Category: Cutting the Mustard

I love mustard.  As far as I’m concerned, it is a perfect condiment, especially because there are so many styles and infinite subtle variations to choose from.  At the start of 2026, I officially started trying to lose weight by eating smaller portions and eating healthier in general, which includes fewer restaurant meals.  Mustard has been a godsend for jazzing up the simple, everyday, high-protein, low-fat foods I’ve been preparing in different ways to stave off boredom and blandness: chicken breast, lean pork loin, turkey, and of course sardines and other tinned seafood.  No matter if you’re eating the leanest, dryest chicken breast there is or a juicy, fatty, salty, decadent cut of meat, almost any savory dish can be improved by introducing an acidic component, and that’s where mustard really shines.

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 Search 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.  Last year’s Cutting the Mustard IV: Mustard on the Beat included a whopping 18 new mustards.  And now, following my arbitrary tradition of posting these on Memorial Day weekend, we’re going to try this again!

I am opening with organic Dijon mustard from Whole Foods’ 365 private label.  I almost never use Dijon mustard by itself, on sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, or anything else.  For me, Dijon is more of an ingredient.  I put a little into my homemade Caesar dressing, and whenever I roast lamb chops, I rub them down with Dijon.  But I tried a little on this Deutsche Kuche (pronounced “douche cooch”) Bavarian soft pretzel stick from Aldi, for the sake of this mustard mega-review, and it was good. 

The next two mustards were random finds at Big Lots, a store that specialized in random finds, like close-outs from other retailers.  Sadly, all the Big Lots locations closed over a year ago, but it was a neat place to browse, especially for interesting chips, sodas, and international foods.  I had never heard of the Morehouse brand, and I’ve never seen them anywhere else before or since.  For some people, that would be a few red flags right away, but for me, it was “Challenge accepted!”

I keep striking out with German mustards, even though Germany is a pretty big country for mustard consumption.  I never like the ones Aldi brings back twice a year for their German weeks, and I thought this Morehouse German mustard was kind of bland and forgettable on the same Aldi pretzel stick.  I would not buy it again, not that I could even if I wanted to.

The Morehouse horseradish mustard was brighter and spicier, so of course I liked it a lot more on this pretzel stick.  (Saboscrivner secret: I usually get multiple mustard shots out of a single “douche cooch” pretzel stick.  I haven’t been eating a whole pretzel with each mustard I sample and photograph!)  Anyway, I always like the sinus-clearing flavor and heat of horseradish, especially in mustard.  Stay tuned for more horseradish mustards that are even better!

I forgot where I found the Silver Spring chipotle mustard (left) and Beer’n Brat mustard (right) in Orlando.  Maybe Petty’s Meats, a bougie grocer in Longwood?  I’ve had very similar mustards from other brands before, but both were perfectly fine with the same soft pretzel.  The chipotle is very mild, spice-wise, but had a decent smoky, acidic kick. 
One of my favorite people in the world, a friend who is a true foodie and intrepid traveler, brought me the Lars Swedish Style spicy brown mustard (in the middle), and it was a standard Gulden’s-esque spicy brown, but I enjoyed it quite a lot.  I know it made it into a couple of batches of chicken salad that I make with Costco rotisserie chickens.

The same friend also brought me another Lars Swedish Style mustard.  This is the mild & sweet variety, which was a pleasant, middle-of-the-road mustard, but luckily not too sweet.  A lot of honey mustards are cloyingly sweet to me, and I am never okay with a “dessert mustard.”  This was a safe and solid choice for roast pork loin sandwiches and the like.   

Publix, Florida’s ubiquitous supermarket chain, where shopping is a pleasure for almost everyone but me, started carrying Mike’s Amazing mustards about a year ago, and they have even put them on BOGO sale a few times.  It’s a relatively cheap mustard as it is, usually around $1.99.  I bought two at my earliest opportunity to try them.  Here is Mike’s Amazing spicy brown mustard on one of many rotisserie chicken salad sandwiches I’ve made over the past year, and I know I mixed it into the chicken salad as well.  It was another Gulden’s-esque flavor, as one would expect.

