Well, it’s Memorial Day weekend, 2025 — a time for many people to get a three-day weekend and get together with family and friends for cookouts. That usually means hamburgers and hot dogs, so that usually means mustard. And because I am obsessed with mustard, that means it is time for my fourth Cutting the Mustard feature, where I spend the better part of a year hunting, discovering, sampling, and reviewing massive multitudes of mustard. These take me a while to write because our fridge is only so big, and I can’t have too many open bottles and jars taking up space at the same time, so I try to finish jars before opening new ones.
For my first-ever Cutting the Mustard back in 2021, I reviewed seven different mustards. In 2022, I raised the stakes by reviewing ten different mustards in Cutting the Mustard II: The Quest for More Mustard. In 2024, I went above and beyond by reviewing 26 mustards (making up for skipping 2023) in Cutting the Mustard III: Mustardy Agreement. And now I’m back again, with more of that yellow condiment you may tolerate, but I love!
Since I’m trying to eat somewhat healthier, with fewer carbs, I tried a lot of these mustards with Kirkland oven-browned turkey breast, which I buy at Costco. It is a boneless, skinless, fully cooked, unsliced turkey breast that is relatively cheap, lean protein. Best of all, it is a blank slate for any kinds of recipes or sandwiches, and it goes with almost any condiments or other accompaniments. Kirkland oven-browned turkey breast is like the vanilla of meats, and I am not saying that as a diss to the turkey or to vanilla. Everyone knows that really good vanilla is delicious, but what I mean is that almost any other flavor goes well with it. So I guess I’m saying that turkey breast is like the capybara of meats, because it gets along well with everything the way capybaras get along with all the other animals.
Way back in Cutting the Mustard II, I reviewed Zakuson Russian Standard mustard, a real sinus-burner. I got the Zakuson Canadian mustard on the left at the same store, the Eastern European grocery store Green Hills Supermarket in Altamonte Springs. Instead of having that nasal burn like Chinese mustard, this one was toned down with a sweet maple flavor. I usually find sweet mustards to be too sweet, but this one was mostly just sticky and bland. I wouldn’t get it again. 
I think I found the Simply Supreme Craft Beer mustard at Clemons Produce, arguably Orlando’s best produce market, and my personal favorite. In addition to the freshest fruits and vegetables from Florida and beyond, Clemons always stocks a huge selection of Amish products and other interesting condiments, sauces, sodas, and snacks, plus they have an Amish deli that slices Troyer brand meats and cheeses. This Simply Supreme Craft Beer mustard is a Woeber’s product; I’ve reviewed their Sweet & Spicy and and Hot & Spicy Sandwich Pal mustards before, and both were better. This one lacked the “zing” I always appreciate in mustards, so I could see it going better with bratwurst and other German-style sausages that have stronger flavors of their own.
I know I found the Duke’s spicy ground mustard at Winn-Dixie, and it was really good. I would happily get it again and use it anytime I might employ a spicy brown or deli-style mustard. I am a Duke’s mayonnaise loyalist, and I am happy to report this mustard was on par with the excellent quality of their mayo.
On a rare day I found myself with time to kill in Winter Park, I found a parking space along busy, bougie Park Avenue and went into the busy, bougie Ancient Olive, a store that specializes in different flavors of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If you love to cook and especially if you make a lot of salads at home, this is a wonderful place to browse, especially since you can sample any of the flavored oils and vinegars before you buy them. I love vinegars almost as much as I love mustard, and I have a little collection of them, but that’s not what you’re here for. I decided to try two fancy mustards from unfamiliar but posh-looking brands.
This is Fischer & Wieser mesquite horseradish mustard, which was as delicious as it sounds. The mesquite smoke flavor sets it apart from other horseradishy, deli-style mustards, and I loved it. Here are two tiny turkey sandwiches on leftover pão de queijo, Brazilian cheese buns, with more of that turkey, a bit of cheese, tomato, and I probably put some hot pickled cherry peppers on those, since I bought a gallon jar and have been putting them on everything lately. But if you’ve ever had pão de queijo before, you know they are really little, so these aren’t big sandwiches by any means. 
Here’s a close-up of the jar. This would be terrific on turkey (obviously), roast beef, ham (especially a sweeter ham), you name it.
