April 18, 2022 • 33 mins
This bitter and pungent root vegetable adds bite to condiments, dishes, and holiday celebrations. Anney and Lauren dig into the science and history of horseradish.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren vog Obam, and today
we have an episode for you about horse radish. Yes,
I'm excited about this one. Uh. And you had a
particular reason for suggesting it that I was unaware of. Yes,
as as this episode comes out, tonight is the first
(00:32):
night of Passover, the the Jewish holiday of Passover celebrating
the Exodus, which we mentioned in our last episode because
Eastern Passover all kind of weirdly tied together. Yeah. Um,
and and horse bradish um is a traditional at this
point part of the Passover sader plate um as a
(00:52):
bitter herb to remind us of of the bitterness of enslavement. Right.
And I have been fortunate to be invited to a
friend's pass Over dinner once and I think they were
very sweet. Everybody at the tables very sweet to me.
And they're like, you don't take part in this part.
(01:13):
You don't have to deal with this thing. So I did.
I didn't know this was a piece of it, um,
But I find it very fascinating. I love this kind
of like symbolism behind the foods that we eat and
why yeah, yeah, it's uh. I I really, I really
love a passive versater. I'm I'm not particularly religious, um
I my my, the Jewish side of my family growing
(01:34):
up was not particularly religious. But um, but we would
have a passive recepter every year that my um, one
of my grandmother's cousins, would throw and it was a large,
lovely family affair, and we would we would do the
whole thing. We would do the whole reading and participation.
It's it's it's really wonderful and it's still um it's
(01:55):
still has a very nostalgic place in my heart. I
it makes me so happy when I, for my friends
and I get together as adults and managed to pull
off a passiver sater um and uh. And I remember
very clearly hating horse Radish as a child, um because
I didn't it was too better for me and too
hot um and and given that now hot and bitter
(02:19):
are two of my favorite flavors. Like there had to
have been sometime, you know, like when you're like, it's
really true, like your taste buds are developing over the
course of your childhood into adulthood, and so is your
brain and all kinds of other cultural associations of of
of taste, and uh yeah. At some point the switch
just flipped and I'm like, yes, just give me, give
(02:40):
me the jar of prepared horse radish. I will just
eat that. That's great, We'll see. I don't know that
I've ever had it, kind of just straight grated horse shradish,
because I do love I love similar flavors to horse shradish,
like I love a sabi. Okay, I love horsey sauce,
(03:03):
which I tried to get to the bottom up for
this episode. And we're gonna have to do a different,
a different thing. I bet I wouldn't like it now,
but who knows, maybe it would. Um, And it was
I will say the one flavor Bertie Botts, every flavor
of beans that I would gag on, that was the one.
For some reason, I could not do it, even though
(03:25):
I do like that flavor. Um. I gave my mom
a Bloody Mary kind of like mixed package for Christmas.
One of the Bloody Mary flavors is horseradish, And we
haven't tried any of them yet. We're gonna we're gonna taste.
We're gonna taste them all this weekend. We said in
like little shots, see how it goes, okay, and then
(03:48):
and then perhaps create your own Bloody Mary mix, your
own ultimate Yeah that's what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah, I
love this idea. Um oh yeah, no, I I love
of I love horseradish, and in like a like a
creamy sauce for a steak, um or in cocktail sauce
for shrimp. Yeah yeah mm hmm, I'm getting lost in
(04:15):
my faults. Put a little bit on some oysters. Oysters, yes, yes,
m Also you can see our previous episodes on with
sabi right and kale and cauliflower. They're all kind of related. Um.
Also on Bloody Mary's. Oh oh gosh, I'm so excited.
(04:38):
I'm a little nervous because my mom she can handle
some spice. I don't know. Well, I'm intrigued to see
how it goes. We also have a sarratcha flavored Bloody Mary,
and I'm like, I don't know between the horse fadish
ones one, I'm curious which is the one that's going
to be a little too hot for her. But we'll
see maybe either. Who knows a right. But in the meantime,
(05:01):
I guess that brings us to our question, sure, horse radish,
what is it? Well? Horse radish is a type of
root vegetable that looks like a like a big, pale
carrot and tastes like the angriest carrot you've ever met,
(05:23):
just like the mad Dracula of carrots um. It's like
a carrot knows what you did and wants you to suffer.
Oh no, well, another character for the dunker. But also
I'm imagining a scene where it's like me on the
bench getting samoned by the jewry or whatever, and it
(05:46):
pivots to the carrot, to the horse radish, and it's
like m m, that's all, that's all they need, and
I'm convicted. Well, bang, harsh, very harsh, harsh, harsh, but
fair m um. Horse radish is not related to carrots um,
(06:12):
but belongs rather to the to the big beautiful brass
Cassier family, along with everything from broccoli and Brussels sprouts
to cabbage and mustard um. Horse radish is a herbaceous
plant that meaning a soft, soft, and tender. It grows
these big, broad leafy greens above ground that look look
(06:33):
like large mustard leaves. If you've ever had mustard greens,
they look very similar and below ground will develop. Right.
This is this long tapered tap root, which is a
sort of storage system for sugars and water and everything
else that a plant might need to get through a lean,
cold winter so that it can bloom and seed the
(06:54):
following spring. But instead we dig up those those creamy
white tap roots and eat them. Yep. Yeah there. Uh,
perhaps commonly about six inches to a foot long, that's
like a third of a meter um, but can be
apparently several feet long, like a couple of meters. I'm
not I'm not positive that's what I've read. I have
(07:17):
not seen evidence anyway. Um. The leaves are also edible.
