Mustard Seed Whole Yellow (Sinapis alba; Bai Jie Zi) 1 lb

This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Mustard seed is obviously the basis of your own homemade gourmet mustard. It also an invaluable addition to many sauces stews chutneys breads and casseroles. Mustard is usually made with crushed or ground mustard seeds vinegar and wine. Honey or sugar are often added for sweetness herbs and spices to taste. Tarragon is a frequent addition to mustard recipes as is turmeric which gives a bright yellow color. The pungency of white mustard (Sinapis alba) is stable and does not diminish over time whereas the pungency of black musatard (Sinapis nigra) although initially stronger than that of white mustard diminishes upon long standing due to hydrolysis. Black mustard seeds therefore are used for strong and spicy mustards and are understood to have a shorter shelf-life than mustard made from white seeds. Cooking radically alters the pungency of mustard seeds and gives them a unique flavor found nowhere else. Great mustard seed recipe page: http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blspice7.htm. Lemon and Mustard Seed Chutney http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blcon40.htm: Ingredients 4 medium onions sliced 5 big lemons seeded and chopped up 1 ounce salt 1 pint apple cider vinegar 1 ounce mustard seeds ¼ pound seedless raisins 1 scant teaspoon ground allspice 1 pound sugar Dash mace 1 or 2 cracked black peppercorns Pinch of cracked coriander (optional) Sprinkle salt over the onions and lemons and leave for 12 hours. Add remaining ingredients bring to boil then simmer on very low fire for about 45 minutes. Put into sterilized jars and seal when cold. Serve with leftover beef or mutton or ham or as a side dish to anything curried. Rhubarb Chutney http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/blcon38.htm: Ingredients 1 pound rhubarb 2 teaspoons coarsely grated fresh ginger 2 garlic cloves 1 or 2 jalapeno peppers seeds and veins removed 1 teaspoon paprika 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds ¼ cup dried currants 1 cup light brown sugar 1-½ cups white wine vinegar Wash the rhubarb and slice it into pieces ¼ inch thick. If the stalks are wide first cut them into halves or thirds lengthwise. Finely chop the grated ginger with the garlic and jalapenos. Place all the ingredients in a non-corroding pan bring to a boil lower the heat and simmer until the rhubarb is broken down and is the texture of a jam about 30 minutes. Stored refrigerated in a glass jar this chutney will keep several months. Hot tart and sweet this is a condiment to serve with curries or with crackers and cream cheese. Mustard's stimulating diaphoretic action can be utilized in the way that cayenne and ginger are. For feverishness colds and flu mustard may be taken as a tea or ground and sprinkled into a bath. An infusion or poultice of mustard will aid in cases of bronchitis. Grieve's classic 'A Modern Herbal': 'An infusion of the seeds will relieve chronic bronchitis and confirmed rheumatism and for a rel31d sore throat a gargle of Mustard Seed Tea will be found of service.' King's 1898 Dispensatory: 'Mustard is an irritant stimulant rubefacient vesicant and diuretic. It is used in small quantities internally as a condiment and mild but efficient excitant of the organs of digestion. In drachm doses it acts as an emetic and will thus be found serviceable in cases of gastric torpidity poisoning by narcotics to stimulate the stomach and to aid other emetics in fulfilling their indications.' 'Mustard should be cautiously employed upon young children as it has in several recorded instances induced suppression of the urine or strangury. The volatile oil of mustard is a powerful rubefacient and vesicatory; and in the dose of 2 drops several times a day in some mucilaginous vehicle it is a good diuretic useful in dropsy and has been serviceable in colic. The usual dose however of volatile oil of mustard is from 1/12 to ¼ drop. A liniment composed of 1 part of the oil dissolved in 16 parts of alcohol or in 10 parts of olive or almond oil is a good substitute for a sinapism though less manageable.' 'White mustard-seed taken entire was formerly used as a favorite tonic in dyspepsia and as a laxative the seed passing unchanged and probably acting by mechanical irritation. Dose of mustard as an emetic 1 2 or 3 drachms with 6 or 8 ounces of warm water (see Charta Sinapis and Cataplasma Sinapis). A prolonged application of a mustard cataplasm causes blistering with even ulceration and gangrene.' 'A mustard plaster is prepared from equal parts of wheaten or rye flour and lukewarm or cold water spread upon fabric and applied with a thin tissue as of gauze intervening between the plaster and skin. Its effects should be closely watched especially in delicate individuals and the old and young.' American Materia Medica 1919 (Ellingwood): 'A teaspoonful of mustard in a bowl of warm water will produce active and immediate emesis. This should be followed by another bowl of warm water alone which will continue the evacuation and wash out any remaining mustard as even then the burning sensation from the local effects of this substance with a few patients is hard to bear. Emesis must be obtained as soon as possible after the ingestion of the mustard. An emetic dose must not be allowed to remain in the stomach as inflammation may follow.' 'In the treatment of acute pleuritis a warm poultice applied over the affected side sufficiently large to much more than cover the diseased area will usually relieve the pain at once and a large poultice is always more effective than a small one. It may be necessary to repeat its application within twenty-four hours but if vigorous direct treatment is adopted this is seldom necessary.' 'In bronchitis or pneumonitis in the initiatory stages a quick poultice of mustard will exercise a good influence but it does not give the immediate relief experienced in pleuritis or pneumonitis where acute pain is a prominent symptom. It should be followed in the former conditions as soon as the sensitiveness of the skin will allow by persistent heat moist or dry as seems indicated.' 'A most efficient measure in congestive headache or in headache from any cause with fullness of the cerebral vessels is a mustard poultice on the nape of the neck.' 'Spinal irritation is most effectively treated by the use of a succession of these poultices. On the first day of the treatment one is applied on the back across the upper third of the spine; on the second day across the middle third and on the third day across the lower third producing thorough sharp counter-irritation but no blistering. On the fourth day it is applied at the top of the spine again and the same course followed as before. This may be continued for two weeks or more if the skin is sufficiently restored in the interim between the poultices. This course will most materially assist other measures adopted in the treatment of this condition.' 'A hot mustard foot bath is of great service in congestive chill also in the chill at the onset of acute fever or acute inflammation of any character. It produces immediate derivation assists in equalizing the circulation acts as a diaphoretic and perceptibly checks the progress of the disease.' 'In the recession of the rash of eruptive fevers no measure is more prompt than a general hot mustard bath which should be continued until a mild redness covers the entire body.' 'In arrest of the menses from cold a sitz bath strong with mustard will sometimes produce an immediate restoration of the flow. It is always of assistance to other measures. It is sometimes necessary to take this bath each night for a week preceding the time the menses should appear and continue it until that result is obtained.'