I preferred the brighter taste of the Mike’s Amazing deli mustard, which was more like my beloved Ba-Tampte (but not on that level) than Gulden’s spicy brown.  I was enjoying a ham and cheese sandwich here, since I treat myself to a whole spiral-sliced ham about once a year when Aldi deeply discounts them after the holidays (I call them my “half-price Hanukkah hams”), but that’s not the only reason I liked this mustard better. 

Over a year ago, back in February 2025, I took a trip down to Miami to visit my parents and see one of my all-time favorite musical groups with my best friend: the legendary hip hop collective De La Soul.  That’s when I had one of the top two meals of my entire life, at Red Rooster Overtown.  But on my rare trips down to Miami, I like to stop at all the bougie grocery stores in Broward and Palm Beach Counties to hunt for unfamiliar mustards and other condiments that aren’t available here in Orlando.  I visited three markets and made out like a bandit.  I’ve been slowly making my way through this haul for over a year, all leading up to this review:

I found a few of these at Carmine’s Gourmet Market, one of the nicest and bougiest grocery stores I’ve ever been to, in tony Palm Beach Gardens.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many high-end condiments and sauces for sale at one place before, and I was in heaven.  They had several sauces and condiments with their own private label, including some mustards.  I bought the two most intriguing flavors.  The jalapeño mustard was paler and creamier than most spicy yellow mustards I’ve tried over the years, kind of like a cross between a yellow mustard and a Dijon.  As usual, the heat was more mild than wild, but I liked it a lot, especially on these crispy house-made potato chips that were left over from Runabout Brewing Co.

I am an onion freak, much to my wife’s chagrin.  I love onions and put them in or on everything.  Most of the time, I buy sweet onions, even when recipes call for harsher-tasting white or yellow onions, so I couldn’t pass up trying Carmine’s Vidalia onion mustard.  Now this one was surprisingly sweet, despite having the texture of grated onions giving it some thick body.  I’m so glad I tried it, but I don’t know if I would get this one again.  It was too sweet for me. 

But sometimes a sweeter mustard hits in all the right ways.  Kozlik’s is a Canadian mustard brand, and it is the finest I’ve ever encountered.  I’ve never had a bad Kozlik’s flavor; in fact, they have all been among the best mustards I’ve tasted in my life.  Unfortunately, nobody sells them in Orlando (The Ancient Olive in Winter Park used to, but not in years), and they are expensive, but I was glad to find them at Carmine’s.  I always love balsamic vinegar, figs, and dates, so I couldn’t pass up Kozlik’s balsamic fig and date mustard.  It was thick, sweet, rich, and tangy, and I can’t say enough good things about it.  For a guy who usually eschews sweeter mustards for anything spicy and deli-style, this was a huge hit.  Honestly, you could even dab this mustard on vanilla ice cream, and it would slap.  But if you put it on chicken, pork, or fish, you couldn’t go wrong. 

I also love maple as a flavor, and maple syrup can be a great ingredient in savory and spicy marinades and sauces.  I also indulged in Kozlik’s Amazing Maple mustard, and it lived up to its name.  This one would be amazing with salty breakfast meats, among other things.  I might have even spread some on a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, classy guy that I am.  

About 25 years ago, Food Network used to feature celebrity chefs who actually taught you how to cook on their shows, instead of just endless, pointless cupcake competitions.  I loved this era of Food Network, and it inspired me to become both a better home cook and a more adventurous diner in general.  Emeril Lagasse emerged from New Orleans as a successful chef, restauranteur, and multimedia mogul, to the point where he once owned two restaurants here in Orlando, both of which are long gone.  You don’t hear about Emeril much anymore, but every time I attempted one of his recipes, it was rad.

When I stopped at the Famous Market Deli, a kosher grocery store and delicatessen in Delray Beach, Florida, on the same trip, I was thrilled to find multiple mustards from Emeril’s own brand, which I’ve never seen for sale anywhere else.  I bought three of them.  How could I not?

This was a recent roast pork loin sandwich on toasted keto bread from Aldi, garnished with fresh spinach, homemade Chicago-style spicy giardiniera (that came out so well), balsamic glaze, and Emeril’s deli style mustard, which was another Gulden’s-esque mustard, but I think better.  As I’ve said before, I love strong flavors, and I’m obsessed with how acidic flavors really make every meal pop.  BAM!

