Mustard
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40 free Mustard trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Mustard is one of the oldest condiments on the table and one of the most argued over. A few tiny seeds, crushed and mixed with liquid, can be mild enough for a child's hot dog or sharp enough to make your eyes sting, and cooks have been tinkering with the recipe since Roman times. This quiz covers the whole jar: the plant and its relatives, the chemistry that makes mustard hot, and the styles that made Dijon, England, Germany and America famous for it. You will also meet the big brands and the people behind them, the dishes that would not be the same without a spoonful, and the places mustard turns up in religion, language, games and the battlefield. The questions suit curious cooks, pub quiz teams and anyone who has stood in the condiment aisle wondering what makes Dijon mustard Dijon. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will finish knowing more about what is in the jar.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which liquid, stirred into mustard powder and left to stand ten minutes, gives the hottest mustard?
Cold water
Cold water makes the fiercest mustard, because heat and acid weaken the enzymes that create its bite. That is why a mustard mixed with a hot liquid tastes milder.
Q 02Which country supplies most of the mustard seed that France needs to make its famous Dijon mustard?
Canada
Canada has supplied about 80% of the seed, mostly from Alberta and Saskatchewan. After a 2021 drought cut its harvest, French shelves ran short in 2022 and shoppers stockpiled Dijon mustard.
Q 03Which spice, also a staple of curry powder, gives American yellow mustard its bright colour?
Turmeric
Turmeric is added mainly for colour rather than flavour, and it tints canned chicken broth the same way. Food makers often use it as a cheaper stand-in for saffron.
Q 04Which mustard brand became a byword for luxury through 1980s TV ads set in Rolls-Royce cars?
Grey Poupon
Grey Poupon is named after Maurice Grey and Auguste Poupon, who went into partnership in Dijon. By 1992 no product's use tracked a person's income more closely.
Q 05Which classic board game has a suspect called Colonel Mustard, played with a yellow token?
Clue
Clue, sold as Cluedo outside North America, nearly named him Colonel Yellow. The character was renamed Colonel Mustard before the game first went on sale in 1949.
Q 06Wasabi at most sushi restaurants outside Japan is really mustard oil mixed with which pungent root?
Horseradish
Horseradish stands in because fresh wasabi is hard to obtain outside Japan. Both plants are mustard relatives and owe their nose-stinging heat to the same compound.
Q 07Which condiment is famously unwelcome on a Chicago-style hot dog, where yellow mustard goes on instead?
Ketchup
Ketchup is refused outright by some Chicago vendors, who post signs mocking anyone who asks. One story traces the taboo to the Depression, when the sauce was used to mask the taste of poor meat.
Q 08Which supermarket vegetable is a close relative of mustard, sharing a plant family with cabbage and kale?
Broccoli
Broccoli is one species, Brassica oleracea, bred into a different shape from its siblings cabbage, kale and cauliflower. Radishes and turnips sit in the mustard family too.
Q 09Mustard gas, named for its yellowish colour and mustard-like smell, was first used in which conflict?
World War I
World War I saw Germany introduce the weapon in 1917. Despite its name it is often not a gas at all, but a fine mist of liquid droplets that blisters the skin.
Q 10The National Mustard Museum began with jars its founder bought after which team lost the 1986 World Series?
Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox fan Barry Levenson began buying jars to console himself after the defeat. His first dozen have grown into a collection of more than 5,600 mustards from over 60 countries.
Q 11Which drink goes into most Dijon mustard today, replacing the sour verjuice that first made it famous?
White wine
White wine replaced verjuice, the sour juice of unripe grapes that Jean Naigeon of Dijon had swapped in for the usual vinegar.
Q 12Dijon, the city that gave Dijon mustard its name, lies in which historic French region once ruled by powerful dukes?
Burgundy
Burgundy's dukes were mustard lovers: guests at a gala thrown by one duke in 1336 reportedly got through 320 litres of mustard cream in a single sitting.
Q 13Which US state is home to the National Mustard Museum, where admission and mustard tastings are free?
Wisconsin
Wisconsin's museum opened in the village of Mount Horeb in 1992 and later moved to Middleton. Its founder, Barry Levenson, is a former assistant attorney general of the state.
Q 21Spicy deli-style mustard is the classic topping for which sandwich, often called New York's signature?
