The Outback: Very Dry in the 'Wet'

My friend Max Cryer is a researcher of word origins. He says:For many centuries, mustard has been an essential accompaniment to beef. It became associated with vigour and enthusiasm because it added zest and flavour. The phrase ?Keen as? is
first recorded in print in 1672 . The word ?keen? is used when associated with mustard in the sense that ?keen? means ?sharp, effective and noticeable? which good mustard is.Another version appears in 1679 ? ?You shall see a man as hot as mustard against Plot and Plotters." By 1925 the association was so strong that the word was used like this: ?That fellow is mustard? ( Edgar Wallace . Note that ? people and things were not like mustard, they were mustard). The phrase 'hot stuff' comes from the same comparison. A company called Keen and Sons was one of the early manufacturers of the condiment. They were taken over by Colman's in 1903, although the Keen brand name persists and mustard is still available under the name Keen. There is no direct connection between the firm and the saying ? since the saying ?keen as mustard? was published in 1672 and Keens the makers of mustard weren?t established until a hundred years later -1742. But there is little doubt that the presence of Keens helped re-inforce the hundred-year-old saying about mustard being ?keen.?