I'm not sure how often they're used. It is a
winter crop, the tap root part harvested from September through
April in the northern hemisphere anyway. Um, it's labor intensive,
still largely planted, harvested and processed by hand. Um. Luckily,
perhaps a little goes a long way in terms of flavor,
(07:37):
unless you are my roommate Jed, who will just pile on,
pile on the horseradish. Really truly spectacular tolerance. I don't understand. Well, yeah,
good for um. It is generally grown not from seed
but from propagations from last year's crop. Um. You plant
(08:00):
a root cutting the plant's true roots are are these
spindle e little things that grow off the tap root,
and a new plant will grow. Um. And the flavor
is a kind of vegetial fresh and bitter and a
little earthy sweet and and pungent hot um like eye watering,
Like it just grabs you by the by the bridge
(08:20):
of your nose. Yeah yeah, um. And let's talk about
that spiciness. Okay, so we've talked about this before, but
it is super interesting. So when we taste things that
are spicy hot, it's because that food contains compounds that
trick our nervous system into thinking that we're coming in
(08:42):
contact with something that's like actually alarming in some way. Um.
In the case of horseradish and other brass cassier plants,
it's a family of compounds called isothiocyanates um a k
A mustard oil. And these compounds trick or some of
the nerves in our bodies that that sends chemical irritants UM,
(09:06):
possibly the same ones responsible for the pain of immune
inflammation like an arthritis and the like hot itch of
poison ivy UM, and these are slightly different from the
nerve receptors triggered by chili peppers, which which sends thermal heat.
Black pepper triggers both anyway. Uh. Also, interestingly, horse radish
(09:29):
does not actually contain isota cyanates when it's grown and harvested.
It contains a precursor to these compounds. The mustard oil
only develops when the root is cut or crushed or grated,
thus breaking open its cell walls UM and creating this
(09:49):
endematic process that turns the precursors into the stuff. So
once you cut into horse radish and start this process,
you can stop it and stabilize it use something acidic
like like vinegar. Um. Stopping it pretty soon, pretty quickly
will result in a mild horse radish preparation. Um. Letting
it go a bit will make it a spicier preparation.
(10:12):
And letting it go for too long, um, we'll let
those chemicals change yet again and the flavor will go bitter.
These particular receptors are in our faces, concentrated in our
nasal passages, which is why that's where like, was sabi
and horse radish really hit you? Yes? Yeah, I had
(10:33):
a was saby incident the other day. Oh yeah, I
love what was say incident? It was Oh yes, oh no,
it's real, it's real. Um. Yeah. And this is another
one of those like culinary maskism things, because plants like
horse radish likely developed this capacity um in order to
(10:57):
prevent mammals from eating them before they propagate. But we
decided that we like that, so suckers. Yeah, it's kind
of a both sucker situation. Yeah yeah, yeah, Now we
did it to ourselves and to them both. Um. Horsewadish
(11:19):
is commonly used as a condiment um, sometimes blended with
something creamy like mayonnaise or sour cream, or something acidic
like a tomato based sauce UM or or ketchup or
or vinegars or lemon juice. Also used to season soups
and stews, meats and seafoods and vegetables, UM, savory drinks
like vegetable juice or bloody Mary's UM, and often outside
(11:43):
of Japan and very good Japanese restaurants. UM. The wasabi
scare quotes that you get with your sushi is horse
radish um that has been dyed green. Sabbie is related,
but distantly. Yeah. That's why I kind of hesitated at
the top and I said, I like those flavors because
I've probably had horse rowdish definitely as was Sab. But
(12:07):
it's not actually it's confusing. It is. Yeah yeah, yeah,
and well and you can you can see our right,
you can see our Wassabby episode from more on that
with Sabby is a slightly different flavor, um, but but
definitely related. Yes, I'd say that horse rowdish is a
little bit harsher. Yeah, okay, well what about the nutrition?
(12:30):
You're usually not eating enough to make a huge difference
again unless you're jed um. But but horse radish does
contain a few vitamins and minerals um, other micronutrients, a
bit of fiber um. If you're watching your caloric intake,
it provides like a huge flavor bang for your caloric bucks.
So that's cool. And those isothio cyanates are being investigated
(12:53):
for a bunch of potential properties, um, including antibacterial and
anti cancer properties. Uh. However, definitely on this one, save
our motto, um before you ingest a medicinal portion of anything,
consulted doctor who is not us because bodies are complicated
and more research is necessary. UM. Also like like it's
(13:18):
still a chemical irritant, Like so if you and just
enough of it, you could probably irritate your your mouth
or stomach or something like that. So yeah, that I
feel like it would be miserable to really push the
boundaries on this one. But again, you know, yeah, some
people just like that that's it. People like, well, we
(13:42):
do have some numbers for you, we do. UM. As
of anyway, UM, the United States was processing some twenty
four million pounds of horse radish root into some sixty
million gallons of prepared horse radish every year. I'm prepared
radish being graded horse radish that has been right stopped
(14:03):
with with vinegar or some other acidic solution. UM as
mentioned above. For our metric friends, UM, that equals nearly
eleven million kilos and about twenty three million liters. Wow,
I feel silly translating things in from from uh US
(14:24):
to metric because at that at that level, because I'm like,
it's a lot, it's just a bunch picture like a bunch,
that's what you got. Anyway. UM. At that time around
a single company in southwest Illinois, UM, just off the
Mississippi River was providing almost half of all of that UM,
(14:47):
and that area as a whole apparently provides nearly two
thirds of the world's supply of horse radish. Wow again
yeah yeah, um. There is in the area UM in
a town called Collinsville, an International horse Radish festival every
(15:09):
UM like late May early June. This year it's being
held June three and fourth. It is in its thirty
fifth year. UM its website says that it is seen
a hundred and eighty five thousand attendees UM cumulatively over
the years, who have tossed six thousand roots. Uh. Yeah,
(15:31):
that is that is the natural response to that, I write,
I went from and uh and Doug Doug deeper. So
I think that this is a contest that that's just
the farthest anyone can hurl a horse radish route every
year UM. As of the festival record was a hundred
(15:51):
and sixty five ft ten inches really yeah yeah um.
