A Taste for Mustard: An Archaeological Examination of a Condiment and Its Bottles from a Loyalist Homestead in Upper Canada

During the excavation of the Loyalist-period Butler Homestead site in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario a small cache of glass condiment bottles was discovered in a space identified as a larder or pantry. The form of the bottles suggests that they once contained dry mustard powder, the bottles of which are usually recovered from military sites when found in Canada. This paper examines the cultural history of mustard as a food and medicine, its role in eighteenth-century British cookery and agriculture, and demonstrates how this specific form of glass container tied a Loyalist household to local and international trade networks in British North America and England.