Emeril’s horseradish mustard was even better, on yet another pork loin sandwich, this one topped with hot cherry peppers and Grillo’s pickles (my favorite commercially available pickles that I’ve found).  It made me feel things!  BAM! 

And here is yet another pork loin sandwich with giardiniera, Grillo’s pickles, and Emeril’s jalapeño mustard, a yellow mustard jazzed up with random tiny flecks of spicy peppers.  This would be a fabulous mustard for a hot dog, a Cuban sandwich, or anything else you’d put regular, everyday yellow mustard on.  With very few exceptions (like Beaver products), the “spicy” mustards are never as spicy as I anticipate or crave, but this was a fine product nonetheless, and it doesn’t have the weird and unnecessary ingredients I discovered in Beaver mustards.  BAM! 

Have I made you miss Emeril?  Maybe not so much?

For the longest time, you couldn’t get Nathan’s mustards anywhere in the Orlando area.  My dad craved them, so I ordered some for him from a mail order company called Pop Pop Foods, but the shipping was very high, so I didn’t get any for myself.  When I found Nathan’s deli mustard and spicy brown mustard at the Famous Market Deli last year, I bought a bottle of each for myself, even though I already reviewed the Nathan’s deli mustard in Cutting the Mustard III after trying it at my parents’ house.

But I tried Nathan’s spicy brown mustard on a delicious and keto-friendly egg bite I made earlier this year after blending eggs with cottage cheese, then filling baking cups with ham, jalapeño peppers, the egg and cottage cheese mixture, and I think muenster cheese, then baking them.  These were quick, easy, tasty, and carb-free bites I could microwave and chomp on whenever I wanted, and they paired exceptionally well with multiple mustards.  Nathan’s makes one of the better spicy brown mustards I’ve sampled in all my years — definitely better than Gulden’s or Mike’s Amazing.

A few weeks ago, I was at the gargantuan Walmart Supercenter near my home, actually getting some bloodwork done at the Quest Diagnostics lab inside the Walmart (something that always makes me think of a late-stage capitalist dystopia).  I rarely go out of my way to shop at Walmart, but if I’m there, I always look down the action figure aisle (old habits die hard) and check out the groceries to see what they have that other places don’t carry.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Walmart stocks Nathan’s deli mustard, spicy brown, and a new flavor that I wasn’t expecting but maybe should have: hot honey deli mustard!  I had to have it, and it did not disappoint.  It’s everything you love from the regular (very good) deli mustard, but with a touch of sweet and a pleasant amount of heat.  On yet another roast pork loin sandwich on keto bread, I tried the hot honey deli mustard with Sir Kensington’s chipotle mayonnaise and some sweet peppers I pickled myself in the leftover spicy brine from a larger jar of hot cherry peppers.  Everything paired so well, the sandwich practically sang. 
Hot honey is definitely having a moment right now, the way chipotle and sriracha were the “it” condiments in past years, and it makes sense.  Try hot honey on pizza some time, and you won’t regret it.  Deli purists might be appalled by the concept of Nathan’s hot honey deli mustard, but I thought the flavor profile worked very well, and I would get this one again.  (Don’t put this on pizza, though, or you will regret it.)

Sharp-eyed Saboscrivnerinos may have noticed the Emeril’s and Nathan’s mustards come in identical plastic bottles, so I’m guessing they are made at the same facility, although I could be wrong about that.

I first tried Sy Ginsberg’s New York Style deli mustard at the Palm Avenue Deli in Sarasota, Florida, a few years ago.  That was a wonderful deli meal, and I would be a regular patron if it wasn’t so many hours away from us.  But when I found Sy Ginsberg at the Famous Market Deli in Delray Beach, I had to get a bottle to enjoy at home.  This time I added it to egg salad, along with Foraging Fox smoked garlic mayo (something I picked up on clearance at Sprouts grocery store) and Hoff Dirty Dust, an awesome seasoning blend I picked up on clearance at Fresh Market.  Hoff was a hot sauce company that recently went out of business, but I loved their hot sauces and especially this seasoning, which tastes just like the seasoning on Zapp’s Voodoo potato chips — salty, tangy, smoky, vinegary, spicy, and sweet all at once.  I bought the place out because I knew it would be gone forever.  Anyway, I always like egg salad, and this was an excellent batch, thanks in large part to Sy Ginsberg.  What a mensch!

