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Horse-Radish Vinegar
Take four ounces of grated horse-radish. Put it into a jar, with a salt-spoonful of cayenne, an ounce of finely-minced shallots, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Pour over them a quart of boiling vinegar, cover closely, and keep in a warm place for a fortnight. Draw off the vinegar, let it boil once more, strain it through a tamis, and keep it bottled closely until required. This vinegar will be found useful as a relish for cold meat, and for flavouring salads, etc. Probable cost, about 8d. Sufficient for a quart of vinegar.
A straightforward acid infusion that needs no adaptation beyond translating the units and knowing what a tamis is. The only real technique question is how hard you grate and how long you steep.
- The quartCassell's quart is imperial: 40 fl oz, or 1.14 litres. A litre of vinegar is close enough, and the 4 oz (115 g) of horseradish scales sensibly to it.
- Salt-spoonfulThe salt spoon was the smallest item in a Victorian cruet set, roughly a quarter teaspoon. That much cayenne in a quart is a background warmth rather than heat.
- Which vinegarUse a plain malt or cider vinegar at 5 per cent acidity. The acid is what preserves the finished bottle, so do not dilute it or substitute a low-acid wine vinegar.
- Grating horse-radishFresh root is far more pungent than the jarred grated kind, and the volatile compounds released by grating will sting the eyes worse than onion. Grate in a well-ventilated spot, or pulse it in a processor with the lid kept on until the fumes settle.
- "A warm place"A Victorian kitchen shelf near the range. A cupboard at normal room temperature works; a fortnight is the minimum, and three weeks does no harm.
- TamisA tamis is a drum-shaped fine cloth sieve. Muslin or a coffee filter over a fine strainer does the same job, and straining twice gives a clearer bottle.
- The second boilBoiling the strained vinegar again drives off some pungency but sterilises the liquid before bottling. Pour it hot into scalded bottles and seal at once.
- Keeping and usingStored dark and closed, it holds its flavour for six months to a year, fading gradually. A teaspoon or two lifts a vinaigrette, a beef gravy, or a dish of cold roast meat.
Horse-radish reached English tables as a medicinal root before it became a table condiment, and by the eighteenth century it was firmly attached to roast beef, grated raw or worked into a cream sauce. Flavoured vinegars like this one belong to the Victorian condiment shelf, alongside mushroom ketchup, chilli vinegar and the various bottled sauces that a well-run household made in quantity and drew on all year: a cook with half a dozen such bottles could vary a plain cold joint or a salad without cooking anything. The same jar-and-boiling-vinegar procedure serves for tarragon, garlic, celery seed or chilli. The costing of about 8d for a quart is a reminder of what these books were for: the reader was expected to weigh the price of making a relish against the price of buying one bottled.