|By Kevin Kohls, Marketing Manager|
The internet loves a good mystery. They allow content creators to put on their detective hats to try to determine fact from fiction and provide a real opportunity to answer questions that had previously been unknown. When I saw a YouTube video which mentioned the “Victorian third condiment mystery” earlier this year, I knew that the answer to the mystery was just a few searches away in Gale Primary Sources and felt compelled to provide more context.
The Mystery
The mystery itself comes from the Victorian era and revolves around cruet sets— tabletop condiment holders that were once popular wedding gifts. These sets typically had three containers: one for salt, one for pepper, and a third, unlabelled shaker that’s sparked plenty of speculation.
People have written blogs and made videos exploring what that third shaker might have held. Theories range from powdered vinegar to mustard powder, paprika or sugar. Some of these sources include primary documentation, but a lot of it comes from later periods. To really get to the bottom of this, we need sources from the actual era and ideally, more than just one or two.
Exploring Primary Sources
With that in mind, I dug into Gale Primary Sources and was able to find several sources that I believe will help lay this mystery to rest. I began my search using the Gale Primary Sources Cross Search experience, using the Advanced Search filters to limit my search to periodicals and newspapers because I thought they would be a good source of information through advertisements, housekeeping columns and possibly references to cruet sets in general life.
Using a proximity search limiter, I searched for documents that contained the words “cruet” and “mustard” within close proximity. I also hunted for some other common theories such as vinegar and paprika to see if there were results for either of those.
While there were many hits for vinegar, almost all were references to oil and vinegar cruet sets specifically and there were minimal results for paprika. All signs were still pointing to mustard, with many examples coming back. I’ve compiled some of the examples of primary documents referring to “salt, pepper and mustard” cruet sets below.
In Freeman’s Journal, March 10, 1894, available in British Library Newspapers, an often re-run ad from a silversmith lists several cruet sets, including a “Lunch Cruet” specifically described as for salt, pepper, and mustard. This phrasing appears in multiple periodicals from the time.
In Family Budgets, a home economics guide published in 1901 and available in The Making of the Modern World, a weekly “cruet allowance” is mentioned—three halfpence for “pepper, salt, mustard and so forth.” That’s a pretty clear nod to mustard being part of the standard trio.
In the Daily Mirror on June 25, 1929, a newer type of cruet holder made entirely of crystal is described, again reinforcing the salt-pepper-mustard combo.
And lastly in the Daily Inter Ocean, from September 6, 1877, available in Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, I found an article about the American Temperance Union’s push to “Abolish the Cruet Stand” which warns of the “terrible effects” of early indulgence in “pepper, salt, mustard, cakes and candies.”
For academic librarians and faculty, this mystery is a great reminder of how primary sources can turn internet speculation into something more grounded.
The Third Condiment?
All signs point to mustard—and the historical ads, housekeeping guides, and social commentary back it up. But these are just a few examples. The Victorian era left behind a massive paper trail, and there’s still plenty more mysteries out there to explore.
Whether you’re guiding students through research or diving into it yourself, primary source documents provide an opportunity to uncover even more information and maybe challenge, or confirm, what we think we know.
If you enjoyed reading about the third condiment, check out these posts:
- Baking Through Time: Gale’s Food History Bake Off!
- ‘I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!’ Ice Cream Recipes in Gale’s Eighteenth Century Collections Online
- Using Literary Sources to Research Late Nineteenth-Century British Feminism
Blog post cover image citation: A montage of “A Sunday Dinner.” Punch, vol. 109, 27 July 1895, p. 47. Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/ES700272718/GDCS?u=webdemo&sid=bookmark-GDCS&pg=11&xid=c99d7411 combined with a source from the article.