Last summer, hip hop DJ and producer Mustard (real name: Dijon Isaiah McFarlane, which is just perfect) got together with condiment giant Heinz to release a limited edition MUSTAAAAAARD, which was chipotle honey mustard.  I remember it was briefly available at Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants (which I really do not like) and at some Target stores and Amazon.  I had to try this, especially as a fan of both mustard and hip hop, so feeling that FOMO, I ordered my bottle from Amazon.  (Of course, months later, I found these at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet marked down to a dollar each.) 
Heinz MUSTAAAAAARD tasted more like a vaguely mustard-based barbecue sauce, slightly sweet and slightly smoky, but not the least bit spicy.  It had a creamy consistency, but there wasn’t any oil added.  The ingredients were distilled white vinegar, sugar, water, mustard seed, honey, and less than 2% of salt, mustard flour, natural smoke flavor, chipotle peppers, molasses, paprika, spices, turmeric, and “natural flavor.”

This is an earlier chicken salad sandwich on the excellent sourdough bread from the Sourdough Bread House, a Turkish treasure here in Casselberry that I recommend to all locals.  I added Sy Ginsberg’s deli mustard to the chicken salad along with Foraging Fox smoked jalapeno mayo, chopped Grillo’s pickles and pepperoncini peppers, dried shallots, and Hoff Dirty Dust seasoning salt, but I topped the sandwich with the MUSTAAAAAARD to give it a hit of smoky, creamy sweetness.  It was a bit much, and it took me a while to get through the bottle.  I’m not a cynical person, so whenever I’m disappointed or let down by something, whether it’s a movie or a food, I always wish I liked it more than I did, and that was the case with this. 

Despite my reservations about both honey mustards and Dijons, this Bornier honey Dijon mustard, a French product, was far better than I expected.  This was one time where I made stuffed pork loin, cutting into the cylindrical cut in a spiral pattern so I could “roll it out,” then pounding it flat with a rolling pin, stuffing it with fresh spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, spicy pickled cherry peppers, seasoned bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese, then rolling it back up to roast so it looks pretty when you slice it.  (I got better after this early attempt.)  Anyway, with all those strong, savory flavors, the Bornier honey Dijon paired very well with the stuffed pork loin — thick, not overwhelmingly sweet, and the white wine flavor and mild nose-tingling sensation came through.

Finally, this California Olive Ranch roasted garlic, Dijon, and rosemary marinade came from The Fresh Market, a bougie grocery store if ever there was one.  I used most of the bottle marinating my usual pork loins, which I roast and slice thin for so many of the above sandwiches.  I’m not the biggest rosemary fan in the world (no, not even with potatoes), but luckily for me, the garlic and Dijon flavors came through stronger than the rosemary, which I often find overpowering.  I’m very glad I tried this, but I think I got the bottle on clearance, so I don’t know if I would restock this marinade at full price.

So by my count, that was *22* new mustards I reviewed for you in 2026.  Some great, some good, some passable, and a couple I never want or need to taste again.  I hope anyone who stuck around to the end enjoyed this journey, and while I don’t expect anyone to race off to track any of these down, please let me know if you do, and what you think of them.  In fact, if you have any mustard recommendations for me, please share, because I’m always looking to expand my palate and my collection.  Mustard manufacturers, to paraphrase TLC, I ain’t too proud to beg for free samples, as long as you’re cool with me reviewing them objectively.  As you may have realized, I’m a nerd who loves trying new foods and sharing information about them, and I’m always on a quest for new and interesting mustards.  I guess you could call these recurring Cutting the Mustard features “yellow journalism.”

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!

Here we are again on Memorial Day weekend, a time to honor heroic fallen soldiers, when people often gather to have cookouts with loved ones over the long holiday weekend.  For Memorial Day in 2021 and 2022, I dropped my first two Cutting the Mustard features, when I reviewed a whole bunch of different mustards just in time for a lot of Americans to gorge on hot dogs and burgers, hopefully to give my dozens of readers some ideas to reach beyond the plain yellow stuff.