The winner in the senior vision that year said, and
I quote having the best shaped root and getting a
good bounce is what's important. Oh I like this. You
gotta have a strategy. Yeah yeah, yeah, there's yeah. The
(16:14):
bounce it was an underhanded I think you it's a
bounce and a skitter. I think, Oh that's the idea
that I get. Um. The festival website does recommend that you, um,
you know, either enter yourself or root for others. A
(16:36):
classic and there was a lot of good news coverage
of this at the festival. There is also a corn
hole tournament, a pageant little miss little Mr Yeah, a
Bloody Mary contest, a root Derby which is like a
pinewood Derby but you with the cars carved from horse
(16:58):
radish roots. Yeah, and um and root golf, wherein you
carve a golf ball from a horse radish root and
you try to hit it closest to a pin. Oh
it's so spectacular. Yes. Um. You can also um get
(17:18):
fresh ground horse radish on site, which is apparently pretty
much the only opportunity you will ever have to buy
it like that directly from the growers. Yeah. Another festival
added to the list. Wow, listeners, you know the drill
if you've been I need to know so much more
(17:41):
about this root toss. Oh my gosh, yes, what your
strategy right? And the derby and everything? Okay, anyway, um
it you know that this did not spring from nothingness.
There is some history here, there is, indeed, but before
we get into that, we're going to take a quick
(18:01):
break for word from our sponsored and we're back. Thank
you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So. Historians believe that horse
radish is indigenous to Eastern Europe UM and that it
has been cultivated for around two thousand to three thousand
(18:24):
years UM. Ancient writers like Plenty and Dioscurieties both mentioned
horse radis, albeit under a different name. Again confusion with
names time. Um. It's long been used medicinally and in
fact as far back as the ancient Egyptians were using
it to alleviate the pain of sore joints. I also
(18:47):
read that it was used in ancient cough syrups um
and as treatments for tuberculosis and rheumatism. Um of fitting
in with the arthritis. Then again there um and early
Greeks used it for pain and as an afro dz act.
You beat me to it once again. I think that's
(19:08):
like twice in like the how many years have we
been doing savors? Yeah, I'm very curious how it was
used as an approduisiac, but oh gosh, I think it
would stay. But hopefully hopefully this was this was an
oral preparation, some kind of mm hmmm, mm hmm. You know,
(19:33):
we'll never know for sure, I guess. Uh. But speaking
of name confusion, early Renaissance raiders wrote of horse shradish
as well, under a different, different name. The origin of
the name horse shradish is the source of some very
spirited debate. Many argue that it comes from the German
(19:54):
word for sea radish, and that the German word for
c mirror was probably mista can for the English word
mayor meaning female horse horse radish. Um. Maybe, stories more
firmly in the realm of legend suggests that the name
comes from the shape of a horse's genitalia. Yeah. I
(20:15):
don't know anyway. Um either At any rate, Um, the
plant was indeed being called horse radish in English by
seven when it was listed as such in a book
of Medicinal Plants. And yes, there is a long and
interesting history of horse radish when it comes to Jewish passover. Um. Yeah,
(20:40):
as you said, Lauren, the meal eaten over passover as
aery symbolican includes bitter herbs um. In some places this
was lettuce, and the first known mention of horse radish
as the bitter urban question didn't occur until the fourteenth century,
when a Talmudic scholar wrote, when lettuce is not obtainable,
it may be substituted with horse raddish um. This was
(21:01):
in part due to the difficulty of finding lettuce for
passover in some areas. As more Jewish folks moved um
from Central to Eastern Europe, many of them started to
prefer horse radish to let us even when lettuce was
an option. Maroor, the Hebrew word forbidd derived from the
same root of the word used to describe it the
(21:22):
embittered lives that the enslaved Egyptians. The horse radish are
other bitter things, is meant to yet symbolize the bitterness
of those enslaved Um. By the sixteenth century, there were
at least two distinct leaf types of horse radish that
had been identified. By the seventeenth century, horse radish sometimes
accompanied beef, fish and oysters, and it was pretty popular
(21:45):
among the working classes um through Central Europe, up through
Scandinavia and out to the British aisles. I feel like
a lot of the foods that we talked about, a
lot of the spices in particular, have a history of
being um of mostly appearing on wealthy tail tables. Around
this time, horse radish was something that more people had
access to. Yeah, yeah, and I wanted to include this piece.
(22:11):
I found this little snippet I found from Colepepper's English
position which was published in and it's written in really
old timing language. To please bear with me, okay, mm hmm.
The juice of horse radish given to drink is held
to be very effectual for the scurvy. It kills the
(22:31):
worms and children being drunk, and also laid upon the
belly the root bruised and laid to the place grieved
with the sciatica joint ache or hard swellings of the
liver and swen doth wonderfully helped them all. The distilled
water of the urban roots is more commonly taken with
a little sugar for all the purposes. Aforesaid, that was
(22:52):
a fun one because the ses and was switched with FS. Yeah,
a very similar right type the history of type setting
as a whole other podcast for Suresh and I want
to listen to that sounds amazing to me, yes, but
clearly used for a lot of medicinal purposes. Still at
(23:14):
this point, yeah. Yeah. Um. German immigrants um to the
American Midwest in the late eighteen hundreds brought horse radish
with them, and according to scientific American horse radish led
the way for the wide adoption of packaged goods. Um. Okay, yeah,
let's unpack that. Okay, because I also had questions because
(23:38):
I feel like we've said that about multiple ingredients. Um,
all right, So English and German society's used horse radish
to flavor potatoes, cabbage, bread, beef, and fish. And yes,
it was also viewed as a medicinal product. At the
same time, it was difficult and time consuming to make.
It involved grading the root, incasing it with spices and vinegar,
(24:00):
and sealing it up. I read a lot of really
fun accounts about how like people would try to stop
crying when they were making it, like their little strategies
and less miserable. Um. So these resulting jars of horse
radish were on appetizing and color like they didn't look great. Yeah,
ter Hines and yes, that one who realized that customers,
(24:23):
women in particular, would recognize a product that saved them time. Um.
When he was in his teens, he started making his
mother's recipe of horseradish and bottling it in clear glass
so that the insides you could see what was in there. Um.
