NEFELIBATA: DIÁRIO FILOSÓFICO IMAGÉTICO : MOSTARDA

01 outubro 2023

MOSTARDA

MOSTARDA

Mustard

A mostarda é conhecida como um dos condimentos mais antigos de todos os tempos e é considerada uma das plantas mais cultivadas e multifuncionais do mundo há milhares de anos. Os primeiros cultivares conhecidos e o uso de plantas de mostarda datam de 3.000 a.C.

Mustard and its use today (1)

Há mais de 2.000 anos, a planta era usada como condimento, tendo sido mencionada pelo autor romano Columella no século I d.C. As folhas da planta também servem para conserva em vinagre. Na França do século XIII, as sementes eram moídas e utilizadas como um condimento. As sementes eram misturados com suco de uva não fermentado (mosto) para criar “moût-ardent” (mosto ardente). Mais tarde, tornou-se “moutarde”, ou mostarda (mustard em inglês).

O tempero (spice) geralmente é feito a partir de sementes moídas da planta, com o tegumento removido (sem a casca). As sementes da espécie Brassica nigra, são pequenas (1,0 mm) são duras e variam na cor indo do marrom escuro ao preto. São saborosos, embora quase não tenham aroma.

Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, 4 – c. 70 DC; foi um proeminente escritor sobre agricultura no Império Romano. Sua obra: “De re rustica”, escrito em doze volumes foi totalmente preservado e constitui uma importante fonte sobre a agricultura romana, juntamente com as obras de Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 a.C.), (Catão, o Velho) e de Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 a.C.), ambos citados por Columella. Um livro menor sobre árvores, “De arboribus”, costuma ser atribuído a ele.

As plantas de mostarda pertencem à comumente conhecida família da mostarda Brassicaceae da ordem Brassicales (anteriormente denominada Capparales), incluindo mais de 330 gêneros e mais de 3700 espécies distribuídas em todo o mundo.

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Mustard plant and flower

Características notáveis desta família são as quatro sépalas em posição mediana das flores seguidas de quatro pétalas alternadas que se dispõem em forma de cruz remetendo ao antigo nome de família: Cruciferae. A presença de compostos organossulfurados também é uma característica única desta família de plantas.

As variedades mais cultivadas dentro desta família pertencem quase todas às seis espécies: Brassica rapa, Brassica juncea, Brassica nigra, Brassica carinata, Brassica oleracea e Brassica napus nas quais também estão incluídas duas das três espécies de mostarda mais importantes: B. juncea e B. nigra.

Com base em experimentos citogenéticos e de hibridização do botânico coreano U Nagaharu (1935), um conhecido modelo denominado “triângulo de U” demonstrou a relação genética entre essas diferentes espécies.

O triângulo é baseado na teoria de que os genomas de três espécies diplóides ancestrais de Brassica se combinaram para dar origem a três vegetais tetraplóides comuns e espécies de culturas oleaginosas. A Figura 1 ilustra o triângulo e mostra as principais formas B. rapa, B. nigra e B. oleracea com genoma elementar próprio A, B e C. As três espécies anfidiplóides B. juncea (AB), B. napus (AC) e B. carinata (BC) são híbridos naturais dos diplóides.

Existe também uma relação genética entre B. nigra e o gênero Sinapis L. no qual está incluída a espécie Sinapis alba, uma importante espécies de mostarda.

Brassica carinata Alexander Braun 1841, é uma espécie de mostarda etíope. Acredita-se que seja um híbrido entre Brassica nigra e Brassica oleracea.

First of all, what is mustard? It is a plant related to the cabbage and other cruciferous vegetables categorized under the family Brassicaceae. The seeds of this herbaceous plant is used in cooking, to produce edible oil, or crushed to make a paste. Some types of mustards are eaten as vegetables (leaves and roots). The three plants grown for their seed to make the condiment mustard are:

Sinapis alba L. 1753

White or yellow mustard (small plant, largish seeds) native to Europe, pungent and bitter in flavour.