For my first Cutting the Mustard, I reviewed seven different mustards, and for my second mustardy mega-review, Cutting the Mustard II: The Quest for More Mustard, I reviewed ten mustards.  I didn’t get around to writing one of these last year, but I’ve tried a lot of mustards over the past two years, so now I’m reviewing and recommending more mustards than anyone ever thought possible… not that anyone has ever given these a thought anyway.

I always challenge myself to try each mustard with multiple applications — on sandwiches, burgers, and dogs, in dressings and marinades, and as a dip for fries, Gabila’s potato knishes, and Deutsche Kuche (pronounced “douche cooch”) soft pretzels from Aldi.  Certain mustards excel for certain uses, and it is rare to find a perfect all-purpose mustard.  But just like with root beers, chili, pasta salads, onion rings, pimento cheese, Italian subs, and tinned sardines (which I review in my ‘Dines List features), each brand, flavor, and style of mustard is a little different, and I find them all worth sampling and reviewing.

Here are just a few of the contenders, so let’s see which of these tangy condiments reach or surpass the desired standard or performance, or in other words, which ones cut the mustard! 

I found Bookbinder’s stone ground dijon mustard at Publix quite a while ago, although I haven’t seen it there in quite a while.  I admit to not being the biggest dijon fan in the world, but this was a lot more mellow and less spicy than the industry standard (especially in the hip hop community), Grey Poupon.  The main thing I do with dijon mustard is rub it on lamb chops before roasting them in the oven until they turn rare.  Bookbinder’s worked fine for this purpose.   

Publix seems to have stopped carrying the Mister Mustard brand too, but I picked up a jar of the hot kind while I could.  It definitely brought the heat.  Here I used it with a takeout Waffle House All-Star Special with eggs over hard, sausage, hash browns covered with melted American cheese, and white toast.  I love mustard on eggs, and I’m always willing to risk bringing home breakfast so I can apply mustards from my own collection. 

I have already proven my deep, undying, unironic love for Waffle House, so here’s another All-Star takeout breakfast (hopefully from a photo taken months apart), this time with Zatarain’s Creole mustard spread on the toast.  This was a terrific mustard, also found at Publix.  It was a lot like a typical spicy brown deli-style mustard (which is typically my favorite kind of mustard), with maybe a bit more “zing.” 

I make pretty epic breakfast sandwiches at home, and here is Braswell’s chipotle mustard on one of them.  I treat my breakfast sandwiches like grilled cheese sandwiches — I spread Duke’s mayo on the outside of the bread and then grill them in a hot pan, but I actually add an entire HEAD of chopped garlic directly to the mayo jar, so it always has garlicky flavor and a bit of texture too.  This particular sandwich looks like it had eggs, American cheese, sautéed onions, sliced tomato, and some of the tangy, smoky chipotle mustard, which I liked a lot.  It had a little bit of heat, but not a lot.  I love spicy food that has flavor, but I don’t like overpowering, sadistic heat that overwhelms and destroys other flavors.  This was a nice one, and I think I got it when it was on sale at Publix.

I tried these three mustards together for a taste test with one of the aforementioned Gabila’s knishes, which you can buy frozen at Publix and Winn-Dixie stores.  While some delis and bagel shops serve fresh-baked potato knishes, I like the onion-heavy, fried style from Gabila’s that some restaurants proudly serve for their consistency, taste, and unique shape.  The Publix Deli-Style mustard with horseradish is a real winner — a standard deli mustard that is cheap, but never disappoints.  Great on almost any kind of sandwich, hot dogs, and knishes, you just can’t go wrong.  I even like it more than Gulden’s spicy brown mustard!I picked up the Cracovia extra hot mustard at International Food Club, a sprawling, warehouse-like market that features a staggering selection of foods from all over the world, with a special focus on Europe and the Middle East.  It’s a fun and fascinating place to shop, and I always come home with a few new impulse buys.  Cracovia, a Polish brand, is one of the hotter mustards I’ve sampled, but I like it more than some of the others (like the hot Mister Mustard, for example).  I like it paired with ham, where the heat balances out the sweetness inherent in the cured meat.  It is like a slightly thicker yellow mustard with tiny flecks of green and red, but it lacks the overwhelming brightness so many everyday yellow mustards feature.

