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Is Oktoberfest the new start of the winter holiday season? It would seem less absurd if Halloween decorations weren’t in stores before Labor Day, right? So I mused while trying some Inglehoffer mustard with weißwurst, soft pretzel and sauerkraut at the store—and then a memory from last year flooded back.
Beaverton Foods, the company behind Inglehoffer and its sister labels including Beaver Brand, sent me a sampler last year celebrating its 95th anniversary that included its cream-style horseradish (the first shelf-stable recipe), two seafood sauces and four mustards. One caught my eye, a red-purple cranberry mustard designed to enhance Thanksgiving leftovers or zhuzh up a non-festive turkey sandwich.
“This looks disgusting,” I thought to myself at the time. “I have to try it.”
Last year’s holidays were rougher than usual for the West Coast Jankowskis, so Beaverton Foods’ generosity was accidentally forgotten. But nearly a solid year later, all of the sample bottles are within their expiration dates (the tartar sauce will expire soonest, for whatever that’s worth). Armed with half a fried chicken sandwich, I wanted to be disgusted.
For better or worse, the cranberry mustard smells a little more like the latter flavor, but tastes more strongly of the former. If there’s anyone out there who enjoys the taste of cranberry sauce but isn’t down for the texture, this might be a good alternative worth exploring. The mustard is smooth and both spreadable and dunkable—a leftover chicken sandwich came in handy for the taste test. The first dollop was meant to politely sample the texture and flavor, but I eagerly squirted out a second pump to get saucier with the remains of the sandwich.
Cranberries might not be the first flavor that comes to mind for Oktoberfest, but Germany does produce them proudly and uses them for dishes that also are complimented by lingonberries. Getting into it now means being fully acclimated by the time peak American cranberry holidays hit and we’re up to our turkey necks in leftovers. Gobble gobble, mein goldstück. Tschüß!