This is Edmond Fallot honey & smoked paprika mustard, another impulse buy from The Ancient Olive. It is a French brand I’ve never heard of, but it looked interesting, and I’m a sucker for anything smoky, as I just demonstrated. Lately I’ve been making nice pita bread sandwiches with the same turkey, and I tried the honey & smoked paprika mustard alongside turkey, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickled onions, hot pickled cherry peppers, and I think some bleu cheese dressing, which I always get to have for myself when I bring home wings for my wife.
This isn’t a bad condiment, but it is very salty, even by mustard standards. The smokiness is subtle because I think paprika is always a subtle spice, and I didn’t detect any honey flavor or general sweetness. Unfortunately, it doesn’t taste anything like mustard either!
This small jar is still open in my fridge, with a lot left to go. I bought some giant pork loins at Aldi recently, for even cheaper, lean, versatile protein to mess around with, and I intend to experiment more and figure out the best things to do with it. I think it might go better with pork than it did with turkey and all those fresh-tasting accompaniments.
When I reviewed my favorite place in Florida, Mazzaro’s Italian Market in St. Petersburg, last summer, of course I picked up a few unfamiliar mustards while I was there. I had never seen or heard of the MadeWith brand, but I bought their Organic Stoneground and Organic Horseradish mustards, but forgot to take any pictures of the Horseradish one while I was working my way through the bottle. They were very similar, with a thick and almost creamy texture, but the stoneground was a little blander and the horseradish had more flavor without being overpowering or burning my sinuses. MadeWith makes a big deal about their products not containing any GMOs, in case anyone is really into that. 
Yes, this was a turkey sandwich on a savory homemade waffle. It was okay, but the waffle got too soft and soggy too quickly and lost its crispness. And that Sir Kensington’s chipotle mayonnaise is awesome on anything and everything. Despite my Duke’s love, I snatched up a few of these bottles when Publix put them on clearance earlier this year. I’ve enjoyed two of Sir Kensington’s mustards in the past as well.
I also found this Pilsudski Polish style mustard at Mazzaro’s. It was thicker and spicier than your typical Gulden’s-style spicy brown mustard, without being as bright as something like Ba-Tampte. It was very good on the best pastrami sandwich in Florida, from The Pastrami Project food truck. Chef-owner George Markward saved our Christmas AND Hanukah by being open on Christmas Day, so I brought home pastrami and brisket sandwiches for us, and the Pilsudski mustard was a good choice to accompany the best pastrami from a place not named Katz’s or Langer’s.
Last year, Beaverton Foods, the Oregon-based company that produces Beaver and Inglehoffer mustards, offered a sale with free shipping, so I ordered six mustards from them. 
Every so often, I will treat myself to a whole ham at Aldi, usually when they discount them after a ham-centric holiday like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I always joke about my “half-price Hanukah hams,” and how that makes me a good Jew and a bad Jew at the same time. Anyway, I rubbed my most recent ham with a blend of Beaver deli mustard and a pineapple-Scotch bonnet pepper Jamaican hot sauce from a company called Spur Tree, and then I made sure to use a lot more of the deli mustard on the ham sandwiches that followed. It was a very tasty deli mustard, but again lacking the brightness of Ba-Tampte, Boar’s Head, and Kosciusko, three of my all-time favorites. 
I should note that the Inglehoffer deli mustard in the round bottle tasted almost identical. I wondered if Beaverton Foods just repackaged the same mustard for their two different brands, and upon checking the website (now that my bottles are long gone), they are similar, with a few minor differences. I noticed they both contain sugar and soybean and/or canola oils, which was disappointing, especially since most mustards don’t contain (or need) any oil or sugar at all, and the Beaver deli mustard contains corn syrup too! I’ve never been big on reading ingredient labels, which probably explains a lot about me, but I need to become more diligent.
Here’s that Beaver deli mustard again, for a taste test with one of those Deutsche Kuche soft pretzel sticks (I pronounce it “Douche cooch”) from Aldi. The mustard in the middle is Bertman Original Ball Park Mustard, which I believe I found at Cavallari Gourmet, an upscale grocery store in Oviedo. It’s a great store, but I can’t say the same about the mustard. It didn’t have any zing or zip, and it was quite bland and uninspired. I’m never sorry I tried anything, but I definitely wouldn’t buy it again. Sorry, Cleveland — you might rock, but your Bertman mustard doesn’t.
