Before my first trip to France over three years ago, my buddy, Steve Weiner from Abt Electronics in suburban Chicago, asked me to bring back some Amora Dijon Mustard. He said it was the best mustard that he's ever eaten.
Amora's history dates back to the 18th century when mustard was sold from large crocks on the streets of France. Mustard salesmen would fill small crocks of mustard for the people while they made their rounds. Amora then became a family enterprise in the late 1890's and became one of the more popular Dijon mustards in France.
Amora mustard is now owned by the big European food and cosmetic company Unilever, who also owns such well-known American condiments as Hellman's mayonnaise, Wishbone salad dressing and Country Crock margarine. They also own such diverse brand names as Lipton teas, Slim-Fast, Lifebuoy and Dove soaps, and that good ol' American bathroom staple - Vaseline.
During my first trip to France, I did find a couple 10 oz. jars of the stuff in a small grocery store in Paris and I bought them. One for me and one for Steve. The taste of the Amora Dijon mustard is strong and goes well on ham sandwiches. But I don't eat ham sandwiches all that much and the Amora Dijon mustard doesn't keep well past three or four months after it's been opened. I used about a quarter of the jar before I had to throw it out.
This time, I found a number of different sized jars at a Casino super market near our hotel in Saint-Etienne. I grabbed three of the above size, not only because they were small, but because they looked like they could be used as juice glasses or something like that after the mustard was out of them.
I did pick up some ham slices after I got back this week and I made a ham sandwich yesterday with Amora mustard. Man! Just new out of the bottle, the strong mustard and vinegar taste is just explosive. It doesn't overwhelm the overall taste of the sandwich, but really adds some zip.
On the label, it says, "Fine et Force". That means "Good and Strong" in English. They sure as hell aren't kidding. They also make a "medium-strong" Dijon mustard that is somewhat smoother than the "Good and Strong" stuff, but I'll take the stronger tasting stuff any day.
And I have a recipe for a good French Dijon vinaigrette that I want to try with the Amora Dijon Mustard. If I like it, I'll probably be upset that I didn't get enough this trip.
Unfortunately, Amora mustard is very tough to find in the United States. I looked for it during my trips to Jungle Jim's outside of Cincinnati, but they don't have it in their French area.
There are a couple web sites that show Amora Dijon mustard. One of them - French Feast - is an American site that shows the mustard, but doesn't have it yet. They say they're still working on getting some. Another site is a British site - French Gourmet Store - which shows the medium-strong Amora Dijon mustard on their site.
Amora mustard - Par Amour du Gout! (For the love of the taste!) And it is damn good stuff...
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