Making fresh Horseradish today.
Peel root and remove any blemishes.
Chop into small pieces for easier grinding.
Process in food processor or blender, adding water until smooth.
Drain excess water. Save this for other food flavoring.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/2 tablespoon of vinegar per cup.
Bottle and store in refrigerator for a month.
DANGER! Your eyes and nose should be very irritated during processing if done right.
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They used a metal utensil on non-stick! What’s the opposite of ASMR? ARGH!
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I didn’t notice it. I was impressed with the difficulty level of this recipe!
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I Saw only the last picture and thought It was a rare cheese.
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Does the bottle have to be vented (to some degree) or completely airtight?
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ARGH!
But it could have an anodized non-stick surface. I have one of those (frying pan) and it takes metal very well w/o being scratched.
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Its a vinegar pickle basically, so there’s nothing going on in there to produce gas. So better fully sealed than vented. It’ll go brown and weird if exposed to air.
He wasn’t joking about the irritation either. We used to wear the gas masks our national guard family members had on hand, and the usual thing is to wrap your face in a wet bandana.
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Thanks. Airtight jar then, and treat it like mustard gas! 
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I just screw a top on it.
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I think it might be the same chemical, or a precursor or something. ITS RELATED.
We just use mason jars. I can’t stress enough DO IT OUTSIDE. Under no circumstances should you stick horseradish in a blender indoors. You’ll think to yourself “how bad could it be, I don’t want to fuck with an extension cord.” Don’t. Outside.
Its traditional to do it in early spring, just before or just after the plants get super bushy. Apparently its best for keeping the plant alive after harvest. There’s a fixed traditional date here I think it’s one week before mothers day, but they actually publish it in the local paper. Like if you look at the community calendar it says “make horseradish”. People have parties.
With old plants you can also harvest in the fall just before plants go dormant. According to my grandfather this was best done right after Oktoberfest ends.
You dig out the plant and pull off any sizable tap roots. Small roots are replanted or left in place, and any greens cut get replanted with about 6" of the stems in soil. So you propagate it as a perennial. If you harvest young plants in the fall, you pretty much kill them. Takes a whole to get a good plant going with thick roots. 15 years is the rule of thumb here. But you’ll find fresh roots for sale every spring late April through May. Our plants only have 7 years on them so we get an OK amount of out them, and will often supplement with a root from a farm stand.
We don’t add the water. The water will make it easier to get a smooth paste, but we like it chunky. And it’ll also dilute (and drain off) some of the pungency giving you a slightly milder end result. We just salt pretty heavily, then dose with vinegar till we get the texture we like. Pungency will also fade with time (and air exposure another good thing from the mason jars). So shit is rocket fuel right after it’s ground. Hence the parties. You wanna have something horseradish friendly for dinner and prepare the stuff close to diner time so you can have it really fresh and super painful.
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I’ve had more than one dog which grabbed a whole horseradish root and ate it. Afterwards, an hour later without fail, they got the squirting poops.
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Wow! Great information! I am growing some now from cuttings. Do you say plant a leaf with the stem? So cool.
Thanks
Yeah. You don’t want to touch them for like 3 years. After each harvest (which again should be spring, after they have greens but before mothers day depending on climate) any roots left in the ground will bring the pant back over the coming year. If you re-plant the cut greens with the stems suitably deep they’ll shoot off roots and basically add to the colony. So each year you have more and more roots going. My dad likes to dust them with rooting powder before they go in. And that stuff works crazy good, I turned a sad little Thai basil plant into an aggressive bush by dusting kitchen trimmings and sticking them right in the dirt.
The fastest way to get a good patch of horseradish going, according to my favorite farmer, is to start with the biggest roots you can find at a farm stand or farmers market. You don’t want a super market horseradish cause they wax em, and they’ll just rot in the ground. You plant your big fat roots, wait 2 years. And on the first harvest you cut the bottom of the main root, leaving 1/2-1/3 and replant it. Supposedly that way you get big sexy roots quicker. And really the older the plant the better the radish, a really subtle sweetness creeps in over time. So starting with a large root, you get to skip some of the wait.
We did not do that. My mom got skinny little starts from the local farm coop a ways back. And 7 years in we get one root from each plant that’s 1/2 as thick and 2x as long as the one pictured. A good root is as long and thick as your arm. Says she planted it for her grand kids, first one of those just popped out.
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okey-doke. Thx.
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And there was much rejoicing!! Yay!
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The first episode is up on youtube, or it was last week (which is embedded in the story, derp). It’s awesome! Another one of our local exports I’m proud of!
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In the interest of promoting good retailers that are not Amazon, I finally found a good source for my ancho powder and Mexican oregano(Lippia origanoides). Link provided for Germans (and expats like me living in Germany)
I just want to add that I love Mexican oregano. I end up using it in a lot of stuff just to try it out.
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My favorite spice retailer in the States is Penzeys. Both their individual spices and blends are wonderful, including their new anti-Trump “Justice” blend (which is very good on veggies or eggs!)
https://www.penzeys.com/
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