On the other hand, the Beaver Coney Island mustard in the above and below photos, did indeed rock. I loved this one. The Coney Island mustard contains cucumbers, red bell peppers, red and green chili peppers, pimento, paprika, onion, garlic, and tomato paste, and it had a lot of rich flavor, especially on the hot dog below. Disappointingly, it also contained soybean oil, wheat flour, sugar, and corn syrup. Seriously, Beaver? Did you really have to go there?
When I think of Coney Island, I definitely think of hot dogs (specifically Nathan’s) and The Warriors, the great 1979 film and recent musical concept album. But “Coney dogs” are a very specific style of hot dog that are not local to Coney Island in Brooklyn; they are from Detroit diners founded by Greek immigrants, and they are smoky dogs topped with a smooth chili sauce, raw onion, and yellow mustard, somewhat similar to the chili-topped hot dogs from Cincinnati chili parlors like Skyline Chili. Here in Orlando, SoDough Square Pizza serves an authentic Detroit coney dog that I loved, but they just use regular yellow mustard. I figured Beaver was trying to approximate the Midwestern chili flavors of Coney dogs rather than anything associated with Nathan’s or the historic Coney Island amusement park.
The Inglehoffer spicy brown mustard was pretty standard. Here it is on the free Chorizo Sunrise breakfast sandwich I get from Einstein Bros. Bagels every year on my birthday: an over-hard egg, a chorizo sausage patty, cheddar cheese, smashed avocado, and jalapeño salsa cream cheese on a green chile bagel. While I try my best to avoid chains and I have high standards for bagels, I admit I really like this breakfast sandwich and the green chile bagels from Einstein Bros. They are much more like rolls than bagels, but I enjoy them a lot just the same. And I always like mustard on my eggs and breakfast sandwiches, so this was a good combination.
Because we were both wondering, the Inglehoffer spicy brown mustard doesn’t contain any oil, the way the deli mustard does.
The Beaver hickory bacon mustard, which I had on this turkey sandwich on a depressing whole wheat roll, was tasty, creamy, and smoky, and it contains actual bacon, so watch out, kosher and halal folks. But I would have been disappointed if I bought a hickory bacon mustard that didn’t contain bacon. Unfortunately, it also contains sugar, honey, and high fructose corn syrup! Like I said, I’m always happy to try anything new, but knowing how Beaverton Foods adulterates its mustards with oils and sweeteners, I wouldn’t get them again. This is why I write reviews, folks, and why I hope people read them. According to my monthly analytics, the jury is still out on that one.
I found this photo of my mustard collection from many years ago, long before I even started writing this blog. You may remember most of these mustards from previous Cutting the Mustard reviews, but you can see I also tried the Beaver spicy hot stone ground and extra hot jalapeño mustards in the past (see them on the right, the two bottles of orangey mustard with red caps). I bought them at Mr. Dunderbak’s, the good and fun German restaurant in Tampa, after trying them with my food. It has been a few years since I’ve tried either of those flavors, but they were delicious and very hot — hotter than most other mustards I’ve had. 
The spicy hot stone ground mustard seems to be discontinued, but the extra hot jalapeño mustard does contain soybean oil. Take several seats, Beaverton Foods!
But this is the spiciest thing I am reviewing here today: Matouk’s Calypso hot sauce, a mustard and Scotch bonnet pepper-based hot sauce from the Caribbean island of Trinidad & Tobago. I loooove Trinidadian food (and if you like Jamaican food, you will too), but this sauce was a lot for me. I put some on this simple chicken sandwich on a soft roll with tomato and probably a little onion, knowing me, and it was the most dominant flavor by far. I love spicy food, but I needed to eat a bit of yogurt or drink some milk every time I used the Matouk’s Calypso sauce. It made my tongue and lips tingle and burn that much, but despite all that, it is tasty.
It has been far too long since I’ve had a Jamaican patty, but this mustardy hot sauce would be great with them.
So after a whole year of anticipation (by absolutely nobody), this was the latest crop of new mustards I have found, sampled, and earnestly evaluated. Somehow, it feels like a bit of a letdown after previous years, if I do say so myself. But fear not, stalwart Saboscrivnerinos — I already have a dozen new mustards waiting in the wings to try, after a fruitful trip to South Florida earlier this year. I went down to visit my family and attend a concert with my best friend, where we happened to eat one of the best restaurant meals of my entire life. But I also stopped at an Italian gourmet market and two kosher grocery stores and stocked up on plenty of new and exciting mustards for the 2025-2026 year, so stay tuned, true believers!
The Saboscrivner 