Mustard of Vve Tierenteyn-Verlent in Ghent
Another non-chocolate souvenir was mustard made by Vve Tierenteyn-Verlent, a mustard shop in Ghent. The shop was started by Petrus Tierenteyn. Their mustard jar indicates that their business started in 1790 while the history on their website mentioned that Petrus founded the original company in the beginning of the 19th century. Anyway, the mustard business has been around for about 200 years.
According to their website, Petrus had seven children. One of them, Augustus took over his father's business while two of other children also would start their own mustard production. When Augustus passed away, his wife, Adelaïde Verlent, continued their family business and moved the shop to the current location in 1867 of which was just a few houses away from Petrus' original shop. The family business lasted until 1947 when a non-Tierenteyn bought the business. At that time, it seemed that none of the other Tierenteyn relatives were involved in the mustard business anymore. About 10 years later the business was resold to another non-Tierenteyn, Jean Caesens, whose daughter is the current owner of Vve Tierenteyn-Verlent. Here they are!
In the shop, various jars were neatly arranged on the shelves on both sides of the walls. They sell not only mustard but also other condiments, jams, spices, confections, and so on. The shop must be old according to the history, but it was bright and clean.
Somehow I expected they sold several different kinds of mustard. I was wrong. Their mustard was just one kind. It was impressive that the shop has been producing and providing the only kind of mustard and surviving for a couple of hundred years! Customers chose a size and type of jar to fill the mustard. J picked a large jar and a small jar, and a lady in the shop poured the mustard from the barrel into it.
Their website said that parts of the knowledge of Tierenteyn-Verlent's mustard production have been lost in short order after the family let the business go, however, the Ghent colleges have worked on retrieving the lost knowledge and now the authenticity of the historical mustard has been secured. This mustard must have been an important cultural asset to the town from the view point of the scholars.
Once we came back from Belgium, we made sandwiches to try the special mustard. The mustard was brown-ish in color and smooth. It tasted clean and tangy, like Dijon and was very spicy, stinging my nose like Wasabi!
J seemed to enjoy the heat and taste. I am sure that he will request sandwiches or sausages more often.
