A stoneware mustard crock with a wooden paddle beside a bowl of brown and yellow mustard seeds, a bunch of unripe green grapes, an old copper pot and a medieval-style illustrated page on a wooden table

Why Is It Called Dijon Mustard?

September 9, 2026

A jar labeled Dijon can be made anywhere, because in France the name describes a recipe, not a place. Around 80 percent of the mustard seed French makers use is grown in Canada, and the route from a Burgundian city to a Canadian field is the history of the name. The Dijon mustard guide covers the styles in the jar; this piece follows the word on the label.

The seed and the word

Brown mustard, Brassica juncea, is grown in Asia, Europe and the Americas mainly for its seed, which goes into brown mustard or is pressed for oil. The word carries an older recipe. "Mustard" comes through Old French mostarde from Latin mustum, new wine, because the condiment was first made by adding grape must to the ground seed.

A Dijon institution

Mustard became a Dijon institution early. In 1634 the city's vinegar and mustard makers received their first official guild statutes, which set rules for the trade. The guild's name records something about the recipe: in Dijon, the people who made the acid and the people who made the mustard belonged to one body.

The verjuice switch

One of the best-known changes to Dijon mustard came from the city's own makers. The Naigeon family of Dijon, Jean Naigeon among them, replaced the vinegar in the recipe with verjuice, the tart juice of grapes picked before they are ripe. French accounts place the switch in the eighteenth century, and France's official tourism site credits that tart liquid with giving Dijon mustard its characteristic flavor. Today's Dijon mustard is made from brown mustard seed, an acid such as vinegar or white wine, and salt.

The names on the jars

The Maille house, a Paris vinegar business that was selling aromatic vinegars by 1747, opened its Dijon boutique in 1845, and that shop still pumps fresh mustard to order. In the nineteenth century Maurice Grey, a Dijon mustard maker, built a machine to speed up production and took financing from Auguste Poupon, another mustard maker. France's tourism site dates the creation of Grey-Poupon to 1866 and calls it the most famous brand. Through the twentieth century, small mustard makers gave way to larger houses such as Amora and Maille.

A recipe, not a place

France's tourism site says that at one time anything called Dijon mustard had to be made in or around Dijon, and that today the name is generic: any mustard made with the basic Dijon recipe can be called Dijon mustard, wherever it is produced. According to Futura Sciences, a French decree of 1937, followed by another in 2000, set out how the different mustards are made and what they may be called. The protected place name belongs to the region. Futura Sciences dates the protected geographical indication for Moutarde de Bourgogne to 2009, and the indication requires seed grown in Burgundy.

The seed goes to Canada

Canada produces half the world's exports of mustard seed, and France's reliance on it showed in 2021, when a heat wave and drought roughly halved the Canadian crop. In Saskatchewan, temperatures in early July came close to 40 degrees Celsius, and mustard yields in the province fell by more than half. For months in 2022 French supermarket shelves ran short of Dijon mustard, and signs on the shelves limited shoppers to one jar.

The shortage pushed Burgundy to grow more of its own seed. In June 2022, local producers were urged to more than double the area planted with mustard, to 10,000 hectares, and makers agreed to pay 2,000 euros a tonne for Burgundy seed in 2023, up from 1,300 euros the year before.

A timeline of the four Dijons

The word Dijon on a label has carried four threads: the place, the method, the law and the seed. Sorting the dated record by thread shows where the name stopped tracking the city.

Year	Event	Thread
1634	First official statutes of Dijon's guild of vinegar and mustard makers	Place
18th century	The Naigeon family replaces vinegar with verjuice	Method
1747	Maille sells aromatic vinegars in Paris	Method
1845	Maille opens its Dijon boutique	Place
1866	Grey-Poupon created, per France's tourism site	Method
1937	Decree fixes how mustards are made and named	Law
2000	A further decree on the same rules	Law
2009	Moutarde de Bourgogne receives a protected geographical indication	Law
2021	Drought roughly halves the Canadian crop	Seed
2022	French shelves run short for months; Burgundy producers urged to more than double acreage	Seed
2023	Makers agree to pay 2,000 euros a tonne for Burgundy seed	Seed

Read down the right-hand column. The record opens with the city and its guild. The method then travels with the trade houses, and after 1937 the story is about law and seed. The 2022 push to grow more seed in Burgundy turns the seed thread back toward the place, building on the 2009 Moutarde de Bourgogne indication, which already requires seed grown in Burgundy.

Dijon at the table

Dijon belongs in vinaigrette because the mustard helps emulsify oil and vinegar, and the mustard emulsions guide explains how. Edmond Fallot, a Burgundy producer, makes a classic Dijon (shop Edmond Fallot Dijon Mustard) and a seed-style Dijon (shop Edmond Fallot Seed Style Dijon). The Edmond Fallot producer guide covers the house and its stone grinding in Beaune. Pommery, the Meaux house, also makes a Dijon-style mustard, Lion's Mustard (shop Pommery Lion's Mustard). For the acids behind the recipe, see the vinegar guide.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com.