{"id":43,"date":"2006-09-08T13:37:57","date_gmt":"2006-09-08T17:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=43"},"modified":"2006-09-08T19:33:22","modified_gmt":"2006-09-08T23:33:22","slug":"nchas-mccoy-cuts-the-mustard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=43","title":{"rendered":"NCHA’s McCoy cuts the mustard"},"content":{"rendered":"

A family recipe turned into a family enterprise this year, when Shawn McCoy and his mother, Mickey, began to commercially produce Mickey’s Mustard, at the urging of friends who were already hooked on the tasty condiment.<\/p>\n

Mickey first cooked up a batch of her now famous mustard 30 years ago, improving on a recipe that she had on hand and adding her own “secret” ingredient – banana peppers that she grew on the McCoy farm near Canton, Ohio. Soon the whole family, including Shawn’s father, Mike, were pitching in to help can mustard at harvest time.<\/p>\n

In addition to banana peppers, Mike and Mickey also raised Haflingers<\/a>, light draft horses whose origins trace to medieval Austria. So when Shawn moved to Texas and went to work for the National Cutting Horse Association<\/a> in 1996, as director of advertising for the Cutting Horse Chatter<\/a>, it seemed a perfect fit.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, after Susan Waggoner, of Waggoner Ranch and High Brow Cat fame, expressed an interest in Haflingers during a conversation with Shawn, he arranged a get-together for the Waggoners and several Haflinger breeders at the McCoy’s farm during the Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus.<\/p>\n

Susan Waggoner didn’t end up with a Haflinger, but she did acquire a taste for the mustard that Mickey served with hors d’ouerves<\/em> and was soon ordering it by the case, as were other customers.<\/p>\n

Currently Shawn is working out details for marketing and distribution. His first step was to enter Mickey’s Mustard in the annual Fiery Food Challenge produced by Chile Pepper<\/em> magazine. Winners of the contest, with categories from barbeque to salsa, and everything hot and spicy in between, will be announced during ZestFest<\/a>, held September 8 through 10, at the Will Rogers Center in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n

While Mickey’s Mustard, a tangy, sweet-hot sauce, fits the bill for mustard, it is more more versatile than mustard \u2013 think catsup with peppers instead of tomatoes. Here’s one of my favorite recipes:<\/p>\n

Mickey’s Harvard Beets<\/strong><\/p>\n