Finally, the Braswell’s Vidalia onion mustard sounded good, but I found it a bit too sweet and also kind of watery.  You can tell there was a lot of real, finely grated sweet onion in the mix, which I appreciate, and I love onions.  In fact, I buy sweet onions for almost all my cooking, even when recipes call for white, yellow, or red instead.  But this mustard lacked any savory bite and was just disappointingly sweet.

In my first Cutting the Mustard feature, I reviewed Sir Kensington’s Dijon mustard.  Since then, I really got into Sir Kensington’s spicy brown, which I like a lot more than the Dijon.  It has a mellow sweetness from maple syrup and cane sugar, but isn’t cloyingly sweet like a lot of other mustards I’ve tried here.

I swiped some onto a corned beef sandwich I made on what looks like a green chile bagel from Einstein Bros. Bagels.  It isn’t the best bagel shop and certainly not the most authentic, but I really love the green chile bagels just the same.  They are more like rolls than bagels.  With all the rich, salty ingredients, the slight sweetness of the maple-infused spicy brown Sir Kensington’s really brightened up this decadent sandwich. 

There is a time and a place for sweet mustards that incorporate honey or maple syrup, and honey mustard can be a wonderful salad dressing.  (The house salad with honey mustard is one of the only things I like at Outback Steakhouse, along with the Bloomin’ Onion and brown bread.)  But too many mustard companies take the sweetness way too far.

My best friend sent me a dazzling, delightful birthday present — a sampler of six Wisconsin-made mustards from the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin (a real place).  Most of them were awesome, but the thick, syrupy Bucky Badger honey mustard pretzel dip on the left was just too sweet for me, even spread on a soft pretzel.  But funny thing about this one — my wife, who does not share my mustard obsession, loves this one!  Maybe because it tastes like a dessert.

The Wisconsin gift set from the National Mustard Museum also included a Sprecher root beer mustard that was sweet, but not too sweet, with the delicious herbal flavors I love so much in root beer.  Unlike the Bucky Badger honey mustard dip, it was terrific on this pretzel.  However, I liked the root beer mustard best on roast beef sandwiches, and when I treat myself to roast beef, I get the Dietz & Watson London broil top round roast beef from the Winn-Dixie deli.  It is always really rare, with terrific seasoning.  I never roast my own beef, but maybe I should, so I can put more mustard on it.

I opened a bottle of Hickory Farms honey pineapple mustard to go with this roast beef sandwich, but it was also way too sweet, and yet it didn’t taste like pineapple at all.  However, the biggest surprise was that a Hickory Farms store still existed in 2022, even though it was seasonal like Spirit Halloween!

Terrapin Ridge Farms is a company based in Clearwater, Florida, that makes fancy, high-end condiments, sauces, dressings, dips, and preserves.  I tried their dill pickle mustard in my first Cutting the Mustard feature and thought it was just okay.  This time I tried their smokey maple bacon mustard and thought it was way too sweet and not smokey or bacony enough.  I waited patiently for these to go on sale before trying it, but I wouldn’t get it again.

I also tried Terrapin Ridge Farms’ Nashville hot spice mustard on some toasted pita bread and a fried pita chip here.  It was spicy, but didn’t really taste like mustard at all!  I experimented with it more on chicken, since I do love Nashville-style hot chicken, and it was just okay, but not great.  We are lucky to have a pair of amazing Nashville-inspired hot chicken restaurants in Orlando: Chicken Fire and JAM Hot Chicken.  I love them both and crave them often.  I’ve even attempted to make my own Nashville hot chicken at home, but it was labor-intensive and made a mess.  That’s something I leave to the professionals now, and I would also leave the Terrapin Ridge mustards on the shelf from now on.

Here are three more mustards that I tried with Aldi pretzel sticks.  The champagne mustard came from a HoneyBaked Ham store, where I love their spiral-sliced ham and smoked turkey breast.  They sell some pricey condiments, so I gambled on this one, but unfortunately lost.  It was kind of a creamy mustard and very dill-heavy, so I could never get into it.  It probably would have been great with salmon, but as much as I love salmon both raw and cured, I never cook it or order it cooked.  Anyway, I don’t even see the champagne mustard listed on the website anymore, so maybe it never caught on. The other two mustards came in the Wisconsin gift set from the National Mustard Museum.  The one in the middle was a sweet mustard, but one I actually liked: East Shore slow-cooked cranberry mustard, also made in Wisconsin.  While it was sweet (and extremely sticky and thick), I appreciated how the tartness of the cranberries gave it an extra dimension and kept it from being cloying like the previous sweet mustards that were too sweet.

