Ground horseradish is a must-have strongly-flavored condiment, which is for all those who love German and East European food.
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📕 What is Ground Horseradish?
Ground horseradish is prepared out of fresh raw horseradish, a sharp-tasting root that is related to the Japanese wasabi root.
The root is creamy white and it's dense and hard. The flavor can be described as intense and when you bite into it you will get a "spicy" sensation up your nose, just like ground mustard paste.
Ground or minced horseradish is a condiment used in Central European cuisines such as Austria, Germany, Czech, Slovenia, and Polish to just name a few. It can also be called a relish.
It's also part of the Jewish cuisine, where ground horseradish is known as Chrain.
In central Europe, the ground root is called Kren or Meerrettich and we serve it up as a sauce with roasts and meat-based main course meals.
The fresh root is ground so that it can be preserved for the coming cold winter months because the root is harvested from August to October.
The roots grow very well in a cold climate. Thick and tall leaves make sure that the roots are well-nourished.
🍠 Ingredients
- horseradish - fresh horseradish roots
- vinegar - I used white wine vinegar but you can use apple cider vinegar too or distilled vinegar
- sugar - regular white or brown
- salt
- oil - vegetable oil or canola or sunflower oil
There is no water in this recipe because water reduces the shelf life.
The vinegar and oil help in grinding the horseradish. It will always turn out more coarsely, except if you own a super-powerful grinder.
The sugar in this recipe is to balance out the flavors with the vinegar.
🔪 How to make it?
Here is a quick overview of how to make this from scratch.
The full recipe with US and metric measurements is located further below in the recipe card.
Step 1
Clean the root, Scrub under running water if muddy.
Peel tender root and cut it into manageable chunks.
Step 2
Place root pieces with other ingredients into a food processor.
Step 3
Grind horseradish into the desired consistency. It can be coarse or fine.
Store or use directly.
🍴 Serving
Grated horseradish is a basic coarse "paste", mainly used by itself as a condiment with beef, veal, pork, and venison meats.
It goes great with fall and winter-flavored dishes such as the Jägerschnitzel, a beef tenderloin, pork tenderloin, or a pork loin roast.
My favorite use for ground horseradish is with Sauerkraut, sausage, and dumplings!
We enjoy it in the summer served up at a BBQ party with steaks, sausages, burgers, and even grilled fish.
Ground horseradish can be added to other ingredients to make sauces and dressings. You can add some of the ground paste to sour cream for a creamy horseradish sauce.
In Austria, we love horseradish mustard paste. To make it, add this ground horseradish to your mustard paste. It adds a nice kick!
Or add some horseradish to your vinaigrette dressing or any other salad dressing for some kick.
I just mix the paste into my coleslaw, shredded radish salad, or turnip salad. In East Europe, they mix shredded beets into minced horseradish.
Horseradish is also served up with cold cuts and cheese boards. Add slices of black bread to it and pickled cucumbers and you are in the European Alps!
You can also serve up some of this condiment with a Bloody Mary Cocktail. These two go hand in hand!
I don't know if you know it, but super fine ground horseradish is colored green and sold as Japanese wasabi paste all over the world. Check the packaging of your wasabi paste or powder can. You will be in for a surprise!
🍱 Storing
Once ground, the seasoned homemade prepared horseradish will stay good for at least 6 months, if stored in a clean jar and kept in your fridge.
You can also freeze it in small batches. Just leave it out to thaw. Use u within weeks!
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📖 Recipe
Ground Horseradish Recipe
Ingredients
- 3.5 ounce Horseradish fresh, *see Notes
- 3 Tablespoon Vinegar *see Notes
- 1 Teaspoon Sugar *see Notes
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 5 Tablespoon Oil *see Notes
Instructions
- Scrub and wash your horseradish root. It should be clear of mud and dirt.
- Cut tender pieces off. Use only tender pieces, don't use fibrouse wood-like horseradish pieces.
- Peel horseradish and cut into chunks.
- Place horseradish chunks into a food processor with salt, sugar, vinegar, and oil.3.5 ounce Horseradish, 3 Tablespoon Vinegar, 1 Teaspoon Sugar, ½ Teaspoon Salt, 5 Tablespoon Oil
- Grind to a fine or coarse horseradish condiment.
- Store in a clean jar. Keep in the fridge until further use or freeze (see storing instructions in post)
Notes
- Weigh your fresh horseradish from the best tender parts only, after cutting and peeling the root pieces.
- I use white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar. Rice vinegar is suitable too.
- You can use plain regular sugar or brown sugar.
- You can use vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil.
- Store in smaller air-tight containers if you want to free it. That way they will thaw faster through and you can use each, batch by batch as needed.
Equipment
- 8 oz/ 230 ml Canning Jars
We have a nice big patch if horseradish. Last Sunday we got some friends and family together for our annual grinding party. We only use white vinegar. No sugar or oil or anything else. Everyone looks forward to the new batch of freshly ground horseradish. This year we made about 4 gallons.
Wow that's a huge quantity! Hats off, respect!