522118 Fri May 23 15:18:01 -0700 2008 25 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 3716002 Whenever I buy horseradish in the jar, it goes bad very quickly in the refrigerator. I would like to buy fresh horseradish, but I am not sure how to store it or how to grind it to make cocktail sauce. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Fri May 23 15:18:02 -0700 2008 99845 Donna52479 1 3716179 Very tought to grind, you'll wish you were peeling 50 lbs of onions, but oh so very delicious! Fri May 23 16:37:48 -0700 2008 3716002 15128 RichK 1 3716462 I always have a jar in the fridge and it keeps at least six months. What happens to yours exactly? Fri May 23 18:50:29 -0700 2008 3716002 68319 Sinicle 2 3724240 I think the problem with being in the fridge is that mine loses its 'heat'. Tue May 27 11:55:57 -0700 2008 3716462 168212 PaulaT 1 3716535 Did you check the ingredients? I buy "prepared" horseradish, which includes vinegar and salt, and like Sinicle says, it lasts me for months. Fri May 23 19:32:38 -0700 2008 3716002 48210 KevinB 2 3716540 Never seen prepared horseradish go bad.....it has te same half life as plutonium....maybe horseradish sauce? Fri May 23 19:35:38 -0700 2008 3716535 180133 Saddleoflamb 1 3716538 I grow my own horseradish.. that is.. horseradish grows in my garden whether I like it or not. Luckily I love it. If you buy a couple of nice supple fresh roots, one way to make horseradish is to peel them with a spud peeler, cut into pieces, then drop into your blender with either a bit of vinegar (I like either white wine or real apple vinegar) or cream. PUT THE LID ON TIGHT! Grind until fine then TIP THE BLENDER CONTAINER AWAY FROM YOU before you remove the lid! The first time I made it I removed the lid and sniffed.. imagine wasabi in your lungs! Salt to taste. Sometimes I add the young leaves to make green horseradish which is quite delicious. If you are able to grow your own and you don't want patches of it every where, it grows well in a big half barrel. This is a big vigorous plant and it needs lots of root room. It's also rather pretty. Fri May 23 19:34:33 -0700 2008 3716002 172760 fromagina 2 4572025 What location is your climate? I would love to have my land (500 sq feet) overrun with horseradish. I will do my passover horseradish tomorrow. 12 - 15 lbs. peel and cut to grate in Champion Juicer with the blank plate in place. I keep windows and doors open and have a large fan blowing across work area. Collect the pulp in large plastic bags secured to the end of the juicer with thick rubber bands. Used to preserve with fresh lemon juice by adding a peeled lemon after every few pieces of root , but can't taste the difference if I use white vinegar. I do not salt it at all. This year I will add a beet for color since Mrs. Doc didn't see the lump of pulp next to the gefilte fish. Pack into jars and top off with more vinegar. The jars I give to my sister last her 6 months to a year. Mon Apr 06 11:07:00 -0700 2009 3716538 28638 phantomdoc 1 3716588 It used to be my job as a kid to grate the horseradish. I'd sit in the breeze way w/ both doors open w/ my skin diving mask over my face. Correction: 100 lbs onions. Mix w/ vinegar and don't sweat the color. Fri May 23 20:05:24 -0700 2008 3716002 93538 Passadumkeg 2 3716955 Pass... (and/or fromagina)... I have horseradish in my herb garden. It is on its second year and I haven't touched it. I was amazed that there are two distinctly different looking leaves growing from the plant at the same time. But my question is: How do I harvest the root? I get the impression that it is leafing off one big carrot-like root. Is it really like ginger or an iris bulb? I don't want to hurt what seems to be the one (and only) main plant. My plant is large but not huge and going everywhere...yet. Do I dig around and break some root off? Sat May 24 04:06:25 -0700 2008 3716588 137946 Scargod 3 3716972 Nope dig out the whole radish in the autumn, discard top, wash the root and learn the true joys of true masochism , a real grating experience. I think you can regrow the top in water like a carrot top for nex spring. Thanks, I gotta get some horse radish in our gardan. Sat May 24 04:29:58 -0700 2008 3716955 93538 Passadumkeg 3 3718088 Trust me.. you will never be without horseradish again! You can dig up a big root right now if you want.. spring h'radish is milder(sometimes) but still good.. and you can add some young, tender leaf if you want green h'radish. Any little roots left in the ground will grow into pencil-sized harvestable roots by fall, or be nice big carrot-sized roots by this time next year. I would in fact harvest the one with both a big flat leaf and that odd ferny-looking leaf now, because horseradish is biennial and those fern-like leaves usually indicate it's ready to bloom. If you harvest it now as a 2 year old root you should get a good-sized only slightly-woody harvest. If you wait too long it will get uselessly woody. My son inadvertently ran the rototiller through a stray clump of h'radish last year and now I am harvesting clumps from all over the garden that grew from those chopped up bits and pieces. Sat May 24 15:32:52 -0700 2008 3716955 172760 fromagina 1 3719695 The horseradish I buy in the small jar does have vinegar in it. After a few months, it just has a slightly bad smell, it might still be ok, but I am not sure. Thanks for the postings. I think I will buy the fresh root and peel the outside and then put it in the blender as someone has suggested - sounds like a good idea and easy. We use cocktail sauce all the time with fish and shrimp which we eat all the time. If I make my own cocktail sauce, do I just add a little vinegar and salt? Sun May 25 14:18:06 -0700 2008 3716002 99845 Donna52479 2 3720495 My version of cocktail sauce is mostly ketchup, a little mayo, a lot of horseradish (usually from a