Steenbergs Organic Brown Mustard Seeds

Organic Brown Mustard Seeds are small round or oblong dark seeds. They are widely used in Indian cooking. Black mustard has a forecful biting heat that hits the mouth and nose.

Steenbergs sources the highest quality organic brown mustard seeds from India that we pack down in small batches in North Yorkshire.

Black mustard seeds have a slight nutty aroma and only get flavour when ground down and in contact with water which activates it and it has a bitingly hot taste that clears out your nasal passages. They are often used in tempering in Indian cooking.

Axel’s Tasting Notes: Hot: little aroma till becomes wet when has sharp heat.

Food Pairing: pickling spice mixes or added into curries, working well with potatoes, lentils and chickpeas – a tadka dhal, for example.

More on Brown Mustard

Black and brown mustard seeds are similar, but different, and are basically interchangeable. Black mustard is more usual for organic supplies.

Brown mustard comes from a taller plant than yellow mustard plants, growing 2 – 3 m high. They have large oval or lanceolate leaves and yellow flowers like for yellow mustard plants.

The seed pods are 2 cm long. The pods are picked when they are fully developed but not yet ripe as they burst open easily. After cutting, the mustard hay is stacked in sheaves to dry before being threshed to remove the seeds.

Brown mustard seeds are more pungent than yellow mustard seeds. There is almost no aroma, but the taste is sharp and bitingly hot. They make your eyes water a little, because of the action of an enzyme called myrosinase, a pungent volatile compound is made, allyl isothiocyanate.