A quiet jar of mustard seeds

Mustard seeds are already tipping into the pan “for the crackle” — and the open packet sits in the steam by the hob. Easy: in weeks they taste of bitter oil, they smell of a warm cupboard. I shut a jar and put it on a cool shelf — lid tight, not by the steam.

A quiet jar of mustard seeds. Opened prepared mustard I keep in the cold is another note; mustard on the table is another tip; sesame in a jar is another story. Here it is the dry seeds: a jar, cool, a crackle in a dry pan before the onion — not a lecture about “ayurveda”.

If they already smell rancid — I smell and bin, I don’t mask them in a sauce. Before soup I warm a pinch in a dry pan to a quiet crackle, then the onion. I’m not reviewing a new variety with a tasting here — it’s about the packet that already sits at ours.

I don’t need seeds that cool as bitter oil by the hob. I need a jar from which they still smell of clean seed. In your kitchen do mustard seeds live in a jar on the shelf — or already in an open packet by the steam?