jar), and a little hot sauce to taste. A lot of people won't add the mayo, but I think a tablespoon in the bowl adds some creaminess and mouth feel, and the hot sauce's heat complements the sharpness of the horseradish. Sun May 25 22:42:56 -0700 2008 3719695 48210 KevinB 1 3719872 Donna, it's real easy to make your own. You just need to peel the root, cut into cubes and grind it in a food processor or meat grinder. The fumes will be deadly so if you do it in a meat grinder slip a zip lock bag over the chute to catch the ground horseradish and contain the fumes. In the food processor you can easily fine chop and the fumes will be mostly contained until you lift the lid. If you have a good hood/ventilation system over your range you can do it under there with the fan turned up high and avoid a lot of fumes. If you want it red just grind up a fresh raw beet along with the horseradish root. The longer you let it sit before adding vinegar the hotter it will get. Just add salt and vinegar, stir and add to jars. Top with vinegar if needed. Sun May 25 15:58:21 -0700 2008 3716002 89493 scubadoo97 1 3719948 This site explains the importance of vinegar to the heat of horseradish. I believe it also says that harvesting in the fall should be after the leaves have died, or in the spring, before the leaves begin budding out. http://www.horseradishplants.com/cgi-bin/store/processing.html?id=t5R9KXRa Sun May 25 16:43:38 -0700 2008 3716002 58961 dhedges53 2 3720374 The only time I don't use fresh h'radish root is during late summer and fall when it's woody. At different times of the year it will have different heat intensity and texture. Late spring, early summer the root will be relatively mild and just a bit tough.. but the leaves will be quite nippy. This is when I make green horseradis sauce.. good stuff! That's a fine site and very informative. Thanks! Sun May 25 20:51:36 -0700 2008 3719948 172760 fromagina 2 3721478 Good link, dh. Here's another that has guided me in dealing with this rapscalious radish, this sometimes malicious mustard: http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/~vista/html_pubs/HRSRDSH/horse.html Mon May 26 12:19:52 -0700 2008 3719948 17562 FoodFuser 3 3721495 Cool.. literally.. I didn't know I could freeze my prepared horseradish. That is very good information. Mon May 26 12:31:36 -0700 2008 3721478 172760 fromagina 4 3721538 And, freezing is one reason I'm glad to have saved those little glass jars from previous store purchase of prepared horseradish. Something tell's me that storing in plastic is inviting some kind of caustic reaction. Mon May 26 12:47:21 -0700 2008 3721495 17562 FoodFuser 5 3722333 Hmmm.. could horseradish be the new organic paint remover? Mon May 26 19:07:36 -0700 2008 3721538 172760 fromagina 1 3722710 What is in horseradish that gives one such bad breath? I grew up eating it on my grandmother's kolbasi and ham. I also use it in cocktail sauce and on roast beef . How do you use horseradish? How prepared w/ just vinegar? Beets? Sour cream? Mon May 26 23:25:45 -0700 2008 3716002 93538 Passadumkeg 2 3722741 I chop/grind horseradish in the food processor and hope that no one (except those who know and love me anyway) will come in and catch me with a mask and snorkel or, if I can't find those, sunglasses and an outlaw style bandana on! Usually add rice vinegar and a few whole cooked beets if I want it to be pink. For a small quantity of horseradish, say to use in cocktail sauce, I just peel an inch or so of the root and grate it with a Microplane. I've kept whole horseradish roots wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for many months w/out problem. Tue May 27 00:11:40 -0700 2008 3722710 47777 janeh 3 3722757 As stated earlier, I used the mask and snorkel too, but only had a hand grater! I sixth grade, opened a jar of fresh grated, told him to smell it, he took a deep whif and nearly died. We laugh about it to this day. Tue May 27 00:40:59 -0700 2008 3722741 93538 Passadumkeg 2 3723582 FoodFuser's site ( http://www.extension.uiuc.edu/~vista/ ) has information new to me even, a life-long Lover of the Burning Root. As for "Horseradish Breath".. horseradish seems to harmonize deliciously with aromatic, richly-flavored foods like garlic-laden sausage, juicy roasted beef, and strong, aromatic cheeses. My theory re.combining Horseradish and Rich Food is that it aids in digestion. The combination of vinegar, heat, and salt fills your mouth with saliva while you chew; thus facilitating the first stages of digestion. As the saliva-rich, horseradish-laden bite of roast beef or kielbasa is swallowed, millions of tiny bubbles are formed when the digestive juices meet the vinegary mustardy grated-root juices. These bubbles help force apart the chunks of garlic-laden herbivor you've just eaten, thus exposing the bites to the aformentioned digestive juices and facilitating efficient, pain-free digestion. The gas forming those millians of tiny, busy bubbles is a by-product of this beneficial process. This gas comes as a reaction between digestive juices and chemicals found in the horseradish, in garlic and onion and some spices, as well as in preservative nitrates and nitrites. This gas is called Mustard Gas. While not as lethal as the battlefield gas of WWI, this gut-brewed and released gas can be construed by some as offensive. Those reared with loving, playful, garlic-eating Lovers of the Burning Root may actually have powerful positive Pavlovian responses to the scent of that gas. One can always suck on a mint. Tue May 27 09:14:41 -0700 2008 3722710 172760 fromagina 1 3727987 So if I buy fresh horseradish, I can grind it and add a little vinegar and salt. Can this then be frozen in ziplock bags? Also, can the piece of fresh horseradish be kept in the freezer until I am ready to use it? Wed May 28 12:56:10 -0700 2008 3716002 99845 Donna52479