Getting Used to Eating Paleo: Mustard

This is part of a series on relearning how to cook Paleo, exploring different flavor bases to work from.

The general supermarket advice given to the Paleo shopper is to "stay around the edges" - meat, produce, and eggs are usually in refrigerated areas of the supermarket surrounding the aisles of grains, legumes, sweets, and juices in the middle. Be that as it may, enjoying eating Paleo requires some trips to those aisles. When we do, it's very important to get into the habit of reading ingredients. You'd be astonished at the places that corn, wheat, and soy derivatives show up in products that have nothing to do with grains.

The basic mustard has four ingredients - ground mustard seed, vinegar, salt, and water. That's it. Varieties of mustard may have additional ingredients that distinguish it. Yellow mustard often has turmeric for color, spicier mustards may have garlic or horseradish for flavor, and Dijon mustards generally have white wine in them. For the most part, all of this is deliciously Paleo.

Mustard was a ancient Roman invention. They would mix unfermented grape juice, in latin mustum, with ground mustard seed, releasing its characteristic spicy flavor. They called it burning grape juice, or mustum ardens, from which the name mustard derives. It quickly spread through the Roman empire, and after its fall, as the fragments of the empire independently developed their own customs and languages, they also developed their own mustards. In England, mustard seed was blended with cinnamon and water to make dried mustard balls that were sold for consumers to add their own vinegar to. In France, mustard cultivation in the Dijon region took on the same sophistication as wine-making. Though now a brand owned by Kraft Foods, the Grey-Poupon line of mustards had been made in the same style for over 200 years before its sale.

For the Paleo eater, mustard makes an excellent condiment - I love to eat my pork chops with coarse, brown mustard on the side. But we can also use it in our cooking as a bark around meat or fish or as part of sauces for a little tangy bite. Here are two examples.

Mustard Dill Salmon

We used dill weed before in our tapas recipe. It's really a versatile herb that has such a subtle flavor of its own but enhances the flavor of so many things. Simply adding dill weed to eggs, salmon, or cucumber enhances the natural flavors, and the fresher the better. In this recipe we mix dill weed in with a garlic mustard to encrust wild-caught salmon filet. My girlfriend, who otherwise hates salmon because it tastes too "fishy" to her, loves this particular dish and doublechecks any time I say that I'm cooking salmon that it's the mustardy one.

When shopping for salmon, wild-caught salmon will generally have a better fat profile - more of those long-chain omega-3 fatty acids we need. Farms raise their salmon on corn and soymeal, and just like grain-fed livestock, grain-fed fish are less healthy. Be careful picking a filet by color - many times salmon farmers and fishermen will dye their cuts in order to give it that richer, orange hue. And buy the fish right before you leave the supermarket - that way it spends as little time as possible outside of refrigeration.

• 1.5 lbs of wild-caught salmon filet
• 3 tbsp coconut oil
• 1/4 cup of garlic mustard
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill weed
• sea salt to taste

Pre-heat your broiler to full temperature and line your broiling pan with aluminum foil. Spill 1 tbsp of coconut oil on the foil and spread it around to keep the fish from sticking. In a small bowl, mix the remaining coconut oil, dill weed, and mustard and mix until it has an even consistency. Lay the salmon filet, skin-side down, on the greased foil and salt it lightly. Then spoon the mustard mixture on top and spread evenly, coating the entire filet. Put the salmon under the broiler's heat for 8 minutes for every inch of the thickest part of your filet. Remove from broiler and serve.

Mustard Thyme Rubbed Eye Round Roast

The fats in grass-raised beef are far more beneficial for your health than grain-fed, and pastured cattle generally lead happier lives than their feedlot counterparts, so in our house we do our best to eat grass-fed, humanely-raised meats. Those standards come with a price, and it shows up very clearly on my credit card statement. To try to save without going to grocery store meat, we select cheaper cuts of meat and simply have to cook them better.

So look for chuck roast or eye-round roast. Both of these cuts are tough as leather if you cook them too quickly, but if you slow roast them right, they get a nice even color, succulent juices, and a rich flavor without getting too overly tough. It's still no prime rib, but it's also half the price per pound.

Dry rubs are a great technique for making flavorful roasts. Take off all of the surface juices and then massage a rich blend of spices into the meat's surface and let it be for 24 hours. The flavor of the spices permeates the roast and seals the natural juices inside. In this recipe, crushed mustardseed and thyme give this eye-round roast an aromatic spicy edge, and in our house we generally find ourselves eating the leftovers with our eggs the next morning as well as lunch the next day.

When you are selecting your roast, look for one with a nice crust of fat on one side - when combined with the dry rub, the fat will liquefy and seep into the meat as it cooks.

• 2-3 lb grass-fed eye-round roast
• 1 tbsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground pepper
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds, crushed (or pre-ground mustard powder)
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme

Crush the mustard seeds and strip the thyme sprigs of their leaves. Combine the thyme leaves, mustardseed grounds, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Using paper towels, pat your roast dry of any residual juices. With your fingers massage the spice mix into all surfaces of the meat evenly, including the fatty sides. Wrap the roast in plastic wrap and refrigerate for as long as you can up to 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and when it's at full temperature, place your roast fat-side up on a roasting pan and put it in the oven. Immediately turn the thermostat down to 400 degrees and bake for 7 minutes per pound. When that time expires, turn off the oven but do not open the door - leave the roast in the hot oven for 2 hours. No matter how much you may be tempted, keep that oven door shut.

After the two hours, pull the roast, slice, and serve - it should have an even medium to medium-rare color and running with juices. Enjoy.