Mustard Museum

Dates: Tuesday, Sept 23rd OR Thursday, Sept 25th

Location: See your e-mail for the Zoom link!

How well do you know your mustard?

This week, Tara’s class is joining us to explore the Mustard Museum! Tara is particularly excited since we’re virtually visiting her hometown backyard. The reading graciously comes from her this week, so let’s dive in!

You can view the reading on her site here:

Week Five: Mustard Museum and Wisconsin TourThis week, we will be joining Meagan’s class for a virtual visit from the National Mustard Museum. The National Mustard Museum was founded in 1992, and since then, its collection has grown to house over 6,000 jars of mustard from across all 50 states and more than 70 countries. Each year, the

Let's start this week off with a just-for-fun mustard quiz! Once you submit your answers, you can view the correct answers and learn some mustard trivia!

How did you do?

Let's learn a bit more about mustard and how it's made!

This video from Discovery Channel's How It's Made explores how different kinds of mustard are made. (5 minutes)

This video from Food Network takes us on a trip into French's classic yellow mustard factory. (4 minutes)

Do you remember the Grey Poupon commercials with the limousines and asking if they had any of the good stuff? If not, you can check it out here.

And in this video, we learn why real Dijon mustard is so darn expensive! (7 minutes)

about the museum

What's your favorite kind of mustard? We can share our favorite mustards (and our favorite things to put it on!) after this week's presentation. Before our Zoom class, let's also take a sneak peek at the Mustard Museum.

Let's start with this brief introduction to the mustard museum (3 minutes):

The story of the National Mustard Museum begins with baseball heartbreak. On October 28, 1986, after the Boston Red Sox lost the World Series to the New York Mets, museum founder and curator Barry Levenson found himself wandering through a grocery store in the middle of the night, searching for comfort.

Passing the mustard aisle, he imagined a voice saying, “If you collect us, they will come.” Inspired, he bought a dozen jars and made it his mission to build the world’s largest mustard collection.

At the time, Barry was serving as an Assistant Attorney General in Wisconsin. His hobby followed him everywhere—even to Washington, D.C., where he once argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court with a jar of mustard tucked into his pocket (and won). His passion only deepened, and by 1991 he decided to leave the law behind and pursue mustard full-time.

In 1992, Barry opened what seemed an unlikely attraction: a museum dedicated entirely to mustard. First housed in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, the quirky collection quickly captured national attention, earning features on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jeopardy!, To Tell the Truth, You Bet Your Life with Jay Leno, and many more. As the collection grew, the museum moved twice—first in 2000 to a larger space in Mount Horeb, and then in 2009 to its current home in downtown Middleton, where it became known as the National Mustard Museum.

What started with twelve jars has expanded into a treasure trove of more than 7,000 mustards from all 50 states and over 70 countries. Visitors can also explore antique mustard pots, vintage advertising, historic tins and jars, and even learn about mustard’s role in agriculture, nutrition, and medicine. Today, the museum operates as a nonprofit organization, preserving mustard history and culture for generations to come.

Located just outside Madison, in lively downtown Middleton, the National Mustard Museum proudly celebrates mustard as the true “King of Condiments.”

You can watch Barry's original appearance on Oprah, along with a 17-year-later follow-up, in this three-minute segment:

want to learn more?

If you're interested in adding some more mustard into your weekly meals, check out the great recipe list at the link below from the mustard museum. There is bound to be something for everyone! (They even have a recipe for mustard brownies!)

Recipes & TipsThe National Mustard Museum houses the world's largest collection of mustard and sells a wider variety of quality mustards than anywhere else on the planet.

The Spice of Life is a fascinating 1983 documentary from the BBC about mustard (25 minutes).

Tune in this week to learn more!

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