Moutarde de Bourgogne

Appearance & taste

Sieved mustard is yellow, thick, homogeneous and smooth. Unsieved mustard also bears the name “Moutarde à l’ancienne” (traditional mustard); it is yellow-brown and thick, with more or less crushed seeds. Both forms smell strongly of white wine, taste clearly of it and are more or less hot.

In sieved mustard, the dry matter of the mustard seeds makes up at least 24 % and their fat at least 9 % of the weight, and husk residues less than 2 %. In coarse-grained mustard it is at least 20 % dry matter and 5 % fat.

Production

Seeds of Brassica juncea with a brown husk and of Brassica nigra are used, from varieties in the French catalogue of varieties. They must not have been heated, may contain at most 1.5 % immature seeds and 0.7 % impurities and must have a minimum content of fat and of sinigrin, the precursor of the volatile isothiocyanates. Moistened mustard powder must taste fresh and hot, without rancid or musty notes.

The liquid in which the seeds are steeped contains white wine with a designation of origin from the Burgundy wine region: at least 25 % for sieved and at least 15 % for coarse-grained mustard. Water, possibly spirit vinegar, salt, sugar, spices and herbs are added. Artificial colourings, stabilisers and thickeners are prohibited, as are flavourings with a mustard taste such as allyl isothiocyanate.

Mustard seeds and mustard paste are produced in the area. The mustard may only be grown in a defined zone: growing trials by the Côte-d’Or chamber of agriculture from 1994 to 2000 showed that seeds of the necessary size and with enough sinigrin do not grow on the acid brown soils of the Morvan and the Haut-Charolais or on the high-lying podzolic soils of the Haut-Morvan.

Origin & history

Burgundy has a semi-continental climate with 650 to 900 mm of rainfall and about 1,830 hours of sunshine a year, and mainly clay and limestone soils. Mustard tolerates drought well, but rain at the end of May while the seeds fill is favourable. According to the specification, the climate and soils promote heat, a good colour and a good consistency.

According to the specification, Dijon was a stop on the spice route in Gallo-Roman times. When the route was diverted by the migrations of peoples, the Burgundians used instead the mustard that grows wild in the region, mixing the dried, coarsely crushed seeds with an acidic liquid into a paste that is today called “à l’ancienne”. According to one theory, the word “moutarde” goes back to the motto of the Dukes of Burgundy, “Moult me tarde”. In 1792 Pierre Jean-Baptiste Legrand d’Aussy wrote that it was natural for the best mustard to be made in the province of the best wines. On 7 July 1891 Léon and Ernest Méras, mustard makers in Sens, registered the trademark “Moutarde de Bourgogne, extra-blanche supérieure”.