He solved this product to grocers and hotel owners. Hines
was growing three and a half acres of horse radish
(24:44):
to supply for this demand, generating two thousand, four hundred
dollars in eighteen sixty one, which is about ninety three
thousand dollars in two thousand twelve money. And with this money,
Hines was able to buy his father's brickyard and the
decision to shift to food production in eighteen sixty nine,
(25:04):
due to an influx of workers in the area, Hines
took on a partner open to factory and hired two
women and a boy to make a package this horse
radish product. Uh. And for the logo, they settled on
an anchor. Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting it's an
interesting story. In theory, for sure, I can see I
can see, definitely see the angle of like the importance
(25:26):
of packaging and making something look appealing. Uh. Yeah, A
lot of things are at play, but yeah, I can
see the importance of that aspect for sure. Yeah. Sure,
Um and uh right at the time, UM, glass jarring
for for canning purposes was less popular, way less popular
(25:47):
than um than than cans, than metal cans. So yeah.
A product offered from nineteen fifteen called Lancelots idonized syrup
of horse Radish came with this description an old but
highly esteemed French preparation extensively used by and very beneficial
to scraw fulous elymphatics, racketics, syphilitics, etcetera. Also a tonic stimulant, alternative,
(26:12):
deb struent and diretic remedy. Oh that was a difficult
one for me, Lauren. Yeah, that's a lot. That was
a lot of words. Olympics. Um. I tried to stick
the landing, but you you let me know if I did. No,
I think I think through the magic of editing, that
came out perfect. Andrew is the best. He really is,
(26:37):
he really is. He puts up with this. Oh my goodness,
as we always say, thank you and we're sorry. In
popular company Gold to Horse Radish was formed. They had
a really interesting history. I'd have to come back and
revisit it later. Um. So this company was started by
two Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Romania named Hyman and
(26:59):
Tillie go Old, who peeled the roots and filled and
labeled the bottles by hand. Story goes that Hyman bailed
his cousin out of jail aftergot into a fight in
exchange for his grinder, so he was like, I'll get grinder. History.
I love that. Oh. Um. Skipping ahead to um, that
(27:23):
is the year that the International Herb Association named horse
radish the herb of the Year. M m m m
m m mm and um. And then as of nineteen
harsh weather in the American Midwest was creating a horse
radish shortage. Um, not because the weather killed off the
(27:43):
horse radish, but because it was literally trapped under early
snow and they were unable to harvest it. Oh no, yeah, yeah,
So it turned out okay, but like just at the
at the time, they were like, well, it's snowed in October.
That's it. Okay, that's the end of that. Yeah. Well
(28:05):
I'm glad it worked out. Yeah yeah, yeah. Um, this
was a fun one. I definitely I want to get
my hands on some some horse radish. Yeah, I am.
Oh gosh, I know that. I know that growing up
we had like actual horse radish roots on the stader
(28:26):
plates sometimes. Um, but I cannot for the life of me,
recall if I've ever worked with one in in in
adulthood in my own kitchen. And so now I'm really
curious because right like we are like a like a
pro horse Radish household. Um. I mean I usually have
jars of the of the prepared stuff in the fridge
(28:48):
just for any given horse Radish emergency. But um, but
now I'm like, oh, what about the fresh root? I
bet the fresh root is so much more punch you
in the nasal passages, which we're like, yes, yeah, yes,
I love it. I love it. Events are so weird. Yeah,
(29:08):
so we'll have to be on the lookout. Um, And
I guess that is what we have to say about
horse Radish for now. Yes, but we do have some
listener mail for you, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors. And
(29:32):
we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, We're back
with listen. That's what happens when I hate Yeah, I know,
I feel you. That's yep. I think I just triggered
like an actual response your listeners, do you know what
(30:00):
we're talking about? Well, we have some more messages about
instant coffee. I love this so much, Yeah, Tim wrote,
I just finished listening to the Crystallized Instant Coffee episode
and have a bit of a side trip. I would
like to offer. Take a look at JOT coffee. It's
brood super extra strong coffee that comes in a small
(30:21):
six point eight fluid ounce glass bottle. You mix a
table spoon with eight ounces of liquid water, milk, et cetera,
and you have a cup of coffee. I use a
scale to measure mine out, so I don't have a
spoon or measuring cup to wash. I just pop a
cup glass thermous on the scale and measure everything by weight.
Oh that sounds nice, and you know I love morning
(30:42):
extra dishes at any Oh Yeah, no, absolutely, thank you.
M also about that episode, um Jenna wrote, when I
saw this episode title, I thought of my dad. He
used to drink Sanka and it grossed the rest of
(31:04):
us out. There was just something icky about it. Even
though I was a child and never drink coffee of
any kind, I've been a drip coffee gal who is
all about the flavored creamer. My one brush with coffee,
semi stobb Nous was a roommate with a French Press
and now big reveal, I'm drinking instant cappuccino. You may
(31:24):
not even consider it coffee, but I'm quite happy with it.
Older and lazier, I guess, Oh, I understand. I used to.
I know, I've said I used to do like a
French Press every Sunday morning. Yeah, not anymore Sunday morning,
sun and now it's much more of a special occasion. Yeah, yeah,
(31:47):
me too. Me. Oh goodness, right, I think I used
to do all of my coffee by French Press at
a certain point, and that is absolutely not what I
do anymore. Nope. And I I know, you know, I've
gotten called out on those a couple of times about
missing a Seinfeld reference. I can't recall. My brain is
(32:07):
a little foggy, but there's definitely a quote about I
think it's Sanka where somebody's trying to please somebody and
they're like, would you like my French Press coffee? And
she says Sanka, like only Sanko, just keep like not
having what she wants. Listeners somebody probably talking there, you go, yeah,
(32:27):
oh yeah, yeah, sorry, I I didn't look at the
look at the pronunciation on that one. So, Um, I'm
not sure how I said it or if it's different
from how Annie just said it. Um, it could be
either or but in my in my sitcom brain, sanc oh,
I trust your sitcom brain. Thank you. Yeah, stuff sticks
(32:49):
in there really good, so I know whether I want
it to or not. Well. Thanks to you both of
those listeners for writing. If you would like to write
to us, you ken. Our email is hello at saver
pod dot com. We're also on social media. You can
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
(33:10):
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren vog Obam, and today
we have an episode for you about horse radish. Yes,
I'm excited about this one. Uh. And you had a
particular reason for suggesting it that I was unaware of. Yes,
as as this episode comes out, tonight is the first
(00:32):
night of Passover, the the Jewish holiday of Passover celebrating
the Exodus, which we mentioned in our last episode because
Eastern Passover all kind of weirdly tied together. Yeah. Um,
and and horse bradish um is a traditional at this
point part of the Passover sader plate um as a
(00:52):
bitter herb to remind us of of the bitterness of enslavement. Right.
