Raspberry Honey Mustard

I'll try to make this short because I am extremely tired.

My Shakespeare's Kitchen cookbook includes several recipes for homemade mustard. The recipes were all very simple and straight-forward, so I figured I'd give it a try. Here's a short list of the things I've learned about making mustard so far:

• mustard, even cheap-o no name mustard, is a lot more potent than I expected when freshly prepared
• it will have a bitter taste/aftertaste to it for the first day or so after it's mixed up
• mixing the dry mustard with some cold water and letting it stand for a few minutes will bring out its heat; for hot mustard do this, for milder mustard mix it with the acidic ingredients immediately
• even without the cold water soak, you can still expect some pretty pungent mustard!
• make mustard a bit runnier than you want the final product to be as it will continue to thicken up for several days after it's made
• if you get a high-quality dry mustard, expect it to have an intense, almost wasabi-like kick once prepared (even if you mix directly with vinegar)
• there are a multitude of mustard flavouring possibilities and I'd really like to do some more experimenting when I have the time!

Raspberry Honey Mustard
1/4 c. honey (I used a light, golden liquid honey for this)
2 Tbsp. raspberry zinfandel
1 Tbsp. raspberry vinegar
1 Tbsp. high-quality dry mustard or 2 Tbsp. discount dry mustard
1/4 tsp. sea salt
3-4 grinds black pepper

Just mix everything together and let stand for at least 24 hours before using. Will keep in the fridge for up to a year.

I tried this both with Keen's dry mustard powder and with some cheap no name ground mustard. The no name was much milder when used in the same proportions as the Keen's. Doubling the amount of mustard called for brought the cheap mustard up to almost the same level of intensity as the fancier stuff.

Keen's also had pretty much no aftertaste or bitterness even immediately after being mixed. The no name had an unpleasant aftertaste initially, but this had completely dissipated after 24 hours. (The Keen's still tasted better though, although it was a much nearer thing the day after mixing.)

Both mustards were extremely thin immediately after being mixed. They had thickened up noticeably after a day, but were still nowhere near as thick as most prepared mustards I've had. The batch with the double quantity of cheap mustard (unsurprisingly) was thicker than the others, but still more liquid than paste. It was too thin to be spreadable or anything like that. We'll see if it thickens up more over the next couple of days.

Being that this mustard has such a kick to it, I think it would be interesting to experiment with layering different types of "hot" into the same condiment. I'd like to try blending mustard with cayenne or chili powder and maybe some white pepper too.

There are all sorts of different flavour combinations that could be tried here, varying the type and amount of honey or sugar, trying different types of vinegar, using different types of alcohol (or none at all)! If I did a raspberry mustard again, I'd like to try using a tablespoon or two of chambord in place of the zinfandel. Plenty of possibilities!