– Luke Zahm: Today, we’re in Middleton, Wisconsin, and we are going to check out National Mustard Day at the National Mustard Museum.

– Barry Levenson: Have you seen the mustard man With a hot dog in his bun?

– Luke: I’m here with Barry, the curator of the Mustard Museum.

To see this community come together over a condiment is fantastic.

– Woman: Mustard today!

All the way!

– Luke: So I see we have an assortment of Braunschweiger products.

– Woman: You can’t really get more Wisconsin than that.

This is Gorman Thomas’ Stormin’ Sauce.

– Gorman Thomas: Salud.

– Luke: Salud.

Even those who didn’t catch your baseball career are gonna catch your barbecue career.

This is gonna be one bangin’ pan of pork.

You may ask yourself, “How much apple cider is too much apple cider when braising my pork shoulder?”

And the answer is you’re never gonna find too much.

This is where we need the Smell-O-Vision.

I got my autographed bottle of the Stormin’ Gorman.

That’s a delicious pulled pork sandwich.

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: – Announcer: Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

– Announcer: 20-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food.

There’s a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

[lively banjo music] – Announcer: Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit “Swissconsin” and see where your beer is made.

[sizzling] – Announcer: For generations, our bacon recipe has remained the same.

You can see it on our labels, smell it as you cook it, and taste it in every bite.

Breakfast better with Jones.

– Announcer: The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer, and they’ll tell you there’s a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore.

From local animal sourcing to onsite, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore.

Know your farmer.

Love your butcher.

– Announcer: Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

[bright, driven folk pop music] – Luke: We are a collection of the finest farmers, food producers, and chefs on the planet.

[meat sizzling] We are a merging of cultures and ideas, shaped by this land.

We are a gathering of the waters, and together, we shape a new identity to carry us into the future.

[glasses clink] We are storytellers.

We are Wisconsin Foodie.

[butcher paper rustles] It’s National Mustard Day!

And what better place to be than downtown Middleton at the National Mustard Museum’s Mustard Festival?

Now, curator of the National Mustard Museum– former Assistant Attorney General of the State of Wisconsin Barry Levenson– started his mustard collection in the 1980s as a way of emotionally processing his love for the Boston Red Sox, which we won’t hold against him today.

He’s curated a collection of mustards that warrant the designation “museum,” and we are here today to taste mustard in its infinite possibilities and get our glizzies gilded with this delicious condiment.

– Barry Levenson: My dream is to get every single mustard made in the world.

Although we do have over, you know, 6,900, we’re always looking for that next mustard.

Well, I came here to Wisconsin to go to law school.

I guess I just fell into mustard in 1986 when the Red Sox lost the World Series.

So I couldn’t sleep, I went to an all-night supermarket on the east side of Madison, and I roamed up and down the aisles, you know, pushing an empty cart… tears running down my cheeks.

And when I passed the mustards, I heard this voice: “If you collect us, they will come.”

I did.

They have.

End of story.

This is what we call the Great Wall of Mustard, mustards from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

This is the tip of the iceberg as well.

You know, why mustard, of all things, and why would anyone come to a mustard museum?

And I think the reason is that it’s very useful to focus on something that we take for granted, and then explode it, and see what it really can mean.

I think most people do take it for granted.

Over here, we have one of my favorite items.

This is called the Supreme Court Mustard because before I started collecting mustards and before I started the museum, I was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin, and I argued a case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

I had this jar with me when I argued that case, and, of course, I won, so that was kind of a good-luck charm, and I always kept it.

You can see that was from 1987.

I had no idea that that little jar of mustard would eventually lead to me opening the National Mustard Museum.

We now– of course, at the time, I maybe had 50 or 60 different mustards in my very small collection.

Right now, we have over 6,900 different mustards from all over the country, all over the world.

When you really look at it and look at it carefully, it is art and it is culture, so don’t take mustard for granted, please.

OK, you can do whatever you want, but at least we celebrate mustard.

Well, I think mustard can also teach us that not only is it an international flavor, but that it may be the pathway to peace.

If mustard is common to every nation, then why isn’t it also the tool that we could use to bring about world peace?

This is Gorman Thomas’ Stormin’ Sauce, which won a medal– in fact, a gold medal– a few years back at the World-Wide Mustard Competition.

Gorman, of course, has become a good friend, and he’ll be here on National Mustard Day, as he has been for many years.

First Saturday in August is always National Mustard Day.

We’ve been celebrating that for 33 years, and it’s always the first Saturday in August.

[band playing bluegrass] Well, Mustard Day has grown for many, many years.

Originally, it was a backyard barbecue for friends.

