A single container of prepared yellow mustard contains approximately 10 million whole white mustard seeds crushed down to particles no larger than one-thousandth of an inch. And, in the world, there are only two companies who produce the custom mustard mills that help transform the ingredients into the finished condiment. The quality leader for these mills is Jayhawk Manufacturing, tucked quietly away in Hutchinson, Kansas (the other is based in Switzerland). Jayhawk is the preferred colloid mill supplier for the world’s leading mustard brand that you find on your grocery store shelves.

Stone Milling: No Tolerance for Error

To make mustard, water, salt, vinegar, spices, and mustard seed are combined into a slurry in 10,000-gallon tanks then agitated until fully stirred together. This suspension is then forced through the mill head containing two custom-engineered grinding wheels or “stones” as they are commonly called. One stone remains stationary while one rotates up to 3600 RPMs to grind the mixture and break down the particles. This process is known as “stone milling.”

See How Mustard is Made

Jayhawk’s biggest customer processes 150 gallons of mustard per hour 24 hours a day using 100 Jayhawk mill heads. “Each batch is tested after the stone milling process with a Hegman gauge (or grinding gauge) to make sure the particles are no bigger than 45 microns,” Brown noted. “By comparison, a human hair measures 50-120 microns, so you get some idea of just how fine the grind has to be. Norton makes it possible for our mill heads to achieve that specification.” Watch the process in this short video.

Trust Built Across Generations

In 1939, a foundry owner was approached by a local pickle factory owner who wanted a way to make mustard that could be used in some of his products. The foundry owner set to work and figured out how to engineer a mustard mill with grinding stones, powered by an electric motor. Jayhawk Manufacturing was born.

In the late 1980s, Brown’s father purchased Jayhawk from the original family who started the company. He kept it for a short time then sold it to another family who ran the business for about 35 years, carrying on the same stone milling process. In 2017, Brown decided to reclaim the business for himself. “My dad actually owned a different manufacturing business, and they were a really big Norton customer. So, it was just a natural fit to bring Norton in when Dad originally bought Jayhawk,” Brown remembered.

This article was previously featured on Norton's blog.