“Horse” Radish Play

As promised, I documented the process of making your own horseradish. A simple, fun and enjoyable process!

This was made on Sunday, April 21, 2013. There are many different philosophies on what months in should be made. All I know is that this batch turned out perfectly.

You first start by digging the horseradish roots. They grow under ground like a carrot. This was in early Spring so the tops from last summer/fall had died down and they just started to grow new tops again.

We dug two 5-gallons pails full of horseradish root.

Before I forget, I need to “Thank” one of my dear friends, Jaye Maxfield, for all her help with the batch. She wanted to learn to make her own so she joined us and was a HUGE help throughout the entire process. And, my Dad. We made this at his house with his expert help.

So the process begins. My Dad cut all of the tops off of the root and placed the roots in the sink while Jaye and I began peeling the horseradish. We just used a simple vegetable peeler.

Side note on the tops! You can compost them if your horseradish patch is large and plentiful but if you want to build it back up again, all you have to do is replant the top of the horseradish. LOVE the magic of nature/Earth!

Two huge buckets full of roots requires a lot of peeling. As Jaye and I peeled my Dad started sending the peeled, rinsed roots through a food processor.

It came out to the texture of shredded carrots, or match-stick size.

After sending the entire batch through the processor we then put small batches at a time in the blender to process it into a finer grind.

As the blender was running Dad added distilled white vinegar. The vinegar preserves it, adds to the flavor and thins in down into the right consistency. I will guesstimate that he put about five cups of horseradish at a time in the blender and about 3/4 cup vinegar. Don’t follow that exactly. If you are making your own, I just recommend that you add the vinegar little by little until you reach the desired smoothness.

As Dad was doing that, Jaye was washing up pint jars.

Once all of the horseradish was ground we put it in one huge bowl and added salt. Again, there is no exact amount on this. Just salt to taste. I would say we added about 1/8 cup to the entire batch.

Once the jars were ready we then began pouring it into the jars using a canning funnel. We then put canning lids and rings on the jars and wiped them down. Our two 5-gallon buckets of roots made 12 pints.

There are variations of horseradish recipes out there and some of them call for sugar. Dad added some sugar to the very last pint just so we could experiment and taste the difference. We all thought that the sugar brought out the hot flavor of it.

Horseradish can be refrigerated or even frozen. If its frozen, you want to make sure you have enough head space in your jar so it can expand.
It was even fun tasting the horseradish as we shredded it. It was spicy but had a level of natural sweetness to it as well. You can get many different levels of taste of horseradish depending on what time of the year you harvest and process it.

Many people say to make it outside due to the fumes burning your eyes, like an onion. We made it in the kitchen right by the sink where there is a window. We just cracked the window and the air movement from doing that was just fine. No need to be outside for us.

As we worked that morning we all talked about our favorite ways to eat horseradish. I am obsessed with it! I even use it on salads instead of dressing.
Most people like it with pork or beef, on sandwiches, or just as a topping on meat. I also love it on chicken. And as much bite as it has, even my two year old loves it! He calls it “the white stuff”.

I would like to end this write up with saying how deeply appreciative I am for my Dad! He has taught me SO much throughout the years. He has more “living off the land” knowledge and experience that any other person that I know.

I did not realize any of this until I became an adult. I cherish every day that I have with him and try to learn as much as I can. I know once he is gone I will have a million questions for him. But for today, I am THANKFUL!!!