Now, we expect to see about 6,000 people, you know, crowding the streets and the museum with live music, mustard games, and mustard ice cream.

Yeah.

– Luke: Today, we’re in Middleton, Wisconsin, and we are going to check out National Mustard Day at the National Mustard Museum.

We get to go through and taste and experience the numerous iterations that mustard has to offer.

I am so excited to taste my favorite condiment and the backbone of so many brats, mustard.

[playing accordion] – Barry: The mustard man The mustard man, the mustard man Have you seen the mustard man With the hot dog in his bun?

– Luke: I’m here with Barry, the infamous Barry, the curator of the Mustard Museum… – Barry: That’s correct.

– Luke: and the founder of this great festival.

– Barry: This is National Mustard Day, our 34th annual celebration.

34.

Got a lot of people here.

– Luke: Oh, man.

Today is a great turnout.

What a beautiful day.

– Barry: Perfect.

– Luke: So what are a couple of the highlights that we must try when we’re here?

– Barry: Well, of course, you have to try mustard ice cream, made by Chocolate Shoppe of Madison, certainly want to taste all the mustards here.

– Luke: Yeah.

– Barry: You know, that’s part of the reason.

You want to play some of the games.

You want to buy a raffle ticket?

– Luke: Yeah, sure.

Ha ha ha ha!

– Barry: All right.

– Luke: To see this community come together… – Barry: Oh, it’s wonderful.

– Luke: …over a condiment is fantastic, it’s fantastic.

So you said you have almost 7,000 mustards.

– Barry: Yes.

– Luke: How many more are left to collect?

– Barry: I don’t know how many mustards there are.

I’m sure there are many.

– Luke: Yes.

– Barry: And I just want them.

– Luke: You just want them.

– Barry: I want them!

– Luke: Ha ha!

So, I was reading that mustard seeds go back to, like, 4,000 years ago.

Ancient Syrians.

– Barry: Exactly, yes.

– Luke: They were found, and then, it was kind of popularized by the Romans.

And with the Gauls, it made it up into Paris.

– Barry: Well, they made it up to Dijon.

– Luke: All the flavors of the world, you’ve collected and brought right here to Middleton, Wisconsin… – Barry: Yes.

– Luke: Under the name of mustard, and I can’t thank you enough, as a fellow Wisconsinite.

You’re an ambassador… – Barry: Heh!

– Luke: of connection through food, and the people that are here today are a testament to that.

– Barry: Yeah, I think they are, but I think it shows that people like a festival.

– Luke: They do.

We love our festivals.

– Barry: Yeah, and that’s what we do here… – Luke: Exactly.

– Barry: in Middleton, Wisconsin.

– Luke: Perfect.

Barry, thank you so much.

You’re a good human.

I appreciate you.

– Barry: Ooh.

Being a good human is good.

– Luke: Yeah, being a good human is great.

Ha ha!

Exactly.

– Barry: Yeah.

– Luke: Often goes under-recognized, but I see you and thank you so much for your work.

– Barry: And thank you for coming out.

– Luke: Of course, of course.

– Woman: One more.

Smile, mustard.

– Luke: What do you think about ketchup?

Mustard is better!

Ketchup sucks!

– Woman 2: Ha ha ha ha!

– Woman: Mustard today!

All the way!

Whoo!

– Luke: I’m gonna take one more.

– Woman: Hike it up.

– Luke: It feels amazing to be out here today.

Like, you see that true essence of, like, community coming together, people from all walks of life, and I can’t believe how many people I’ve met from outside the state of Wisconsin who come just for this mustard festival.

And, you know, it’s really pretty low-key chill.

I mean, we’re all just hanging out here in the street.

We’re eating a lot of different foods that have mustard as a backbone or a condiment, and it shows the true connective nature of an ingredient like mustard, that has stood the test of time for over 4,000 years and still finds its way onto every single brat and hot dog that I eat.

It’s good stuff.

You can’t beat it.

Tell us a little bit about this barbecue sauce.

– Gorman Thompson: Born and raised in South Carolina.

Susie is the same way.

So… we miss South Carolina.

– Luke: I bet.

– Gorman: It’s one of a kind.

The thing that we have right now is we can find grits… – Luke: Yeah, yep.

– Gorman: and shrimp, crabs, you know, the fish and everything else, and this thing right here.

And I made a batch and it was really nice, I thought, until it was too hot, and she says, “We’re not having that.”

[both laugh] So then, she says, “Let me– let me tone it down.”

She toned it down… – Luke: Sure.

– Gorman: and it– that’s what it is right now.

– Luke: Barbecue shots.

– Gorman: Salud.

– Luke: Salud.