Brassica nigra L. 1753

Black mustard (tall plant, smaller black or brown seeds) native to Europe, piquant flavour

Brassica juncea (L.) Czernajev, 1859

Brown mustard, also know as Indian or Chinese mustard (reddish brown to dark brown seeds) native to Asia, piquant flavour, and their leaves are consumed as vegetables mainly in India and China

Of the three, almost all commercially cultivated mustard seeds worldwide are from Brassica juncea and Sinapis alba. Brassica nigra grows very tall and the seeds tend to drop and therefore is considered inefficient for ideal mechanical cultivation. The names are somewhat misleading; what we call or know as black mustards seeds for recipes in cooking is actually Brassica juncea, and NOT B. nigra.

It has been a part of the most ancient Mediterranean civilisations. The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans used it to spice up meat and fish dishes. They crushed the grains and mixed it into their food.

Moustard sede size (1)

Moustard sede size (2).

Even Jesus speack abou the mustard (although He was mistaken wtith the species, mustard is not a tree, but a herbaceous plant. I do not read the Bible searching for scientific facts. for diferences ser plantscraze):

“The apostles said to the Lord,” we read in Luke’s Gospel, “increase our faith.” As usual, Jesus gives them a somehow unexpected answer. Like was a constant in his speach, He used a misterious methaphor. Far from instructing them in fundamental theology, handing them over a copy of the Catechism, or asking them for a bit of time to write a spiritual treatise, Jesus replies with a concise, striking image:

The Lord replied, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you.” (Esparza, 2019). Even the ancient people knew this seed was the smallest one.

It was the Romans who imported the custom of using table mustard to Gaul. Then later on, King Charlemagne recommended the cultivation of this spice throughout the realm as well as in the botanical gardens surrounding the monasteries in Parisian suburbs. Mustard cultivation gradually spread through Germany then to England.

In Northern Europe, it was believed that scattering a few mustard seeds around your house would ward away evil spirits…

Mustard appeared in Spain with the arrival of the Roman legions, then in India with Vasco de Gama.

Etymology

The origin of the word “mustard” comes from two Latin words “mustum ardens” which means “burning must” because in ancient times mustard was prepared with must (unfermented grape juice). This word then gave rise to the word "mustard" in English. Others claim that it came from the era of Duc Philippe le Téméraire, Duke of Burgundy, who in 1382 granted the town of Dijon with various privileges, in particular his personal coat of arms bearing his signet: “Moult me tarde” (I am impatient")… but this origin seems unlikely. This explanation proves one thing at least, that Dijon was already famous for its mustard by the 14th century.

In the city of Dijon there is a little-visited archaeological museum with rare treasures from the Celtic and Gallo-Roman world. the star attraction is a 2,000-year-old bronze statue of the Gallo-Roman goddess Sequama with the remains of what was once a vast healing temple at the source of the Seine River less than an hour’s drive away.

Even before the Romans came to rule over Gaul, pilgrims came from as far as the Mediterranean and what is now the English Channel to pray to her for a cure, consult the pagan priests, stay for a short visit, give thanks. They threw “ex votos,” or votive offerings, in wood, stone and bronze into a sacred healing pool.

In 1390, the manufacture of mustard became regulated and anybody producing a bad mustard was subject to heavy fines.

In cities, street traders, known as "criers" sold their mustard door-to-door under the name of "saulces et épices d'enfer " (sauces and spices of hell).

Apothecaries at the time were said to be making a fortune preparing a mixture made up of mustard seeds, ginger and mint for husbands to give to their wives to stimulate their libido. Two centuries later, the corporation of vinegar and mustard-makers of the town of Dijon was created. Their imaginative recipes are at the origins of the names for the various types of mustard still in use today.

The golden age of spices was the renaissance period, mustard was present at every banquet, even Rabelais was a keen amateur!

Over the centuries mustard became more and more synonymous with refinement and pleasure and it was at this time that fine and aromatic mustards began to appear. At the beginning of the 19th century, manufacturers entered into a race to rival each other's imaginations, creating many new recipes. They were greatly encouraged by the great gourmets such as Grimod de la Reynière, Carème, Brillat-Savarin or even Monselet.

Manufacturing techniques evolved with the industrial revolution. Traditional techniques were gradually displaced by mechanisation: machines were introduced to grind, sieve and crush the seeds.

Production developed very quickly from manufacturing workshop to factory. In the 20th century, regulations became increasingly strict, and the decree of 1937 set out conditions for manufacturing and naming mustards. A regulation completed and signed in July 2000 specifies these names.