Fresh horseradish. Just the thought of it makes my eyes water with glee.
Horseradish is an ancient condiment, and It’s kept a good popularity compared to other root crops like skirret and parsley root, the former of which I’m still dying to grow. It’s popularity has to be due at least partly to the fact that the root can be preserved and still retain some of it’s character, since you can go into any grocery store, anywhere in America and find the small jars of commercially prepared horseradish. Unfortunately, commercially prepared horseradish is typically weak, often overly sweet and disguised with additives like mustard oil to make up for it’s worthlessness. It’s also brown and oxidized, which I can’t stand. Sure, some of the store bought stuff will have a little kick, but there’s no comparison to the same thing made with the freshly grated root. Absolutely. No. Comparison.
Left: freshly prepared horseradish. Right: prepared horseradish from a jar. Which one would you rather have?
The fresh stuff can be a little tricky though. I didn’t work with fresh horseradish until I worked for Lenny Russo at Heartland, where only local horseradish showed up at specific times of the year: Spring, and Fall, for the most part. We never thought much about the timeline, but the timeline is an important part of harvesting—something I would get acquainted with at my first restaurant where we cooked 20-50 lb of smoked prime ribs every night. Just like at Heartland, I only bought my horseradish fresh, but, unlike Heartland, I bought it all year long, since my smoked prime rib never came off the menu.
“Only dig horseradish in months that have an R in them” or is it “Only dig horseradish in months that end in R?” Possibly both.
One day while showing someone how to make prepared horseradish from scratch, I got angry when the finished product didn’t come out as I planned. I demonstrated how to grind the roots just like we did the fresh horseradish we’d ordered a couple months before, but this time, the roots had no power, no potency, the only thing that remained was their bitterness. Calling it white cardboard shavings wouldn’t have been far from the truth. This was roughly in June, the previous order of horseradish having probably come in the Spring. Therein lies the secret.
When to dig
The old saying about horseradish is that you only dig it in months that have an R in it, basically from September to April. Some people would say that it should be “only dig in months that end in R”. Depending on where you live, and how cold it is, it could be either. I’ll also say that I prefer to dig it when it’s been cold outside, or after we’ve had a few frosts. Another way to go about it might be to avoid digging it when it has developing or especially, mature leaves.
The more I learn about plants, I can only assume that the lack of fire in horseradish during the warm months has to due with where the plant is putting it’s energy. During the growing season, the roots are putting energy into making it’s enormous leaves (also good) so they can photosynthesize, and from there, possibly produce flowers reproduce, etc, etc. I say possibly produce flowers there since the two horseradish colonies I know of have never flowered, and it seems to be another eccentricity of the plant.
I like serving horseradish greens with meat. Here the greens are mixed 50/50 with spinach and made into cakes with a little egg and flour to compliment a lamb dish I served the society of Amateur chefs in 2018.
Wild horseradish
Foraging for horseradish is a thing, and it’s been a close kept secret of sushi chefs in America for a while, who seem to be the only ones that go searching for the plant besides wierdos like me. I see wild horseradish rarely in Minnesota and Wisconsin, but I do have one feral patch I like to visit in the summer for leaves. I’ve also seen it planted in community gardens and parks. If you find some in the wild, you might consider digging up a root or two to plant in a convenient place you can get too. Some people will call it weedy, and horseradish can be stubborn, but it’s not that aggressive compared to other things—you can easily keep it in check with a mower.
Young horseradish leaves are the most tender.
Horseradish shoots on the top of this root are edible, and pack the same flavor as the mature leaves and roots.
Horseradish Leaves and Shoots
Oh yes, you can eat horseradish leaves. But, unless you’ve seen the plant in person, you may have never thought about consuming them. The only catch is that you’re not going to be wilting them like spinach per se. Horseradish leaves have a bitter, strong horseradish flavor, so when I cook with them, if they’ll be used as a wilted green, I cook them in a blend with other mild greens like lambsquarters, watercress, etc. Unlike other edible greens, horseradish leaves grow to be humongous, so they can be used for wrapping food. Here’s a few of my favorite things to do with them.
- Blanched and shocked, (remove the stem too) long, mature horseradish leaves are great used to wrap fish to put on the grill, or line a pan that you’ll fill with meatloaf, or a terrine.
