Horseradish

My good friend and canning buddy, Linda used to live in the country on a few acres.  She was the one who taught me how to can and put up vegetables.  One summer we found wild horseradish around her property and decided we would put up a few dozen pints.  Out came the blender, vinegar, and salt and a few hours later we had some of the best horseradish I had ever had. Nothing beats fresh and homemade.

Well, Linda does not live on the property anymore and we do not have access to the wild horseradish but we still craved that fresh grated, robust flavor.  I am of Polish descent and Kevin is of German descent and we LOVE horseradish.  While at a market in Chicago a few weekends ago, I found a fairly large horseradish root and thought I would pick it up and put up a few pints.  

This morning I started grating the root on the regular side of a box grater and discovered why all of the European women in old photos were always grimacing.  It was because they were grating horseradish.  I got about 1/3 of the root grated by hand and could not handle anymore.  My nose was running and my eyes were watering so badly, I could not keep them open.  I remembered when Linda and I made it last time, we grated it in the blender as we were preparing it.  So, I got the blender out and finished the remaining root that way.  Ahhhh, no more tears.  While the blender produces a finer end result, the taste and potency of the horseradish is still the same.

In the end, a one pound horseradish root produced 2 pints of prepared horseradish. And, the tears stopped about 1/3 of the way into the process.  Horseradish could not be easier to prepare.

Prepared Horseradish

1 Horseradish root

Distilled white vinegar

Salt

Grate the horseradish root on the coarse grate side of a box grater.  For every 1 cup of grated horseradish, add 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt.  Place in a clean 1 pint jar and seal tightly. 

or add chopped root with vinegar and salt to the blender and blend until finely grated.

If using the blender method, a one pound root will require about 1 1/4 cups of vinegar and 2 1/2 teaspoons salt. Chop the root into 1-inch pieces and place in the blender with the vinegar and salt.  Pulse or set the blender on the grate setting and process until desired consistency is achieved.

Store in the refrigerator for up to one year.  Note:  The longer the horseradish sits, the stronger the flavor will be.