BC's Horseradish sauce

[Burning Colon]

Growing up in the 60's & 70's we never had hot sauce in the house perhaps it wasn't available or something at the time was not angloCanadian, I do remember a container of crush hot pepper flakes but was only used for spagetti and other rare sauce. I do remember mint jelly being always in the fridge.

Every Sunday though, we either had a beef roast, pork roast or whole chicken and always with potatoes and gravy, the rare occasion we had a venison roast, very rare was goose and never lamb but always on the table was a brand of horseradish called Bingo. I believe it was processed in a local mennonite location close to where I was raised.

Well, Bingo is not available in my area and perhaps the company doesn't exist anymore, most horseradish is the processed kind from somewhere USA and for the most part has little flavour and no real heat to talk about. We do have a Hutterites but I have never seen horseradish produced my them - I do buy their free range chickens occasionally, not only are they tasty but they are as large as a small turkey. So, I make my own horseradish sauce and let me share it with you.

First, let's look at my plants before I pull and clean them(there are more plants but I forget to get the camera).

Now I have to wash it and this is really the most painfull part of making horseradish and dirt gets into the most unusual places.

Next I chop it up to fit conveniently in the food processor.

 

[Burning Colon]

Next is to take everything outside for processing and the fumes will fill the house making it unbearable for the wife and girls.

The green bottle is my homemade white wine made from white palomino grapes - I make this in 2002 and I'll put a splash of that in turning processing. I first process all the horseradish, giving it its first pass in the processor. the ground product is put into a plastic container, I sprinkle with sugar and salt and let it side for about 5 minutes. this maximizes the heat of the horseradish. I then put it back into the processor and add in the vinegar, when it looks fine enough I add in a splash of my white wine.

I forgot to take a picture of the grinding and bottling, mainly do to the fact that several times my eyes and sinuses were dripping to bad, I had to cover things and walk away. Oh, I also stole from SalasLady's post, awhile back and separated a batch and added a ghoolop of mayonaise(I think that was her term). There's a lot more in my fridge but here are a few bottles of both regular and creamy horseradish sauces.

Thanks for viewing,

 

[Burning Colon]

At the time, I didn't think of it but I should have had the wife video me jarring the horseradish, it would have been on par with some of the hot pepper tasting reviews. the first thing that hits is the fumes as they find your nostrils. your eyes start to water, then they fill with tears to the point where you have to cover your eyes and its hot, next your sinus' start and the nose starts to drip and you have to blow your nose several times, all this with your eyes still closed! The heat is focused from the nose up so no "back of me throat" burn but between your eyes.... right between your eyes! There is an endorphin rush and once your system settles down, you have to go right back at it so the horseradish doesn't lose its powerful taste and heat - now that's punishment.

 

[wordwiz]

BC,

Nice. Last year, I harvested a tiny (maybe a heaping tablespoon full!) from a first year plant and it had next to zero heat, even though I let it sit for a few minutes. I think that is because it needed to mature a bit. This year, a couple of my plants are like yours, much bigger than they were last year. I hope so, as I would like to experiment a bit with different spices.

Did you pressure can the HR or are you keeping it refrigerated? Or is the pH such you don't need to worry about it?

Mike

 

[Burning Colon]

Mike, the amount of vinegar, salt and sugar should be enough to keep it preserved, much like if you purchased jarred horseradish at a grocery store but I bet if you look in the cold section of certain grocery stores you may find cold jarred horseradish(that's probably the good stuff). there is an old wives tale that says "to keep horseradish hot, keep it cold". Normally, I keep it in the fridge but I think this year I may pop some in the freezer then pull the jars as needed. I use small baby jars to give away to neighbours and friends. Of course, you don't have to use jars, one could use small freezer baggies and fill them - if the freezer was the destination.

The plants I processed were 4 years old, the last time I made horseradish was 2006 and you would be correct, first year roots generally are not hot, I kind of wish I had the wife video me - you would have pee'd yourself laughing. If you have never been exposed to hot horseradish fumes its a rush - kind of like a friendly super charged Vicks vapour rub, I hope you get a chance.

 

[wordwiz]

The plants I processed were 4 years old, the last time I made horseradish was 2006 and you would be correct, first year roots generally are not hot, I kind of wish I had the wife video me - you would have pee'd yourself laughing. If you have never been exposed to hot horseradish fumes its a rush - kind of like a friendly super charged Vicks vapour rub, I hope you get a chance.

BC,

Me too! But I'm surprised your plant was 4 years old. Mine is almost similar to yours but I planted it in the fall of 2008.

Too bad we are not entertaining family members for T-Day! That would be a great time to grind the HR up! I could report that all my guests were crying when they had to leave!

Mike

 

[Burning Colon]

As for the horseradish plant, if you look at the picture, notice the leaves, they have endured a few frost and freezes so far this fall.
Winter will kill the leaves, they will rot off, but its the root that continues to grow and new fresh leaves will reappear next year. The maint tap root will grow and many off shoots will start, thus the plant is sometimes referred to as "the root that has roots".

 

[patrick]

Man I know about getting run out of the house by this stuff.

My dad has had a patch of horseradish growing for longer than I can remember. I usually dig a few roots out every other year and whip up a batch. This years was one of the hottest I've ever tasted. While digging some out my nephew decided to sample a bit. Didn't take very long for the tears to start pouring out of his eyes. This batch is brutally hostile

 

[texas blues]

How did I miss this thread? Brings back memories of cleaning and shredding heaps of this stuff and crying like a baby. The real deal lights you up like a pinball machine on 220v. Love it looooong time!

 

[DaQatz]

Horseradish sauce like this is great with baked beans. Yum

 

[salsalady]

We're doing a small prime rib roast for the 2.5 of us for Thanksgiving day and this has inspired me to dig under the snow-covered ground for some FRESH horseradish on Thursday!

Seeing the pictures of the size of the roots before cleaning and after cleaning, thanks for showing that. I always feel like I'm cutting away so much of the root, but to get it clean, it has to be trimmed!


Just used some processed horseradish on grilled reuben-esque sammies for dinner.