Saturday, December 18, 2010

Horsing Around with Horseradish

This months herb group meeting was so much fun! Although, someone might not think so if they just peered in the windows! lol Horseradish makes your eyes tear and your nose run, while processing it. We all had to leave the room periodically, for some fresh air. I do know that everyone who came to the meeting with stuffy, stopped up sinus issues, left feeling better from the good clean out horseradish fumes gave them!! :)

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That’s Steve. Look at his poor face! Tears just a streaming! We have been having the last few meetings in his outbuilding. I think he was the winner for lasting the longest in the processing room, without a break.

The first step in processing horseradish is to dig your horseradish. We all got ours dug and pooled out resources. Here is Eric with our root we brought

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The first thing we did was put them all in a big tub of water, and gave them a good scrubbing with the scrub brushes. Then these rough cleaned roots are put into another pan of water. Then it is time to peel them with knives or vegetable peelers and cut them down to a size that will fit into our hand crank grinder.

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We took this rough grated horseradish and then placed it in a regular blender, added white vinegar till it was just a bit below the level of the root, added a good shake of fruit fresh, another of salt and gave it a whirl! Here is Steve pouring some into one of the jars

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Now you wouldn’t have to do the blender part if you didn’t want to. You could leave it coarser and then add your other ingredients to suit you. Or you could do like some folks preferred and really blend it down totally smooth. Just a matter of preference really.

We all just took turns rotating around to the different jobs and dashing to the other room to blow our nose and wipe our tears, and recover with some hot chocolate and cookies :)

We made so much that all of us had plenty of horseradish to take home.

Unfamiliar with the history of horseradish? Have a look at what Maude Grieve’s A Modern Herbal has to say about it here. I can sure vouch for its fumes clearing out your head! lol

Big hugs to all of you who visit here at Comfrey Cottages

 

 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hilarious! My mother used a lot of horseradish especially with roast beef. Thanks for sharing the post.
Have a wonderul Christmas and Happy New Year!
Rosemary...

Comfrey Cottages said...

LOL! It was fun and funny Rosemary!! You have a beautiful holiday season also, dear. And many blessing to you for the coming New year xx

Anke said...

My mom cooks the best horseradish EVER! I love, love, love it and reading this made me crave it really bad. It is a pain to prepare and I still remember one of our foster kids insisting on lifting the lid of the pot and taking a whiff. Boy, he cried for a long time...

*Ulrike* said...

Oh wow! My daughter should have been there...that would have cleared up all of her sinus problems! I bet the end results will be especially yummy, and I too love it on roast beef!
Take Care,
Ulrike

Anke said...

I can never get it to grow!

My garden breeds grasshoppers in biblical proportions, the poor plants never stand a chance. The moment there are little bits of green these beasts descent in large numbers and devour everything.

Sharing this with the Herbology crowd :)

Anonymous said...

Oooo Leslie you're a brave lady! No googles or face mask?! Phew, it made me tingle just to read about it.
Looks like you all had a lovely time though.
Best Wishes for a wonderful Christmas and very Happy 2011.
Lucinda x

Comfrey Cottages said...

Oh Anke! Sorry to get you craving some! lol I imagine the young man did cry hehehe xx
Ulrike, your store might have a root. Ours does this time of year. Have her grate it and mix you up some:)xx
Anke, however do you grow a thing with those grasshoppers?! Could you possibly tent some netting or something over it? xx
Lucinda, what a brilliant simple idea:) Next year, bringing goggles! thanks for the thought! Wishing you happy holidays and a new year full of blessingsxx

ErikTyler said...

This was great fun! We had a blast. Our Amish friends and family were there to prepare their horseradish also. Tons of it all around. I wasn't prepared for the sting in the eyes and all the tears! haha Also, don't use too much salt, as I found out. Can't wait to try it on the Christmas ham! ~ Erik