Horseradish
Old Parkinson said that it ought to be called Clown's mustard, "for it is too strong for any tender stomach." Nevertheless, there are many persons to whom roast beef without horseradish is nearly as great a failure as without mustard. It is scraped and served as a garnish. Better still, it is grated and made into a sauce, which is usually cold, though sometimes heated.
Horseradish Sauce. -Grate a young root finely. Add to it a gill of cream, a dessertspoonful of sugar, a little salt, and rather more than a tablespoonful of vinegar, and mix all well together. Some persons add mustard.
Another receipt.-Add to the grated radish the zest and juice of an orange, three tablespoonfuls of oil, a tablespoonful of panada, a good tablespoonful of vinegar, a teaspoonful of sugar, and a good pinch of salt. Mix well together and serve in a boat. See Polish Sauce.
Hospitality
Two cold sauces, both uncooked and both assembled in a couple of minutes. The only real work is the grating, and that is where the result is won or lost.
- Grate it fresh, and grate it fineHorseradish's heat comes from an enzyme reaction that begins the moment the cells are cut and fades within an hour or so. Grate immediately before mixing; a root grated in advance and left in air gives a flat, cabbagey sauce.
- FumesFresh grating releases volatile mustard oils that are far harsher on the eyes than onion. Work with the root at arm's length, or pulse it in a processor and let the lid sit a moment before opening.
- A gillA quarter of an imperial pint, about 5 fl oz or 150 ml. Whether the cream is poured in liquid or lightly whipped first is left open; whipped gives a thicker, mounded sauce, unwhipped a pouring sauce.
- DessertspoonfulTwo teaspoons, midway between a teaspoon and a tablespoon in Victorian measure. The sugar is there to round the vinegar, not to sweeten.
- PanadaIn Kettner's usage, stale white bread simmered to a paste with milk or stock and beaten smooth. It is the thickener that holds the oil and orange juice in the second sauce; a tablespoon of soft fresh breadcrumb worked with a little milk does the same job.
- "A young root"Older roots turn woody and fibrous at the core. Buy a firm root with no soft patches, peel it, and discard any fibrous centre. Prepared horseradish from a jar is already packed in vinegar, so cut the vinegar back if you use it.
- VinegarAdd it last and taste as you go. Acid stops the enzyme reaction and fixes the level of heat where it stands, so vinegar added early gives a milder sauce than vinegar added at the end.
- YieldNeither receipt states a yield, and the amount depends entirely on how much root is grated; the first makes something over a gill of sauce, the second rather less. Both are best eaten within a few hours of mixing.
The Parkinson quoted here is John Parkinson, the London apothecary whose Theatrum Botanicum of 1640 discusses horseradish and warns that it is too strong for tender stomachs; the "Clown's mustard" jibe uses "clown" in its older sense of rustic, and suggests a view of the root as coarse country food. Kettner's book appeared in 1877, by which time grated horseradish with cream was an established English accompaniment to roast beef; the pairing is usually traced to the eighteenth century, though the text here still finds Parkinson's disdain worth quoting. The second receipt, with its orange, oil and panada, belongs to an older tradition of bread-thickened sauces, and the cross-reference to Polish Sauce is a reminder that the plant is native to eastern Europe and western Asia.