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Let's start with mustard, a condiment of a truly ancient pedigree. If you take a jar of mustard from your fridge and read the list of ingedients ingredients on the label, you'll see it's made mostly of mustard seeds, vinegar, salt and sugar. The composition is so simple you coul could quite easily make your own mustard at home (more about it later). What's more, the list of ingredients has remained pretty much unchanged for centuries. The crucial ingredient are, of course, the mustard seeds, so let's begin with them.

[[File:Kapustowate EN.png|thumb|upright=1.3|left|ustard Mustard plant's family relations. It's actually hard to imagine modern cuisine without the cabbage family.]]

Anyway, ancient Romans found out that mustard seeds' sharp taste may be somewhat blunted by mixing them with sour-tasting grape must. They called this mixture "burning must", or "''mustum ardens''" in Latin, which, as you may have guessed, is where the "mustard" comes from. This condiment survived the fall of the Roman Empire and was quite commonplace in medieval Europe. By that time, however, the must would have been usually replaced with either verjuice (unripe grape juice) or vinegar (although the famous Dijon mustard, for example, still has some white wine added to it). The fact that mustard was common known throughout Europe doesn't mean that medieval Europeans didn't have their stereotypes about specific nations' supposed love for the condiment. One such stereotyope stereotype was best illustrated by Eustache Deschamp, a 15th-century pioneer of French culinary chauvinism who didn't care for any food outside the borders of France. I already once quoted [[A_Royal_Banquet_in_Cracow#Pike_in_the_Polish_style|his not too flattering description of Czech cuisine]]; now it's time for a poem about Belgian cookery.

Tak czy siak, starożytni Rzymianie wymyślili, że ostry smak gorczycy można nieco złagodzić mieszając go z kwaśnym moszczem winnym. Mieszankę tę nazywali „palącym moszczem”, czyli „''mustum ardens''”, z czego, jak łatwo się domyślić, pochodzi słowo „musztarda”. Przyprawa ta przyjęła się na tyle, że przetrwała nawet upadek Imperium Rzymskiego i w średniowiecznej Europie była na porządku dziennym, z tym że moszcz winny coraz częściej zastępowano sokiem z niedojrzałych winogron albo – tak jak dzisiaj – octem (choć np. słynną musztardę z Dijon nadal robi z białego wina). Co nie znaczy, że średniowieczni Europejczycy nie mieli swoich stereotypów na temat tego, które narody kochają musztardę bardziej niż inne, czego najlepszym przykładem jest wiersz Eustachego Deschamps, XIV-wiecznego prekursora francuskiego szowinizmu kulinarnego, któremu nie smakowało nic poza granicami Francji. [[Wierzynek_–_pierwszy_polski_restaurator?#Dodanie_do_dania|Jego niezbyt pochlebny opis kuchni czeskiej]] już kiedyś cytowałem, teraz pora na wiersz o gastronomii belgijskiej (ten też w moim przekładzie). [[File:Szyld Amory.JPG|thumb|upright|Dębowy szyld francuskiego producenta musztardy An oakwood signboard for the French mustard company Amora z targów gastronomicznych w , used at the Dijon w Gastronomy Fair in 1930 r.]]

[[File:Reklama musztardy.jpg|thumb|upright|Reklama polskiej musztardy z Polish mustard advertisement from 1934 r.]]

A kiedy musztarda dotarła do Polski? Pewnie też już w średniowieczuAnd when did mustard find its way into Poland. Probably no later than in the Middle Ages, choć pierwsze wzmianki pisane na jej temat pochodzą dopiero z XVII walthough the earliest known written mentions of it come only from the 17th century. Oto co pisał o niej This what Polish physician and botanist Szymon Syreński, słynny polski lekarz i botanik(also known as Simon Syrenius) wrote about it:

| Mustard seeds are made into a peculiar and healthy delicacy which is commonly used at the table, especially in the colder seasons. This delicacy is known as "gorczyczka", or by the foreign name "mustarda", and everyone makes it according to their own liking. {{...}} Some simply grind fresh mustard seeds {{...}} and then dissolve them in sweet wine and honey. Others add sugar and vinegar. Others still add finely chopped, honeyed orange zest, which gives lends the mustard it a peculiar taste. Some mix their mustard with pears or blanched almonds, as well as with quince, and season it with cinnamon and cloves {{...}}