Where did the phrase "Cut the mustard" come from?

Answer 1

New York City. A local was eating a hot dog with mustard and let a tremendous fart. When he got home he checked his pants and realized he had "cut the mustard." He told friends and the rest is history...

Answer 2

This expression meaning "to achieve the required standard" is
first recorded in an O. Henry story of 1902: "So I looked around
and found a proposition [a woman] that exactly cut the mustard."

It may come from a cowboy expression, "the proper mustard",
meaning "the genuine thing", and a resulting use of "mustard" to
denote the best of anything. O. Henry in _Cabbages and Kings_
(1894) called mustard "the main attraction": "I'm not headlined
in the bills, but I'm the mustard in the salad dressing, just the
same." Figurative use of "mustard" as a positive superlative dates
from 1659 in the phrase "keen as mustard", and use of "cut" to
denote rank (as in "a cut above") dates from the 18th century.

Other theories are that it is a corruption of the military phrase
"to pass muster" ("muster", from Latin _monstrare_="to show", means
"to assemble (troops), as for inspection"); that it refers to the
practice of adding vinegar to ground-up mustard seed to "cut" the
bitter taste; that it literally means "cut mustard" as an example of
a difficult task, mustard being a relatively tough crop that grows
close to the ground; and that it literally means "cut mustard" as
an example of an easy task (via the negative expression "can't
even cut the mustard"), mustard being easier to cut at the table
than butter.

The more-or-less synonymous expression "cut it" (as in "'Sorry'
doesn't cut it") seems to be more recent and may derive from
"cut the mustard".

Answer 3

Meaning
To succeed; to come up to expectations.
Origin
This alludes to the piquancy and zest of mustard. 'Up to mustard' or just 'mustard' meant good quality in the same way as 'up to snuff'. Cutting the mustard is just a variant of the same notion. It is recorded inthe 1905 edition of Dialect Notes:

"Cut the mustard, to succeed. 'But he couldn't cut the mustard.'"

Answer 4

Cut the mustard

Meaning

To succeed; to come up to expectations.

Origin

This alludes to the piquancy and zest of mustard. 'Up to mustard' or just 'mustard' meant good quality in the same way as 'up to snuff'. Cutting the mustard is just a variant of the same notion. It is recorded inthe 1905 edition of Dialect Notes:

"Cut the mustard, to succeed. 'But he couldn't cut the mustard.'"

See also, as keen as mustard.

Answer 5

it comes from the days when mustard was a hard substance and getting the proper amount for your meal or sandwich was by means of a knife!
Therefore to succeed was to "Cut the Mustard"!

Answer 6

The same place the expression "Lick the jar", came from.

As an example I'll use both in another expression. "Just because you're too old to cut the mustard, doesn't mean you still can't lick the jar."

Answer 7

Check out "world wide words" for info on lots of phrases/ sayings.

Answer 8

HMM I always thought that it was "Cut the MUSTER" having to do will not being fit for military service. As Calling Muster is a roll call.

Answer 9

Hastings Pennsylvania The musterd jelled up and they cut thin slivers to put on sandwitches it was good. Later that night they drank lager till all was drunk and full