So, quintessential Carolina barbecue flavor: vinegar, mustard, little bit of sweetness in the background there.

– Both: Little bit.

– Luke: Just a little bit, but it’s got one of those flavor profiles that lingers on your palate.

Even those who didn’t catch your baseball career are gonna catch your barbecue career.

– Gorman: You’re gonna love it.

If you don’t, I’m gonna pop you.

That’s what I’m gonna do.

[both laugh] – Luke: I’d get the old right cross.

Ha ha ha!

– Gorman: Oh, God.

– Luke: Well, I think it’s really great when you see people who have been at that level.

You know, you brought so much joy to so many people for so many years, you know, playing the game of baseball.

And now you’re out here, bringing joy to people, bringing them in with the– little bit of those Lowcountry flavors.

– Gorman: Thank you for having me.

– Luke: Hey, thank you, Gorman.

– Gorman: I appreciate it.

– Luke: Keep up the great work.

– Woman: Well, we make it especially for it.

– Luke: I need one of the mustard, please.

– Man: This is yours.

– Luke: Thank you, friends.

– Woman: Enjoy.

Smells like ice cream.

So this is the Razzle Dazzle or, more infamously at National Mustard Day, the mustard ice cream.

Barry said that this is one of the must-tries.

It’s fabricated by the Chocolate Shoppe right here in Madison.

I have no preconceptions.

That is funky.

The mustard, you kind of get it in a couple notes, and I can see the mustard seeds in here now that I know what I’m looking for.

So you get that classic kind of hit, but surprisingly– or maybe not surprisingly– mustard really, really accents well with the sweetness and the richness of the ice cream.

The ice cream itself is just decadent.

Super-luscious.

It is kind of an interesting cacophony of flavor.

My goodness.

I feel like I got fudge, I got caramel, strawberry.

This is the bite, if there ever was.

Mm.

That’s out of this world.

Mustard Day’s– it’s a very fun, unique celebration of Wisconsin’s food community.

If you haven’t been, get on down here, check this out.

If, for nothing else, the mustard ice cream is worth the admission alone.

I had a blast at Mustard Fest, and being able to hang out with Barry Levenson and see his passion for the condiment mustard really did open my perspective to how universal mustard really can be.

One of the other characters that I had the opportunity to sit down with was Gorman Thomas, a South Carolina native and a former Milwaukee Brewer.

He uses his expertise as being a genteel Southerner to make his Stormin’ Sauce.

One of the classic pairings of South Carolina barbecue is pulled pork, so today, we’ve got a beautiful pork shoulder.

I’m gonna take this; I’m gonna score it gently so we can ensure that all the seasoning gets right into the meat.

I’m gonna rub in– ooh– lots of salt.

Next, the black pepper.

Now, I ground this black pepper relatively coarse– it allows me to make a nice crust– and some dried mushrooms that are a gift from the forest.

And now it’s time to give it a kiss on the fire.

We want to be able to sear the outside, so that is draw some of the moisture out of this outer layer, and, at the same time, add smokiness.

This is where we need the Smell-O-Vision.

You get the wood smoke.

You get the scent of that pork getting nicely seared on the bottom.

My favorite way to eat.

This is going to act as my braising vessel today.

So, we’re gonna layer all of our aromatics on the bottom.

Everything in.

Everything goes in on this one.

It’s all about getting as much of the essential oils of these ingredients in the braise as possible.

So, I’ve got this bouquet of herbs.

To be specific, I have sage, oregano– oh, look at these, it’s got all these little flowers– and last, but not least, just a few tufts of parsley.

I’ll spread it right out on the bottom.

All the braising liquid, all the moisture in this dish, we’ll strain all of this off before we actually toss it with that pulled pork– [clicks teeth]– and it’ll put that flavor right back in with none of the sticks and stems.

Whew, that’s a life hack if I’ve ever heard one.

No sticks and stems, please!

My pork is ready to be transferred to the pan.

Here it comes.

Nice.

Just like that.

You may ask yourself, “How much apple cider is too much apple cider when braising my pork shoulder?”

And the answer is you’re never gonna find too much.

This is gonna be one bangin’ pan of pork.

So we’re gonna take this and slide her into the oven for about four, five hours or until that internal temperature reads 175 degrees.

There ought to be a law that you can’t eat a pulled pork sandwich without slaw.

We’d call it the slaw law.

I’ve got these adorable cabbages from the garden.

Look at these things.

Aren’t they cute?

We’re gonna take and make a coleslaw.

Super simple, super easy.

What we want is a really, really thin slice on this slaw.

Nice little fluffy bowl of cabbage.

I’m excited about that.

Next up, some apple.