Finally, Ringhand’s beer mustard, in the squeeze bottle, was my favorite from the National Mustard Museum gift set.  Made with brown beer, this creation of Wisconsin Democratic state senator Janis Ringhand was excellent on everything, from pretzels and knishes to ham, roast beef, and turkey sandwiches, hot dogs, burgers, and more.  It was salty, a little spicy, a little tart, and one of those rare mustards with endless uses.  I loved it, especially on some good dogs.

I found this Tracklements hot horseradish mustard in a little jar at Sprouts supermarket.  A little goes a long way, and it was great for clearing my sinuses, yet still not as nose-runningly, eye-tearingly hot as typical Chinese mustard or Colman’s mustard prepared from the powder.  It also went very well with ham.

I wish I could remember which takeout establishment included a packet of Woeber’s spicy brown mustard, but it was a pleasant surprise.  Sharp-eyed Saboscrivnerinos may remember I included two other Woeber’s mustards in Cutting the Mustard II: the hot & spicy and sweet & spicy varieties.  This one was more versatile and probably more of a crowd-pleaser than either of those — different enough from Gulden’s and the Publix brand that a mustard maven would want to try it on a deli sandwich or a dog.  I see Woeber’s products for sale in Orlando at Gordon Food Service (GFS) on East Colonial Drive and Clemons Produce on Curry Ford Road. 

Just like Waffle House, I have made no secret of my ridiculous love for White Castle, and I consider that review one of the best ones I’ve ever written.  On that first-ever trip to Orlando’s White Castle, I didn’t get to try their Dusseldorf mustard, but I made sure to request some packets on a more recent return trip, where I came home with another Crave Case of cheese sliders.  I had been unfamiliar with Dusseldorf mustard, but I’d have to describe it as “spicy brown mustard without a hint of anything spicy.”  It was fine, but without the zippy spice of Gulden’s or the bright tang of a standard yellow mustard, it didn’t stand out to me as anything special.  That slider sure tasted good, though!

Not one to give up easily, I bought a bottle of this Carnegie Deli branded Dusseldorf mustard at the Brooklyn Water Bagel Company, a chain bagel shop that I rarely go to, even though it isn’t bad.  They sell Carnegie Deli pastrami, which I haven’t tried there, even though my family and I went to the legendary Carnegie Deli on our one and only family trip to New York City back in the summer of 1991 (along with the Stage Deli, Lindy’s, and Grabstein’s in Brooklyn — all gone, but not forgotten).  Several Internet altacockers have told me that now, Carnegie Deli is just one more brand name, but the products aren’t anything like they were in the real deli during its glory decades.  It’s safe to say this Dusseldorf mustard was okay, but again, it lacked the zippiness of Ba-Tampte, Boar’s Head, or even Publix’s deli mustard.  In fact, “it’s safe” is the safest thing I can say about it.   Once again, the White Castle sliders slapped, with or without mustard.

I found Gold’s deli mustard for the first time ever at Doris Italian Market, a small chain of five awesome Italian grocery stores in South Florida, on a trip down in 2022.  It was similar to Ba-Tampte — a decent all-purpose deli mustard, more yellow than brown in color — but not as good as Ba-Tampte.  Few mustards are.  But it brightened up these kraut-covered hot dogs on grilled buns, and you can’t ask for much more than that.

I also found this Sabrett brand spicy brown mustard on the same trip to Doris Italian Market.  You can buy Sabrett brand hot dogs at every Publix in the state, but I had never seen the mustard before, and I had to try it.  It was kind of like they mixed Gulden’s (the industry standard spicy brown) with a yellow mustard, and somehow toned down the spice during the processing.  You can even see from the bottle that it is more yellow than brown, and you don’t even see the granulated mustard seeds in it.   It was fine on a slider and on some hot dogs, but I was surprised Sabrett’s mustard didn’t excite or excel as well as the brand’s beloved dogs.  I preferred Gold’s to the Sabrett.

