Steve Cybulski had been eating his family’s mustard for years before he started making it himself, bottling it and selling it as Blackwater Mustard. But for the first decade or so, he couldn’t even handle the heat!
“It was almost too much,” Cybulski said. The old family mustard recipe would pop up at every get-together, holiday and reunion, but it wasn’t until he hit his teens that Cybulski began to appreciate it.
“When you’re a kid, a glass of 7-Up will nearly blind you, you know?” Cybulski quipped. Once his taste buds were a little more refined, he grew to love the sweet, hot mustard. Four years ago, he started making it and selling it at farmers’ markets. Now, he supplies several Concord locations (often delivering it out of the back of his pickup) and ships it worldwide. A jar of it even sits in the National Mustard Museum in Wisconsin after a 2011 World-Wide Mustard Competition win (first place in a blind taste test out of 340 mustards!).
The mustard itself must be tried to be believed. It’s thicker than your storebought squeezables; it’s almost at a smooth peanut butter consistency when you spoon it out of the jar. When it hits your tongue, it’s sweet; you might thinks it’s a honey mustard at first. Then, you swallow. The heat comes out of nowhere and before you know it, your whole mouth is engulfed in flames.
So what’s the secret to the slow burn of Cybulski’s mustard? Well, it’s certainly not horseradish, wasabi or any other additive lending spice to the mix.
“I’ve gotten into arguments with people – almost to the point of hitting – who are sure there is horseradish or whatever else in there,” Cybulski recalled. In fact, he told us, mustard seed shares like enzymes with horseradish and the like. It’s simply a matter of grinding technique and duration that unlocks that hot hot heat.
“The more the mustard is ground, the more accessible that heat is,” Cybulski said. He told us that most people who make their own mustard use a pre-mixed mustard seed base; it’s that extra step of grinding the seeds himself that gives Blackwater mustard that unique flavor.
Cybulski only makes the one flavor of mustard; when it’s that strong and that successful, why make anything else? He also offers a Blackwater mustard cookbook to help you use the mustard for more than just a sandwich condiment or a pretzel dip (check out page 21 for one of those recipes in action). He’s also got a contest going right now for all you chefs out there: create a new recipe using Blackwater mustard and send it to him; if he likes it, you get a free, custom-made, double-sided apron with “fabric that reflects your interests.” (Get ready to make a bunch of Insider-themed aprons, Steve!)
Check out nhmade.com for a list of Concord locations that serve or sell Blackwater Mustard. For more information, call 746-2349 or find Blackwater Mustard on Facebook.