And I have been fortunate to be invited to a
friend's pass Over dinner once and I think they were
very sweet. Everybody at the tables very sweet to me.
And they're like, you don't take part in this part.
(01:13):
You don't have to deal with this thing. So I did.
I didn't know this was a piece of it, um,
But I find it very fascinating. I love this kind
of like symbolism behind the foods that we eat and
why yeah, yeah, it's uh. I I really, I really
love a passive versater. I'm I'm not particularly religious, um
I my my, the Jewish side of my family growing
(01:34):
up was not particularly religious. But um, but we would
have a passive recepter every year that my um, one
of my grandmother's cousins, would throw and it was a large,
lovely family affair, and we would we would do the
whole thing. We would do the whole reading and participation.
It's it's it's really wonderful and it's still um it's
(01:55):
still has a very nostalgic place in my heart. I
it makes me so happy when I, for my friends
and I get together as adults and managed to pull
off a passiver sater um and uh. And I remember
very clearly hating horse Radish as a child, um because
I didn't it was too better for me and too
hot um and and given that now hot and bitter
(02:19):
are two of my favorite flavors. Like there had to
have been sometime, you know, like when you're like, it's
really true, like your taste buds are developing over the
course of your childhood into adulthood, and so is your
brain and all kinds of other cultural associations of of
of taste, and uh yeah. At some point the switch
just flipped and I'm like, yes, just give me, give
(02:40):
me the jar of prepared horse radish. I will just
eat that. That's great, We'll see. I don't know that
I've ever had it, kind of just straight grated horse shradish,
because I do love I love similar flavors to horse shradish,
like I love a sabi. Okay, I love horsey sauce,
(03:03):
which I tried to get to the bottom up for
this episode. And we're gonna have to do a different,
a different thing. I bet I wouldn't like it now,
but who knows, maybe it would. Um, And it was
I will say the one flavor Bertie Botts, every flavor
of beans that I would gag on, that was the one.
For some reason, I could not do it, even though
(03:25):
I do like that flavor. Um. I gave my mom
a Bloody Mary kind of like mixed package for Christmas.
One of the Bloody Mary flavors is horseradish, And we
haven't tried any of them yet. We're gonna we're gonna taste.
We're gonna taste them all this weekend. We said in
like little shots, see how it goes, okay, and then
(03:48):
and then perhaps create your own Bloody Mary mix, your
own ultimate Yeah that's what I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah, I
love this idea. Um oh yeah, no, I I love
of I love horseradish, and in like a like a
creamy sauce for a steak, um or in cocktail sauce
for shrimp. Yeah yeah mm hmm, I'm getting lost in
(04:15):
my faults. Put a little bit on some oysters. Oysters, yes, yes,
m Also you can see our previous episodes on with
sabi right and kale and cauliflower. They're all kind of related. Um.
Also on Bloody Mary's. Oh oh gosh, I'm so excited.
(04:38):
I'm a little nervous because my mom she can handle
some spice. I don't know. Well, I'm intrigued to see
how it goes. We also have a sarratcha flavored Bloody Mary,
and I'm like, I don't know between the horse fadish
ones one, I'm curious which is the one that's going
to be a little too hot for her. But we'll
see maybe either. Who knows a right. But in the meantime,
(05:01):
I guess that brings us to our question, sure, horse radish,
what is it? Well? Horse radish is a type of
root vegetable that looks like a like a big, pale
carrot and tastes like the angriest carrot you've ever met,
(05:23):
just like the mad Dracula of carrots um. It's like
a carrot knows what you did and wants you to suffer.
Oh no, well, another character for the dunker. But also
I'm imagining a scene where it's like me on the
bench getting samoned by the jewry or whatever, and it
(05:46):
pivots to the carrot, to the horse radish, and it's
like m m, that's all, that's all they need, and
I'm convicted. Well, bang, harsh, very harsh, harsh, harsh, but
fair m um. Horse radish is not related to carrots um,
(06:12):
but belongs rather to the to the big beautiful brass
Cassier family, along with everything from broccoli and Brussels sprouts
to cabbage and mustard um. Horse radish is a herbaceous
plant that meaning a soft, soft, and tender. It grows
these big, broad leafy greens above ground that look look
(06:33):
like large mustard leaves. If you've ever had mustard greens,
they look very similar and below ground will develop. Right.
This is this long tapered tap root, which is a
sort of storage system for sugars and water and everything
else that a plant might need to get through a lean,
cold winter so that it can bloom and seed the
(06:54):
following spring. But instead we dig up those those creamy
white tap roots and eat them. Yep. Yeah there. Uh,
perhaps commonly about six inches to a foot long, that's
like a third of a meter um, but can be
apparently several feet long, like a couple of meters. I'm
not I'm not positive that's what I've read. I have
(07:17):
not seen evidence anyway. Um. The leaves are also edible.
I'm not sure how often they're used. It is a
winter crop, the tap root part harvested from September through
April in the northern hemisphere anyway. Um, it's labor intensive,
still largely planted, harvested and processed by hand. Um. Luckily,
perhaps a little goes a long way in terms of flavor,
(07:37):
unless you are my roommate Jed, who will just pile on,
pile on the horseradish. Really truly spectacular tolerance. I don't understand. Well, yeah,
good for um. It is generally grown not from seed
but from propagations from last year's crop. Um. You plant
(08:00):
a root cutting the plant's true roots are are these
spindle e little things that grow off the tap root,
and a new plant will grow. Um. And the flavor
is a kind of vegetial fresh and bitter and a
little earthy sweet and and pungent hot um like eye watering,
Like it just grabs you by the by the bridge
(08:20):
of your nose. Yeah yeah, um. And let's talk about
that spiciness. Okay, so we've talked about this before, but
it is super interesting. So when we taste things that
are spicy hot, it's because that food contains compounds that
trick our nervous system into thinking that we're coming in
(08:42):
contact with something that's like actually alarming in some way. Um.
