Foods designed to be eaten on their own need balance; without, it you’ll struggle to get through a meal. Condiments have different rules. They’re designed to be eaten with something. Their role is to adjust or intensify what is already on the plate, bun or roll.
Mustards should be intense. I’m not saying they need to be nuclear, but at the very least they need to shock me, and make my taste buds feel as if they’ve been pricked by a bed of nails. I want my sausage delivered, if not with radioactive fallout, then with a side of light acupuncture. Anything less is pathetic – likely made by cowards and the spice intolerant. At the very least, they need to taste like mustard – that is, mustard seeds, the ingredient they’re based on. That was how I was thinking before I tasted 39 jars of it.