Speaking of national hot dog brands and their own mustards, my dad asked me to find him Nathan’s Famous deli style mustard, which had disappeared from stores all over Florida, and apparently elsewhere too.  I did some research and found out it still existed, but the trademark had most likely been sold to a different company.  I tracked down a company that ships it, Pop Pop Foods, but you have to buy three bottles (still not bad for $2.99 each), and then they charge a flat shipping rate of $18.  I couldn’t justify it for myself, but I sent a care package to my dad down in Miami, with three bottles of the deli style and three bottles of the spicy brown mustard.  When I visited my parents at their house last summer, I saw they had an open bottle of the Nathan’s Famous deli style mustard in the fridge, and I begged to try a little on one of these little pinwheel sandwiches.  It was really good, just as I remembered.  Definitely better than the Sabrett mustard above.  I didn’t try the spicy brown, but I’m sure that was good too.  I still can’t bear to pay $36 for six bottles of two different kinds of mustard just for myself, but if anyone else would like to go in on an order with me, just say the word.  I would just want one deli style and one spicy brown, in case any of my constant readers in Orlando would also like to get some Nathan’s Famous mustard.

I have only ever found Plochman’s Intense Cuban Style mustard at Winn-Dixie too, but it is awesome, especially as a substitute for yellow mustard on Cuban sandwiches like this homemade version (which was probably prettier when I first assembled it, but this looks like I pulled it out of the fridge).  I baked the ham and marinated and roasted the pork loin myself, but the pickles were Grillo’s and the bread was from Winn-Dixie, same as the mustard.  It had a really nice, spicy zing and some flavor from garlic and citrus.  It was really good mixed with a bit of mayo as a seafood sauce, too.  It was different from the Sam’s Choice Cuban mustard I reviewed in my first Cutting the Mustard, and I give the edge to Plochman’s.

Here are two familiar faces with a Gabila’s knish and a new contender on the left: Silver Spring whole grain mustard, part of my gift set from the National Mustard Museum (since Silver Spring is a national brand made in Wisconsin).  I usually avoid whole grain mustard with the round, crunchy mustard seeds in it, but this was the best version I’ve tried of that kind of mustard.  Usually I don’t care for a condiment crunching between my teeth like a mouthful of Nerds candy, but it had a good flavor to counterbalance that texture. 
Plochman’s chili dog yellow mustard, the third one, is brown in color rather than yellow, but that accounts for all the spices added to it.  It’s uncanny how it tastes like a chili dog with mustard already on it!  The ingredients mention dehydrated onion, paprika, and turmeric (possibly for color), as well as the mysterious “spices.”  I definitely taste heavy cumin and garlic, and I’m guessing there is some ingredient that gives it a very slight smoky flavor too.  It is also really salty, even by mustard standards.  Like the Plochman’s Intense Cuban Style mustard, I bought it at Winn-Dixie, and I’m having a hard time using up the big bottle.

I’m sure these aren’t the only new mustards I’ve tried over the past two years, but I don’t have pictures of all of them.  In my travels, I tried the hot mustard at Philippe the Original, one of the oldest restaurants in Los Angeles, which claims to be the birthplace of the French dip sandwich.  I also found Sy Ginsberg’s deli mustard on the tables at the excellent Palm Avenue Deli in Sarasota, Florida — a tasty mustard I’ve never seen for sale anywhere or at any other restaurants.

I make no secret of my love of condiments and sauces, and I’m always searching for new mustards to buy and try, since each one holds its own unique promises.  I worry I’m starting to run out of mustard I can purchase locally in the Orlando area, so if you have some good local brands I haven’t mentioned in my three Cutting the Mustard features so far, please let me know.  And if any readers want to send me some mustards to review in future installments, my journalistic integrity isn’t strong enough to make me stop you.  I hope this was informational, or at least entertaining in some weird way.  If you find yourself enjoying some burgers or hot dogs with family or friends over the remaining Memorial Day weekend, I hope you consider trying a new mustard, and I hope you’ll let me know what it was and how you liked it.  And if not, why not?  Are you YELLOW?