Mustard

Mustard is the seed and the prepared paste made from it. It is a spice. It does not acidify a jar.

NCHFP: pickled products are spices, sugar, and vinegar blended with fruits and vegetables ¹. Mustard seed is one of those spices, especially next to Cucumber. Vinegar is the sour in fresh-pack pickles. Black pepper is a neighbor in the same blend.

Prepared mustard is seed plus liquid (often vinegar) plus salt. That is a condiment, not a canning process. Do not treat a spoon of mustard as a substitute for the vinegar a pickle recipe weighed.

What to notice. Whole seed is round, hard, and smells hot when crushed. Prepared mustard should smell cleanly pungent, not stale. Heat on the nose is volatile; bitterness on the tongue is the seed.

Preserving and Pickling own the jar. Mustard owns the bite.