Gulden's is the third largest American manufacturer of

mustard Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

, after

French's French's is an American brand of prepared mustard, condiments, fried onions, and other food items that was created by Robert Timothy French. French's "Cream Salad Brand" mustard debuted to the world at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. By 1921, ...

and

Grey Poupon Grey Poupon is a brand of Dijon mustard which originated in Dijon, France. The U.S. rights to the brand were acquired by the Heublein Company, later passing on to Kraft Foods. Grey Poupon became popular in the United States in the late 1970s an ...

. One of the oldest continuously operating mustard brands in the United States, it is now owned by agricultural giant

ConAgra Foods Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...

. Gulden's is known for its spicy brown mustard, which includes a blend of mustard seeds and spices. The Gulden's mustard recipe has remained a secret for more than 140 years.

History

Charles Gulden was born on September 23, 1843, in New York City. By the age of 15, he was employed as an engraver. Two years later, he went to work for his uncle, who owned the Union Mustard Mills. After serving with a reserve regiment at Gettysburg during the Civil War, he returned briefly to his uncle's shop. Gulden opened his own mustard company in 1862. He chose Elizabeth Street for his shop, near the South Street shipping berths, where he could easily obtain the mustard seeds and spices necessary to mix with vintage vinegars. By 1883, Gulden's product line included 30 mustard varieties and other products, including olives, capers, cottonseed oil,

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among o ...

, and Worcestershire sauce. That year, he expanded down the street into a six-story building."Charles Gulden's olive and mustard warehouse, 44 to 50 Elizabeth Street" wa
mentioned in December 1914 by the ''New York Times''
when the original cornerstone of St. Stephen's Church was rediscovered in a nearby

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. ...

basement. Drawing from his earlier experience as an engraver, Charles Gulden once asked his brother: "Do you think it would help if we were to attach a spoon to each bottle of No. 6, no extra charge?" Soon, the Guldens were attaching fine, imported spoons to each bottle. Gulden's mustard won awards in 1869 and 1883. It also earned awards at the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

, Chicago 1893, the Exposition Universelle, Paris 1900, the Sesquicentennial International Exposition in Philadelphia in 1926, and the Napa Valley Mustard Festival in 2005. However, the Gulden's mustard sold today is not the same formula as the mustard that won the awards in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As recently as the 1960s, when the company was headquartered in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, the ingredients listed on the label were: "Mustard seed, vinegar, spices, and salt."

Turmeric Turmeric () is a flowering plant, ''Curcuma longa'' (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast ...

was not listed, as it is today. Charles Gulden died in 1916 and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York. Gulden's was sold to American Home Foods (a division of

American Home Products Wyeth, LLC was an American pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1860 as ''John Wyeth and Brother''. It was later known, in the early 1930s, as American Home Products, before being renamed to Wyeth i ...

), which was spun off and renamed

International Home Foods International Home Foods (IHF) was an American manufacturer, distributor and marketer of food products, based in Parsippany, New Jersey. It was acquired in 2000 by ConAgra Foods and merged into ConAgra's Grocery Products division. IHF's best kno ...

in 1996. In 2000, ConAgra purchased International Home Foods. Gulden's mustard is now made in

Milton, Pennsylvania Milton is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States, on the West Branch Susquehanna River, north of Harrisburg, located in Central Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River Valley. It is approximately 10 miles upriver from the mouth ...

References

Sources

*Hallett, Anthony and Diane Hallett, 1997, Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneur Magazine, pp 238–239.

External links

Official website
{{Mustard (condiment) Brand name condiments Mustard brands 1862 introductions Conagra Brands brands 1862 establishments in New York (state)

History

See also

References

Sources

External links