- Fresh, you can use them in a salad if you remove the stem, cut them into small pieces or chiffonade the leaves into fine shreds. From there, you can use them, say combined 50-50 with other greens and use as you would a salad of bitter greens like radicchio or dandelions.
- A small amount can be a nice garnish for a rich piece of meat or fish, but I still like to mix them 50-50 with other greens, even after blanching. ‘
- The small tender shoots are one of the best parts of the plant—I may add them to salads and other things whole.
Mature horseradish greens may have a few bug holes, but they’re great blanched and used to wrap fish before putting on the grill, or wrapping terrines or meatloaf.
How I use it
Prepared Horseradish
Do you like hot fire, weeping and agony? I do. Good horseradish should be strong enough to offend people in it’s raw form. This is the real stuff, what horseradish in a jar could only dream of becoming. Some people grate their horseradish, and that’s, ok I might grate it sometimes depending on how much texture I want, since a coarse grater can give nice pops of fire, but, most of the time, I just make prepared horseradish from scratch.
Scratch made prepared horseradish is what you’ll find in the store, except nuclear hot, and addictive.
To make prepared horseradish from scratch, all you need is a little vinegar, water and a pinch of salt and sugar. The good part about doing it in the blender, is that you don’t have to grate by hand, which involves all the fumes creeping up to your face. Do be careful taking the cap off the blender though—the fumes are weapons grade.
You’ll want a high speed blender like a vitamix or ninja to buzz your own horseradish.
Grating the roots over something like steak or fish is good too, be careful though, the fresh stuff will knock you around!
Grating the roots straight-up
Prepared horseradish is only one thing the roots can be. In Scandinavia and other places, the roots are commonly grated fresh, directly onto food. It’s a great way to use the roots if you have some fresh ones sitting in the fridge.
Fermenting the roots?
Just because you can ferment something, doesn’t always mean you should. Some chefs put this on menus and claim it’s something special—It isn’t. I’ve done it a few times (salting and fermenting for 1-2 weeks) and the flavor gets lost, tasting just like the lackluster horseradish I bought in June back at the restaurant. I don’t know if it’s the subtle ambient warmth from the fermentation process that does it, but it could be, since horseradish doesn’t like to be cooked. Either way, preserving the roots in vinegar as for prepared horseradish, or grating and mixing with cream and freezing are both good ways to preserve the flavor. I also don’t recommend fermenting the leaves. That being said, quick fermentation can be ok here,
Scratch Prepared Horseradish
Equipment
- High speed blender like a vitamix or a fine grater like a microplane
Ingredients
- 4 oz horseradish root
- 2 oz water
- 2 oz white or other vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
- Peel the horseradish and set aside 4 oz.
- Cut the horseradish roughly into 1/2 inch pieces, then put in a blender with the remaining ingredients.
- Pulse and then puree the mixture until smooth, then scrape into a jar and refrigerate.
- Prepared horseradish will last for a long time.
- When I use the horseradish, generally I drain the liquid and add it to sour cream or mayonnaise to make sauces and condiments.
Notes
To make creamy horseradish sauce
Take spoonfuls of drained, prepared horseradish and mix to taste with sour cream, or a mix of sour cream and mayonnaise, or, if you have some, creme fraiche. Season with salt to taste. It should be nearly too hot in it's raw state, since the fire will be mellowed as you eat it with other things.
It’s a tradition in my home for family to get together for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving with fried ham and horseradish, of course! We see who can tolerate the most horseradish the best! A lot of tears and red faces sit around my table but we absolutely enjoy the fire out of it! I grow a patch on our property that I am always sharing with anyone who asks. I love putting the flowers in salad too. Great piece on horseradish. Thanks.
Hello forager chef, I’m intrigued by your article on horseradish ! Last summer, I came across two little wasabi plants for sale among a group of herb plants at a local green grocer. Popped them in my buy. When I got home I discovered that they had quite a bit of the brassica disease, little white blistering dots on the underside of their leaves. I hoped drastic surgery might help. But several months later, I gave up the fight. In my reading about wasabi, Japanese horseradish, it seems that these are delicate fellows ! They need everything just so ! Dappled sunlight, clear spring water source. The leaves of the plants I had were round and heart shaped. Very different from your arrow like fellows. Last but not least, only time I have every seen cultivated horseradish was in Switzerland. Two years of careful tending made for fat monsters.,taste was sublime. Thanks for your sharing I’ll keep a look out for this in more humid climes.