Pastrami on rye
Pastrami on rye is credited to Sussman Volk, a Lithuanian immigrant said to have been given the recipe by a Romanian friend and to have served it at his deli on Delancey Street in Manhattan.
Q 22A yellow, mustard-based barbecue sauce traced to German settlers is the signature of which US state?
South Carolina
South Carolina's golden sauce blends yellow mustard with vinegar, sugar and spices. It is most common in the stretch of the state that runs from Columbia to Charleston.
Q 23Which party appetiser, with mustard mashed into the yolks, is named after an old term for highly seasoned food?
Deviled eggs
Q 14French's yellow mustard made its public debut, billed as a 'cream salad' mustard, at which grand exhibition?
St. Louis World's Fair
St. Louis World's Fair visitors in 1904 are said to have been the first Americans to see mustard served on hot dogs, when the R.T. French Company launched its bright yellow recipe there.
Q 15American yellow mustard earned a nickname from its popularity on hot dogs at which sport's games?
Baseball
Baseball crowds made it 'ballpark mustard', though some simply call it hot dog mustard. Abroad, the same mild style is often sold as American mustard.
Q 16Which religious teacher compared the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a great tree?
Jesus
Jesus tells the Parable of the Mustard Seed in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The plant he had in mind is generally thought to be black mustard, which can stand nine feet tall.
Q 17Mostarda, candied fruit in a mustard-flavoured syrup served with boiled meats, is a speciality of which country?
Italy
Italy's northern cooks have paired fruit with mustard since the 14th century, and mostarda was said to be a favourite of the Dukes of Milan. The version from Cremona is the classic.
Q 18Sweet mustard is the traditional partner of Weisswurst sausage and soft pretzels in which German region?
Bavaria
Bavaria's white sausages are eaten without their skins, traditionally by sucking the meat out. The sweet mustard, called Süßer Senf, arrives with a pretzel and a wheat beer.
Q 19Which British dish of hot cheese sauce on toast is often sharpened with mustard, ale or Worcestershire sauce?
Welsh rarebit
Welsh rarebit was first recorded in 1725 as Welsh rabbit, a joke name for a dish with no rabbit in it. Nobody knows how the name came about.
Q 20Which pressed sandwich from Florida layers ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese and pickles over yellow mustard?
Cuban
Cuban sandwiches likely began in the cafes that fed cigar workers in Tampa and Key West. Tampa and Miami still argue over whether a layer of salami belongs inside.
Deviled eggs take their name from 'devil', an 18th-century word for fiery food that also gave us deviled ham. The yolks are usually mashed with mayonnaise and mustard, then dusted with paprika.
Q 24Cooks whisk a little mustard into Hollandaise sauce partly to help stop the sauce from doing what?
Curdling
Curdling is less likely because mustard is an emulsifier, which helps oil and other liquids stay blended. The same trick holds a vinaigrette together.
Q 25The mustard plant keeps its pungent compound locked away until its cells are broken, as a defence against what?
Herbivores
Herbivores get a mouthful of the burning compound the moment they chew, which drives them off. It would harm the plant too, so it is stored in a harmless form until then.
Q 26The mustard family's older name, Cruciferae, describes its four-petalled flowers as resembling what?
A cross
A cross is the shape the four petals make, and Cruciferae means 'cross-bearing'. The name lives on in the kitchen, where cabbages and kales are known as cruciferous vegetables.
Q 27The word mustard goes back to a Roman condiment made by grinding the seeds into which liquid?
Unfermented grape juice
Unfermented grape juice was called mustum in Latin, and the fiery paste the Romans made with it gave mustard its name. One Roman recipe was a mustard glaze for spit-roasted boar.
Q 28In a Buddhist story, Kisa Gotami is sent to fetch mustard seeds from a household that has never known what?
Death
Death has touched every home she visits, so she returns with no seeds at all. The Buddha set the errand so that the grieving mother would see her loss is one everybody shares.
Q 29Which English town's mustard, once sold as dried balls, did Shakespeare's Falstaff liken to a friend's thick wit?
Tewkesbury
Tewkesbury mustard was famous enough for Falstaff to use it as an insult in Henry IV, Part 2. Makers in the town still sell it in ball form, some of it covered in gold leaf.
Q 30Which hot Japanese mustard is served in small dabs with tonkatsu, oden and natto?
Karashi
Karashi is considerably stronger than American or French mustard, so a little is enough. In Kumamoto it is blended with miso, stuffed into lotus root and deep-fried.