Homemade horseradish

TennesseeJed

* Kingman *

• Joined: August 25th, 2014, 10:28 am
• Posts: 268

Homemade horseradish

If you've never had homemade horseradish, you're really missing out! The difference between store bought "prepared" horseradish and fresh, homemade horseradish is about as big as the difference between buying a tub of "bbq" at a discount warehouse and making perfect pulled pork on your Yoder! Plus, it's about as easy as can be...

Ingredients

1. I large piece of horseradish root, typically 8-10" long
2. distilled white vinegar
3. cold water
4. kosher salt
5. white granulated sugar (optional)

Technique

1. trim ends of horseradish, peel entire root, removing most of the brown areas and dice into approximately 1" pieces
2. Place horseradish cubes into food processor with about one to two tablespoons of cold water. You don't want it to get watery--1 TBSP may be enough--the water just simply lets the horseradish pulse a bit more smoothly in the food processor, without impacting the strength of the final horseradish blend.
3. Pulse or blend horseradish and water until well pureed and you have reached the desired consistency--coarse or fine
4. Carefully open lid of food processor, keeping face well away from lid. WARNING: Freshly ground horseradish is VERY strong and can give you a seriously unpleasant burn to eyes and nose if you're not very careful!! I always keep my face at arm's length away at this point.
5. Add distilled vinegar, salt and optional sugar.

a. There is a choice to be made here. The strength of your horseradish is highly dependent on how long you wait to add the vinegar to the ground horseradish. The longer you wait (up to 3-5 minutes), the stronger it will get. So, I find that adding vinegar within 30 to 60 seconds after pureeing is plenty for me (and, I love hot, spicy food). If you want killer horseradish, then just wait 2-3 minutes before adding the vinegar.
b. The amount of vinegar that you add is really to adjust the consistency of the horseradish to your personal taste preference. As little as a tablespoon will stabilize the horseradish oils, but I find that I usually add closer to 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending on how wet (smooth paste) vs. dry (more like a thick relish) I want it.
c. Add a good pinch or two of kosher salt and about a teaspoon of white granulated (table) sugar.
d. Pulse again to incorporate all ingredients.
e. Transfer to Ball/Mason jar or other container for storage, again keeping it at arm's length while scraping it into the jar.

I really can't underscore enough how careful you need to be if you don't want your eyes and snoot full of extremely pungent horseradish! Take it from me, who learned the hard way, it's no fun! Imagine eating an entire jar of hot Chinese mustard all at once...hopefully you get the picture. I find that the fresh horseradish lasts for several weeks, even up to a month if stored properly in the fridge. Try it--you won't be disappointed! I'm going to post a great horseradish sauce recipe next that goes smashingly well on smoked prime rib that you can make w/ your own fresh horseradish. Your guests will love it!

Yoder_Kirby

* Durnago *

• Joined: May 10th, 2014, 12:33 pm
• Posts: 576
• Location: Sitting Near a Yoder Smoker, Smelling Sweet Blue

• Website

Re: Homemade horseradish

Thanks for sharing and thanks for the words of caution! I will have to give this a try sometime.

THUMPERRRR

* Kingman *

• Joined: August 16th, 2014, 7:43 pm
• Posts: 299
• Location: NORTH

Re: Homemade horseradish

great post Jed!!!