of brown and yellow mustard seeds determines the severity: the more brown seed a mustard contains, the sharper it is.
Delicious and also very healthy
Antje Gahl of the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) presses in the agency message that mustard not only tastes, but is also healthy. According to health experts, mustard, among other things, stimulate digestion and have an antimicrobial effect. The health-promoting effect was already known to our grandparents. So a spoonful of mustard on an empty stomach is considered an old home remedy for boosting the metabolism. And researchers from the Institute of Environmental Medicine and Hospital Hygiene at the University of Freiburg reported several years ago that spicy mustard may protect against cancer-causing substances. At that time, the scientists explained that the anticancer effect was due to the group of phytochemicals, especially the mustard oils. Most people will probably take mustard for their enjoyment. It should always be paid to the quality. "A good mustard does not need sausage," says Weber. (Ad)