This may come as a surprise, but mustard has been an essential condiment to humans for the past 6,000 years. The Atlantic says that the first spice that we know prehistoric humans used to pep up their dinners is in fact mustard. However, the sale of mustard oil for consumption is banned in the United States, Europe and Canada, despite the fact that it is used by millions of people around the world nearly every day. On The Atlantic’s “Flash Forward” podcast, they look into the answer to that mustard mystery, and also how mustard got its heat, and why humans can thank caterpillars to thank for its particular taste profile. The U.S. banned mustard oil for consumption due to the toxicity of eruric acid found in the oil. Any mustard oil for sale in America must be labeled “For External Use Only. And as for why we should thank caterpillars next time we dose our hot dogs in mustard? Well, mustard is a result of millions of years of plants and caterpillars struggling to survive. Essentially, there was an evolutionary arms race, which is basically like a military arms race, but on an epic timescale. The opposing armies were caterpillars of the cabbage butterfly and plants in the order Brassicales, which today includes cabbage, horseradish, kale and mustard. So the vegetables evolved to protect themselves from being eaten by bugs. They made chemicals called glucosinolates, which are a major component of mustard oil. But caterpillars evolved too, so eventually, they could eat plants with mustard oil. So the plants started to use different amino acid ingredients to make new glucosinolates. The evolution battle continued on and on. But here’s the thing: Humans find glucosinolates delicious. We experience them as an explosion of taste, so we turned them into condiments.
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