Is horseradish hot when dug up?
Before you prepare it?
Oh my lord yes.
While I love horseradish, a strong wasabi is my favorite. Can you tell me the difference?
Hmm. So, as far as your question “can you tell me the difference?” I need a little more clarification to answer it directly. What I can tell you is that they’re similar: both are Brassicaceous plants related to all the mustards, broccoli, etc. Wasabi is similar looking, but it’s pure green in color. I haven’t worked with fresh wasabi, but I do know it’s reputedly very difficult to grow. Horseradish is a snap. I like them both.
Inadvertently planted horseradish last year, it was in the compost bucket and I buried it having no idea it would actually grow. When it did grow this spring, I had no idea it was horseradish. Neither did anyone else in my urban environment. It was such a robust beautiful plant that I didn’t want to dig it up w/o knowing what it was. Finally spotted some in a garden nearby and found out what I had. It’s finally cold here, we’ve had a few below freezing nights and the plants have died back. I think now is the time to make my first batch. I borrowed a friends’ scuba mask after watching some YouTube videos and watching peoples faces when they take the lid off the Vitamix????????. So excited to find out about this. Thanks for more inspiration.
When the lid comes off the vitamix it is literally weapons grade. I find it pretty funny, as you can imagine we used to have a lot of fun playing pranks on interns with it.
My Dad bought an army surplus gas mask for his mother, my grandmother, for her horseradish-grating activity. And she used it. This was before the age of a blender in every kitchen…
I think it’s important to mention that one should store the freshly prepared horseradish in a glass jar with a plastic lid. I have seen the fumes from a jar of fresh horseradish EAT THROUGH a metal lid. Since I don’t have a Vitamix blender, I grate the roots using the shredding blade on my Cuisinart, then process them with vinegar in my Osterizer. I planted horseradish in one far corner of my vegetable garden, and it comes up in all sorts of places nearby. It is easy to harvest those stray plants when preparing to plant the vegetables each spring. It’s a friendly invasive.
If the fresh horseradish didn’t contain vinegar it would be fascinating if it reacted with the jar like that, was it just raw, unseasoned horseradish?
I think you are right—the combination of vinegar & horseradish is probably the culprit. That horseradish is pretty volatile alone, though.
I have two patches of horseradish that have been growing in the same place for a very long time. How can I nourish them and which roots do I leave and which do I dig, younger smaller/older larger and tougher. How quickly does it replenish itself after being dug up? Basic tending needs etc …
Thanks!
I’m speculating here a bit from my own experience, which only really involves harvesting feral plants occasionally. I would havest older roots, and if you want them to spread I would make sure each colony is a few feet apart, spreading roots farther apart to give them room as they gradually spread. My patch is so plentiful I’ve never worried about overharvesting. Horseradish is a sturdy, stubborn plant, but it won’t get aggressive and weedy like other things. I like to think of them more like a fixture in the landscape, like fruit bush or shrub.
I’ve grown horseradish for 20 years. The old plants are very difficult to harvest because their root system becomes massive and the roots near the center are woody and tasteless. We end up with a hole 3 feet wide and two feet deep for younger roots. I’m switching to planting crowns to harvest the next year or two. I’ll probably end up with a horseradish plantation. As for the fumes, I have a theory. My theory is that, for those of you with the moxy to tackle the task, you probably will have eyes and sinuses that age better, no cataracts, etc. just a theory about nature
Hi Alan, thanks for the inspirations of what to do with harvested horse radish. One part of the plant I also like to use is the flowers. Dipped into buckwheat dough and fried (like tempura) they are quite nice also.
Kind regards
Peggy
Yes a few people have mentioned that. None of my plants have ever flowered, weird enough. I wish I could try them!
About a mile from my home there was a huge horseradish farm at the turn of the century, like 100+ acres. It has probably been 60-70 years since it was farmed, but you can still find it growing on the edges of those old fields, even after the DNR dredge those fields and turned them into wetlands. I find it to be a pretty tough plant.