Fiery and powerful, brown mustard seeds add pungent flavor to dishes. The brown and black variety are quintessential to the cuisines of South Asia, with a spicier profile than yellow mustard seeds. Ground, these can be used in spice mixes for meat, seafood or vegetables; whole, they’re excellent fried with ghee or oil to make tarka, the flavor base of many South Asian dishes, or used as a pickling spice.
Depending on who you ask, including very knowledgeable spice sellers, brown and black mustard seeds are the same. Sandeep of Pure Indian Foods is among those who say they are the same, while other sources claim they are different. Despite minute differences in size and flavor, they’re easily interchangeable in recipes, and at Milk Street we reach for brown mustard seeds when either black or brown are called for.
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Use mustard seeds in tarka—a technique to bloom spices in ghee or oil—to add a mild nutty flavor to dishes. Try it in our Indian Lentils with Spiced Oil (Tarka Dal), Cilantro Mashed Potatoes with Turmeric Tarka, Broccolini with Mustard Seeds and Coconut, Shrimp with Chilies and Mustard Seeds, or Shrimp with Mango, Coconut and Mustard Seeds.
Sandeep and Nalini Agarwal's family-owned company Pure Indian Foods sources only the best ingredients from small farms in the United States and India, where spice is the foundation of all cooking. The company's products add a nuanced complexity and authenticity to dishes that that can't be replicated, and the company is our most-trusted source of high-quality, boldly flavored Indian pantry staples.
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