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Horseradish Butter
This is made by pounding grated horseradish and butter and adding salt to taste. The quantity of horseradish depends upon how strong the taste is required.
A compound butter with no proportions given, which is deliberate — Oscar leaves the strength to the cook. A few working numbers and a note on how horseradish behaves will get you there.
- A starting ratioFor a usable working point, begin with 4 oz (1 stick) softened unsalted butter to 1 tablespoon freshly grated horseradish, then taste and add more. Two tablespoons per stick is assertive; three is for roast beef and little else.
- Horseradish loses its biteGrated horseradish is at its sharpest within minutes of grating and fades steadily after that. Grate it directly into the butter rather than letting it sit, and expect the finished butter to be milder the next day than the hour you made it.
- Bottled horseradish is not the same thingPrepared horseradish is packed in vinegar, which both tames the heat and adds acidity and liquid. If you use it, drain it well and expect a looser, tangier butter; you will need roughly half again as much for the same pungency.
- Pounding, then and nowThe mortar was the tool of the period. A food processor does it in seconds, or work the butter smooth with a fork or spatula and beat the horseradish through — hand-mixing keeps a little texture, which is no bad thing.
- SaltStart with unsalted butter so you control the seasoning; a scant 1/4 teaspoon fine salt per stick is a fair beginning. Horseradish reads hotter against a well-salted background, so salt before you decide the butter needs more root.
- Shaping and keepingRoll into a log in parchment and chill until firm, then cut coins as needed. It keeps about a week refrigerated and freezes for two or three months, though the heat dulls noticeably in the freezer.
- How to use itMelt a coin over grilled steak, roast beef or a plain broiled fish; spread it on rye or pumpernickel under cold beef or smoked trout. Do not cook it hard — sustained heat drives off the volatile compounds that make it worth making.
- YieldOne stick of butter with its horseradish gives about 1/2 cup, enough for six to eight servings as a finishing butter.
Horseradish and beef have been paired in English and German cooking for centuries, and the root travelled to American tables with both traditions; by the time Oscar Tschirky was maitre d'hotel at the Waldorf in the 1890s and 1900s, a horseradish accompaniment to roast beef was a familiar expectation. What is characteristic of this book is the form: compound butters of this kind appear repeatedly in it, and in a large hotel kitchen a butter held cold would have let a plate be finished quickly under pressure of service. The entry's refusal to give quantities is also of its period -- the text itself leaves the strength to the cook, who would have had to judge a root that varied considerably from one specimen to the next.