Lawrence natives have a particular fondness for the month of March. Mostly because of the college basketball tournament, but Free State Brewery executive chef Rick Martin loves March for a different reason. It's March Mustard Madness at Free State Brewery.
Free State claims that they stock 64 different mustards for the event, but Martin clarifies: "No, 64 is only the amount of mustards we display. We have a lot more different kinds that we bring out throughout the month... I'd say we started with about 100 different varieties and now have 50 left."
To make it easier for customers to pick, Martin divides the mustards into different categories. There's spicy mustards, fruit mustards, beer and spirit mustards, garlic mustards, horseradish mustard and a brand-new category this year called mystery mustard. "I have this mustard from Japan with absolutely no English writing on it, which I just opened this morning and made the mistake of putting on some bread," he says. "I cried for five minutes. We're debating on what type of warning to put on that one."
March Mustard Madness lasts until the end of the month or until Free State
runs out of mustards. The server will ask you what
type of mustard category you want to master and from there, it's
mustard bliss.
To gather all those mustards, Martin makes a once-a-year trek to Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, home of the Mustard Museum, which
sells more than 500 types.
There are a couple of favorites that Free
State regulars expect, such as Hit and Run, which bills itself as an
"excruciatingly painful brown horseradish mustard." The horseradish
"punches you in the face and then goes away in five seconds," Martin said.
There's also a chili mustard, an Irish-whiskey one,
several French horseradish ones and many
winners from the World-Wide Mustard Competition held in Napa Valley every year. Martin also said he has a trick up his sleeve for St. Patrick's Day, when he
will introduce a green mustard made from wasabi. "There's a corn beef
cabbage sandwich we feature all day St. Patrick's, and people go through
a lot of mustard on that day."
When
pressed, though, Martin admitted his favorite mustard is probably just a
simple dijon.
Comments (0)