In the case of horseradish and other brass cassier plants,
it's a family of compounds called isothiocyanates um a k
A mustard oil. And these compounds trick or some of
the nerves in our bodies that that sends chemical irritants UM,
(09:06):
possibly the same ones responsible for the pain of immune
inflammation like an arthritis and the like hot itch of
poison ivy UM, and these are slightly different from the
nerve receptors triggered by chili peppers, which which sends thermal heat.
Black pepper triggers both anyway. Uh. Also, interestingly, horse radish
(09:29):
does not actually contain isota cyanates when it's grown and harvested.
It contains a precursor to these compounds. The mustard oil
only develops when the root is cut or crushed or grated,
thus breaking open its cell walls UM and creating this
(09:49):
endematic process that turns the precursors into the stuff. So
once you cut into horse radish and start this process,
you can stop it and stabilize it use something acidic
like like vinegar. Um. Stopping it pretty soon, pretty quickly
will result in a mild horse radish preparation. Um. Letting
it go a bit will make it a spicier preparation.
(10:12):
And letting it go for too long, um, we'll let
those chemicals change yet again and the flavor will go bitter.
These particular receptors are in our faces, concentrated in our
nasal passages, which is why that's where like, was sabi
and horse radish really hit you? Yes? Yeah, I had
(10:33):
a was saby incident the other day. Oh yeah, I
love what was say incident? It was Oh yes, oh no,
it's real, it's real. Um. Yeah. And this is another
one of those like culinary maskism things, because plants like
horse radish likely developed this capacity um in order to
(10:57):
prevent mammals from eating them before they propagate. But we
decided that we like that, so suckers. Yeah, it's kind
of a both sucker situation. Yeah yeah, yeah, Now we
did it to ourselves and to them both. Um. Horsewadish
(11:19):
is commonly used as a condiment um, sometimes blended with
something creamy like mayonnaise or sour cream, or something acidic
like a tomato based sauce UM or or ketchup or
or vinegars or lemon juice. Also used to season soups
and stews, meats and seafoods and vegetables, UM, savory drinks
like vegetable juice or bloody Mary's UM, and often outside
(11:43):
of Japan and very good Japanese restaurants. UM. The wasabi
scare quotes that you get with your sushi is horse
radish um that has been dyed green. Sabbie is related,
but distantly. Yeah. That's why I kind of hesitated at
the top and I said, I like those flavors because
I've probably had horse rowdish definitely as was Sab. But
(12:07):
it's not actually it's confusing. It is. Yeah yeah, yeah,
and well and you can you can see our right,
you can see our Wassabby episode from more on that
with Sabby is a slightly different flavor, um, but but
definitely related. Yes, I'd say that horse rowdish is a
little bit harsher. Yeah, okay, well what about the nutrition?
(12:30):
You're usually not eating enough to make a huge difference
again unless you're jed um. But but horse radish does
contain a few vitamins and minerals um, other micronutrients, a
bit of fiber um. If you're watching your caloric intake,
it provides like a huge flavor bang for your caloric bucks.
So that's cool. And those isothio cyanates are being investigated
(12:53):
for a bunch of potential properties, um, including antibacterial and
anti cancer properties. Uh. However, definitely on this one, save
our motto, um before you ingest a medicinal portion of anything,
consulted doctor who is not us because bodies are complicated
and more research is necessary. UM. Also like like it's
(13:18):
still a chemical irritant, Like so if you and just
enough of it, you could probably irritate your your mouth
or stomach or something like that. So yeah, that I
feel like it would be miserable to really push the
boundaries on this one. But again, you know, yeah, some
people just like that that's it. People like, well, we
(13:42):
do have some numbers for you, we do. UM. As
of anyway, UM, the United States was processing some twenty
four million pounds of horse radish root into some sixty
million gallons of prepared horse radish every year. I'm prepared
radish being graded horse radish that has been right stopped
(14:03):
with with vinegar or some other acidic solution. UM as
mentioned above. For our metric friends, UM, that equals nearly
eleven million kilos and about twenty three million liters. Wow,
I feel silly translating things in from from uh US
(14:24):
to metric because at that at that level, because I'm like,
it's a lot, it's just a bunch picture like a bunch,
that's what you got. Anyway. UM. At that time around
a single company in southwest Illinois, UM, just off the
Mississippi River was providing almost half of all of that UM,
(14:47):
and that area as a whole apparently provides nearly two
thirds of the world's supply of horse radish. Wow again
yeah yeah, um. There is in the area UM in
a town called Collinsville, an International horse Radish festival every
(15:09):
UM like late May early June. This year it's being
held June three and fourth. It is in its thirty
fifth year. UM its website says that it is seen
a hundred and eighty five thousand attendees UM cumulatively over
the years, who have tossed six thousand roots. Uh. Yeah,
(15:31):
that is that is the natural response to that, I write,
I went from and uh and Doug Doug deeper. So
I think that this is a contest that that's just
the farthest anyone can hurl a horse radish route every
year UM. As of the festival record was a hundred
(15:51):
and sixty five ft ten inches really yeah yeah um.