You know, you’re slinging some serious slaw when you’re dropping the matchstick of apple in there.

So, I’ve got my bowl here.

I need to make a little dressing– little bit of mayo.

Let’s get a couple spoons out.

Oh, yeah.

You know it’s good mayo when it jiggles like that.

Little bit of apple cider vinegar.

I prefer the live stuff.

Shoop… shoop… shoop.

Three little shoops.

Now I’m gonna go with sugar.

Slaw traditionally has a decent amount of sugar in it, so we’re gonna mimic this because you only eat South Carolina pulled pork sandwiches with Gorman Thomas’ barbecue sauce and this delicious slaw, and where we’re going next with this thing, it’s to unknown heights, so, we’re putting the three shoops of sugar in.

Little bit of salt… and then black pepper.

I like that.

Here we go.

Going back to the memory of Gorman Thomas’ barbecue sauce, it’s got vinegar and mustard.

I mean, it’s classic South Carolina barbecue, so I want to just make sure that I got a little bit of sweetness holding on here with the apple and the cabbage to accent it, you know?

Yeah, that is good.

I’m digging on that slaw.

Tangy, a little creamy.

Snappy.

That’s what I want.

Little snap.

[snaps fingers] Something to stand up to that pork, which, by the way, we should check here in a minute.

Pork’s done.

Yeah, I’m so excited.

This smells so good!

Most of the time, I would let this rest– let it sit in its own juice like this, naturally cool down– but I’m too hungry, and it’s time to eat.

I got my autographed bottle of the Stormin’ Gorman.

Here we go.

That is delicious.

You know ’em, you love ’em, you can’t live without ’em.

These are those sweet, sweet rolls.

I’m gonna take and cut straight across.

Voil.

Get it on this roll.

Now we hit it with our slaw.

And layer that right on top.

Last but not least, I like a little bit of pickle.

Who doesn’t love pickles in a bag?

Oh, and I’ve got this Stormin’ Gorman one more time, the sauce, the boss.

I can’t wait.

Here we go.

Mm.

Oh, my gosh.

That’s a delicious pulled pork sandwich.

The sweetness and softness of that bun, the richness of the pork, but that sauce, that mustard-based sauce, oh, it’s so good.

It cuts through everything, and it’s just a perfect, little sharp edge in there.

But, man, oh, man, with the slaw and the crunch and the pickle, all those things work together.

I love all the simple ingredients, I love the simple cooking style, but the flavors that come from it are just enormous.

I can see why Barry thinks this is the best way to eat Stormin’ Gorman sauce.

– Barry: Mm.

– Luke: I don’t need to say anything more, but this is my second piece.

It’s that good.

Mm.

It’s really that good, like I can’t breathe, it’s so good.

Mm.

– Barry: You know, I always say, “It’s better to see smiles on faces instead of tags on toes.”

– Luke: Heh!

Seriously.

I mean, uh, that should be a T-shirt.

Maybe not for this event, but a T-shirt, nonetheless.

– Barry: Uh, yeah.

– First things first.

[sputters] Heh!

Geez.

Ha!

Froze on it.

Hold on.

– I always say, “A bad mustard over a good ketchup, any time.”

– Announcer: Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters: – Announcer: Did you know Organic Valley protects over 400,000 acres of organic farmland?

So, are we an organic food cooperative that protects land or land conservationists who make delicious food?

Yes; yes, we are.

Organic Valley.

– Announcer: 20-minute commutes, weekends on the lake, warm welcomes, and exciting career opportunities, not to mention all the great food.

There’s a lot to look forward to in Wisconsin.

Learn more at InWisconsin.com.

[lively banjo music] – Announcer: Employee-owned New Glarus Brewing Company has been brewing and bottling beer for their friends, only in Wisconsin, since 1993.

Just a short drive from Madison, come visit “Swissconsin” and see where your beer is made.

[sizzling] – Announcer: For generations, our bacon recipe has remained the same.

You can see it on our labels, smell it as you cook it, and taste it in every bite.

Breakfast better with Jones.

– Announcer: The Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers are proud underwriters of Wisconsin Foodie.

It takes love of the land and generations of farming know-how to nurture a quality potato crop.

Ask any potato farmer, and they’ll tell you there’s a lot of satisfaction in healthy-grown crops.

With additional support coming from The Conscious Carnivore, from local animal sourcing to onsite, high-quality butchering and packaging, The Conscious Carnivore can ensure organically raised, grass-fed, and healthy meats through its small group of local farmers.

The Conscious Carnivore.

Know your farmer.

Love your butcher.

– Announcer: Also with the support of the Friends of PBS Wisconsin.