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Horseradish Vinegar
Put into a jar, four ounces of grated horseradish, a teaspoonful of cayenne, two teaspoonfuls of salt and one tablespoonful of mustard; pour over them a quart of boiling vinegar, and set the jar, covered, by the fire for a fortnight; then boil up the vinegar, let it cool, strain through a jelly-bag, and bottle. It is an excellent relish for salads, cold meats, etc. The same means may be used for peppers, mushrooms, green walnuts and other articles, the flavor of which is desired. CHAPTER XXI.
A straightforward infused vinegar that needs only a warm corner and two weeks of patience. Two things decide whether it tastes of horseradish or only of heat: fresh-grated root, and a container that will not react with acid.
- Grate it fresh, and grate it lastThe pungency of horseradish is allyl isothiocyanate, formed only when the cells are ruptured, and it begins to fade within minutes and dissipates further with heat. Grate the root directly into the jar and pour the hot vinegar over at once rather than letting it sit in the air.
- Four ounces of horseradishThat is weight, not volume: roughly a cup, loosely packed. A good-sized piece of root will be needed; weigh it rather than judging by length. Peel before grating.
- The mustard is dry powderA tablespoonful of "mustard" in a book of this date means ground mustard flour, not prepared table mustard. Prepared mustard will cloud the vinegar and contribute its own vinegar and sugar.
- Vinegar strengthUse a standard 5 percent acidity vinegar — cider or white wine both suit horseradish. Nineteenth-century household vinegar varied a good deal in strength; a modern bottled vinegar is more reliable and its acidity is what keeps the infusion sound.
- Vessel and lidGlass or glazed stoneware only, with a plastic or plastic-lined lid. Boiling vinegar will pit a bare metal lid and take on a metallic taste over a fortnight.
- "By the fire" means warm, not hotAim for a spot around 75-85F — near a radiator, on top of the refrigerator, or a sunny windowsill. Constant gentle warmth speeds extraction; actual heat drives off the volatiles you are trying to capture.
- The final boilBring the mixture just to a boil and no further, then cool and strain as directed. The book does not say why; in any case a long boil will flatten the sharpness, so keep it brief.
- StrainingA jelly-bag is a fine-woven cloth cone. A double layer of muslin or a coffee filter set in a sieve does the same job; let it drip rather than squeezing, which pushes fine sediment through.
- Yield and keepingAbout a quart, bottled. Kept sealed in a cool dark cupboard it should keep well, though the bite can be expected to soften after the first few weeks.
- The variations at the endGreen walnuts must be picked while a needle still passes through the whole nut, before the inner shell hardens — usually early summer. The same method with cayenne pods or dried mushrooms gives the other flavored vinegars of the period.
Flavored vinegars filled the shelf space that bottled sauces now occupy: a household that wanted a sharp note for cold mutton or a dressed salad made it once a year rather than buying it. Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) had long been the English condiment root, grated into vinegar and cream for beef, and putting it straight into vinegar was simply a way of keeping that flavor available out of season, since the root itself loses potency quickly once cut. The closing line, offering the same treatment for peppers, mushrooms and green walnuts, points back to an older family of English kitchen liquors — walnut and mushroom "ketchups" among them — which were common savory seasonings before commercial bottled sauces became cheap and widespread in the later nineteenth century.