The winner in the senior vision that year said, and
I quote having the best shaped root and getting a
good bounce is what's important. Oh I like this. You
gotta have a strategy. Yeah yeah, yeah, there's yeah. The
(16:14):
bounce it was an underhanded I think you it's a
bounce and a skitter. I think, Oh that's the idea
that I get. Um. The festival website does recommend that you, um,
you know, either enter yourself or root for others. A
(16:36):
classic and there was a lot of good news coverage
of this at the festival. There is also a corn
hole tournament, a pageant little miss little Mr Yeah, a
Bloody Mary contest, a root Derby which is like a
pinewood Derby but you with the cars carved from horse
(16:58):
radish roots. Yeah, and um and root golf, wherein you
carve a golf ball from a horse radish root and
you try to hit it closest to a pin. Oh
it's so spectacular. Yes. Um. You can also um get
(17:18):
fresh ground horse radish on site, which is apparently pretty
much the only opportunity you will ever have to buy
it like that directly from the growers. Yeah. Another festival
added to the list. Wow, listeners, you know the drill
if you've been I need to know so much more
(17:41):
about this root toss. Oh my gosh, yes, what your
strategy right? And the derby and everything? Okay, anyway, um
it you know that this did not spring from nothingness.
There is some history here, there is, indeed, but before
we get into that, we're going to take a quick
(18:01):
break for word from our sponsored and we're back. Thank
you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So. Historians believe that horse
radish is indigenous to Eastern Europe UM and that it
has been cultivated for around two thousand to three thousand
(18:24):
years UM. Ancient writers like Plenty and Dioscurieties both mentioned
horse radis, albeit under a different name. Again confusion with
names time. Um. It's long been used medicinally and in
fact as far back as the ancient Egyptians were using
it to alleviate the pain of sore joints. I also
(18:47):
read that it was used in ancient cough syrups um
and as treatments for tuberculosis and rheumatism. Um of fitting
in with the arthritis. Then again there um and early
Greeks used it for pain and as an afro dz act.
You beat me to it once again. I think that's
(19:08):
like twice in like the how many years have we
been doing savors? Yeah, I'm very curious how it was
used as an approduisiac, but oh gosh, I think it
would stay. But hopefully hopefully this was this was an
oral preparation, some kind of mm hmmm, mm hmm. You know,
(19:33):
we'll never know for sure, I guess. Uh. But speaking
of name confusion, early Renaissance raiders wrote of horse shradish
as well, under a different, different name. The origin of
the name horse shradish is the source of some very
spirited debate. Many argue that it comes from the German
(19:54):
word for sea radish, and that the German word for
c mirror was probably mista can for the English word
mayor meaning female horse horse radish. Um. Maybe, stories more
firmly in the realm of legend suggests that the name
comes from the shape of a horse's genitalia. Yeah. I
(20:15):
don't know anyway. Um either At any rate, Um, the
plant was indeed being called horse radish in English by
seven when it was listed as such in a book
of Medicinal Plants. And yes, there is a long and
interesting history of horse radish when it comes to Jewish passover. Um. Yeah,
(20:40):
as you said, Lauren, the meal eaten over passover as
aery symbolican includes bitter herbs um. In some places this
was lettuce, and the first known mention of horse radish
as the bitter urban question didn't occur until the fourteenth century,
when a Talmudic scholar wrote, when lettuce is not obtainable,
it may be substituted with horse raddish um. This was
(21:01):
in part due to the difficulty of finding lettuce for
passover in some areas. As more Jewish folks moved um
from Central to Eastern Europe, many of them started to
prefer horse radish to let us even when lettuce was
an option. Maroor, the Hebrew word forbidd derived from the
same root of the word used to describe it the
(21:22):
embittered lives that the enslaved Egyptians. The horse radish are
other bitter things, is meant to yet symbolize the bitterness
of those enslaved Um. By the sixteenth century, there were
at least two distinct leaf types of horse radish that
had been identified. By the seventeenth century, horse radish sometimes
accompanied beef, fish and oysters, and it was pretty popular
(21:45):
among the working classes um through Central Europe, up through
Scandinavia and out to the British aisles. I feel like
a lot of the foods that we talked about, a
lot of the spices in particular, have a history of
being um of mostly appearing on wealthy tail tables. Around
this time, horse radish was something that more people had
access to. Yeah, yeah, and I wanted to include this piece.
(22:11):
I found this little snippet I found from Colepepper's English
position which was published in and it's written in really
old timing language. To please bear with me, okay, mm hmm.
The juice of horse radish given to drink is held
to be very effectual for the scurvy. It kills the
(22:31):
worms and children being drunk, and also laid upon the
belly the root bruised and laid to the place grieved
with the sciatica joint ache or hard swellings of the
liver and swen doth wonderfully helped them all. The distilled
water of the urban roots is more commonly taken with
a little sugar for all the purposes. Aforesaid, that was
(22:52):
a fun one because the ses and was switched with FS. Yeah,
a very similar right type the history of type setting
as a whole other podcast for Suresh and I want
to listen to that sounds amazing to me, yes, but
clearly used for a lot of medicinal purposes. Still at
(23:14):
this point, yeah. Yeah. Um. German immigrants um to the
American Midwest in the late eighteen hundreds brought horse radish
with them, and according to scientific American horse radish led
the way for the wide adoption of packaged goods. Um. Okay, yeah,
let's unpack that. Okay, because I also had questions because
(23:38):
I feel like we've said that about multiple ingredients. Um,
all right, So English and German society's used horse radish
to flavor potatoes, cabbage, bread, beef, and fish. And yes,
it was also viewed as a medicinal product. At the
same time, it was difficult and time consuming to make.
It involved grading the root, incasing it with spices and vinegar,
(24:00):
and sealing it up. I read a lot of really
fun accounts about how like people would try to stop
crying when they were making it, like their little strategies
and less miserable. Um. So these resulting jars of horse
radish were on appetizing and color like they didn't look great. Yeah,
ter Hines and yes, that one who realized that customers,
(24:23):
women in particular, would recognize a product that saved them time. Um.
When he was in his teens, he started making his
mother's recipe of horseradish and bottling it in clear glass
so that the insides you could see what was in there. Um.
