What Is Dry Mustard? A Magical Spice You Should Have in Your Pantry

I’m going to be honest, before writing this article I wasn’t familiar with “dry mustard.” I was picturing French’s plain ol’ yellow mustard left out to dry in the sun and then scraped up with a paint scrapey thing and then ground in a spice grinder—and then I realized that’s basically just mustard powder. Which totally already exists in the form of ground mustard, which is ground-up mustard seeds. So, that’s what dry mustard is. It’s ground mustard, simple as that. 

Okay, but what is dry mustard really? Like, how do you use it? 

Does it go in protein shakes? Do you put it on sandwiches? Does one eat it dry by the spoonful for the internet like cinnamon or creatine? Turns out most likely none of those things (although you do you, boo, drink those mustard shakes–I won’t judge). Personally, I have only ever used dry mustard three times: in a spice rub and in breading for homemade chicken nuggets; to add color and tang to my homemade mac & cheese; and to mix into oil and water to learn about emulsification in my college food science class. But I was sure there were other things non-me people use dry mustard for, so I took to the worldwide interwebs to figure it out. It turns out people throw this stuff into everything from deviled eggs to steak sauce (also hollandaise, burgers, meatloaf, salad dressing, homemade mayo…). Basically, if you want to add a tangy brightness to cut through fatty foods like beef and cheese and butter but don’t have any citrus on hand and want something more flavorful than vinegar, dry mustard’s your guy.

Can you rehydrate it and make wet dry mustard? Is that different from mustard mustard?

You actually can!! And it makes mustard mustard and not wet dry mustard (whatever that would look like)! Insane that we never thought about this before. That would essentially make dry mustard the equivalent of instant coffee for Sporked staff writer Jordan Myrick, who eats a spoonful of mustard when they need a kick of energy. But how? How does one turn dry mustard into…well…mustard? According to McCormick, it’s actually super simple. You can apparently mix dry mustard with vinegar, beer, or wine, as well as some optional herbs, and, voila, you have homemade, artisanal mustard. Dang, McCormick, I’m trying out this hack like, yesterday.