Comments on: Cutting the Mustard

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:47:16 +0000

Widespread. Get it?

(Sorry.)

By: Cassandra Jade

Cassandra Jade — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:45:12 +0000

Okay that is interesting. I knew the meaning of muster but I never would have linked it to cutting the mustard, which always seemed like a really silly thing to say given mustard doesn’t really need cutting. Thanks for sharing this.

By: Don Sassano

Don Sassano — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:37:54 +0000

I first heard the term used in the movie “Hud.”

- Don S

By: Brad K.

Brad K. — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:46:14 +0000

There is another connotation of cut – a cooking term, meaning a particular style of blending ingredients. (From http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com, “Cut in- Blend or cream butter or shortening into a flour mixture.”)

I just assumed that it took a bit of strength and stamina to make a (full? industrial sized?) batch of mustard sauce or some such.

And the song about too old to cut the mustard, anymore – I remember that more recently that Rosemary Clooney, the singer was male, and the genre was Country.

Anyway, ’tis better to cut the mustard, than to cut the cheese. I learned that working at a Waukegan, IL, pizza place, from a high school wrestler. Don’t ask.