He solved this product to grocers and hotel owners. Hines
was growing three and a half acres of horse radish
(24:44):
to supply for this demand, generating two thousand, four hundred
dollars in eighteen sixty one, which is about ninety three
thousand dollars in two thousand twelve money. And with this money,
Hines was able to buy his father's brickyard and the
decision to shift to food production in eighteen sixty nine,
(25:04):
due to an influx of workers in the area, Hines
took on a partner open to factory and hired two
women and a boy to make a package this horse
radish product. Uh. And for the logo, they settled on
an anchor. Yeah, I mean, it's an interesting it's an
interesting story. In theory, for sure, I can see I
can see, definitely see the angle of like the importance
(25:26):
of packaging and making something look appealing. Uh. Yeah, A
lot of things are at play, but yeah, I can
see the importance of that aspect for sure. Yeah. Sure,
Um and uh right at the time, UM, glass jarring
for for canning purposes was less popular, way less popular
(25:47):
than um than than cans, than metal cans. So yeah.
A product offered from nineteen fifteen called Lancelots idonized syrup
of horse Radish came with this description an old but
highly esteemed French preparation extensively used by and very beneficial
to scraw fulous elymphatics, racketics, syphilitics, etcetera. Also a tonic stimulant, alternative,
(26:12):
deb struent and diretic remedy. Oh that was a difficult
one for me, Lauren. Yeah, that's a lot. That was
a lot of words. Olympics. Um. I tried to stick
the landing, but you you let me know if I did. No,
I think I think through the magic of editing, that
came out perfect. Andrew is the best. He really is,
(26:37):
he really is. He puts up with this. Oh my goodness,
as we always say, thank you and we're sorry. In
popular company Gold to Horse Radish was formed. They had
a really interesting history. I'd have to come back and
revisit it later. Um. So this company was started by
two Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Romania named Hyman and
(26:59):
Tillie go Old, who peeled the roots and filled and
labeled the bottles by hand. Story goes that Hyman bailed
his cousin out of jail aftergot into a fight in
exchange for his grinder, so he was like, I'll get grinder. History.
I love that. Oh. Um. Skipping ahead to um, that
(27:23):
is the year that the International Herb Association named horse
radish the herb of the Year. M m m m
m m mm and um. And then as of nineteen
harsh weather in the American Midwest was creating a horse
radish shortage. Um, not because the weather killed off the
(27:43):
horse radish, but because it was literally trapped under early
snow and they were unable to harvest it. Oh no, yeah, yeah,
So it turned out okay, but like just at the
at the time, they were like, well, it's snowed in October.
That's it. Okay, that's the end of that. Yeah. Well
(28:05):
I'm glad it worked out. Yeah yeah, yeah. Um, this
was a fun one. I definitely I want to get
my hands on some some horse radish. Yeah, I am.
Oh gosh, I know that. I know that growing up
we had like actual horse radish roots on the stader
(28:26):
plates sometimes. Um, but I cannot for the life of me,
recall if I've ever worked with one in in in
adulthood in my own kitchen. And so now I'm really
curious because right like we are like a like a
pro horse Radish household. Um. I mean I usually have
jars of the of the prepared stuff in the fridge
(28:48):
just for any given horse Radish emergency. But um, but
now I'm like, oh, what about the fresh root? I
bet the fresh root is so much more punch you
in the nasal passages, which we're like, yes, yeah, yes,
I love it. I love it. Events are so weird. Yeah,
(29:08):
so we'll have to be on the lookout. Um, And
I guess that is what we have to say about
horse Radish for now. Yes, but we do have some
listener mail for you, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors. And
(29:32):
we're back. Thank you sponsoring, Yes, thank you, We're back
with listen. That's what happens when I hate Yeah, I know,
I feel you. That's yep. I think I just triggered
like an actual response your listeners, do you know what
(30:00):
we're talking about? Well, we have some more messages about
instant coffee. I love this so much, Yeah, Tim wrote,
I just finished listening to the Crystallized Instant Coffee episode
and have a bit of a side trip. I would
like to offer. Take a look at JOT coffee. It's
brood super extra strong coffee that comes in a small
(30:21):
six point eight fluid ounce glass bottle. You mix a
table spoon with eight ounces of liquid water, milk, et cetera,
and you have a cup of coffee. I use a
scale to measure mine out, so I don't have a
spoon or measuring cup to wash. I just pop a
cup glass thermous on the scale and measure everything by weight.
Oh that sounds nice, and you know I love morning
(30:42):
extra dishes at any Oh Yeah, no, absolutely, thank you.
M also about that episode, um Jenna wrote, when I
saw this episode title, I thought of my dad. He
used to drink Sanka and it grossed the rest of
(31:04):
us out. There was just something icky about it. Even
though I was a child and never drink coffee of
any kind, I've been a drip coffee gal who is
all about the flavored creamer. My one brush with coffee,
semi stobb Nous was a roommate with a French Press
and now big reveal, I'm drinking instant cappuccino. You may
(31:24):
not even consider it coffee, but I'm quite happy with it.
Older and lazier, I guess, Oh, I understand. I used to.
I know, I've said I used to do like a
French Press every Sunday morning. Yeah, not anymore Sunday morning,
sun and now it's much more of a special occasion. Yeah, yeah,
(31:47):
me too. Me. Oh goodness, right, I think I used
to do all of my coffee by French Press at
a certain point, and that is absolutely not what I
do anymore. Nope. And I I know, you know, I've
gotten called out on those a couple of times about
missing a Seinfeld reference. I can't recall. My brain is
(32:07):
a little foggy, but there's definitely a quote about I
think it's Sanka where somebody's trying to please somebody and
they're like, would you like my French Press coffee? And
she says Sanka, like only Sanko, just keep like not
having what she wants. Listeners somebody probably talking there, you go, yeah,
(32:27):
oh yeah, yeah, sorry, I I didn't look at the
look at the pronunciation on that one. So, Um, I'm
not sure how I said it or if it's different
from how Annie just said it. Um, it could be
either or but in my in my sitcom brain, sanc oh,
I trust your sitcom brain. Thank you. Yeah, stuff sticks
(32:49):
in there really good, so I know whether I want
it to or not. Well. Thanks to you both of
those listeners for writing. If you would like to write
to us, you ken. Our email is hello at saver
pod dot com. We're also on social media. You can
find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at saver pod
and we do hope to hear from you. Savor is
(33:10):
production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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