Horseradish

Scientific

Armoracia rusticana is in family Brassicaceae. A perennial herbaceous plant with large basal leaves (sometimes mistaken for dock) and tall white-flowered seed-stalks in summer. The food crop is the long white taproot, which the plant grows as a perennial carbohydrate reserve. Intact roots have almost no aroma; the characteristic bite is released only when cell walls are broken — grating, grinding, or chewing — and the precursor sinigrin meets the enzyme myrosinase, producing pungent allyl isothiocyanate (AITC).

AITC is the same compound that gives wasabi (Eutrema japonicum) and mustard (Brassica and Sinapis species) their pungency; the three plants produce chemically identical hot-mustard-oil but on different substrates and timescales. Most “wasabi” served outside Japan is in fact dyed grated horseradish — Eutrema japonicum is expensive and difficult to grow, while horseradish is cheap and abundant.

AITC is volatile and degrades within minutes of grating; fresh-grated horseradish at a Polish Easter table is incomparably stronger than the jar of “prepared horseradish” in a Western supermarket, which is stabilized in vinegar to slow but not prevent the loss of pungency.

The plant is so hardy and vigorous that it is considered invasive in many gardens — broken root fragments resprout enthusiastically.

Cultural

Horseradish cultivation goes back to classical antiquity; Pliny the Elder describes it, and the plant was probably domesticated in Eastern Europe or the Caucasus. In the Ashkenazi Jewish Passover tradition, grated horseradish (chrein in Yiddish, mixed with beet to form pink chrein mit burik) is one of the most common forms of the maror — the bitter herb commanded by the Seder ritual. Polish chrzan and Russian khren are core to Easter and routine meals — boiled eggs, smoked meats, gefilte fish, kielbasa, sour cream dressings. German Meerrettich accompanies Tafelspitz and smoked trout. English horseradish sauce — grated horseradish in cream — is the classical accompaniment to roast beef.

In folk medicine across the species’ range, horseradish has been used as a sinus decongestant, a circulatory stimulant, and a poultice for joint pain. The plant has also entered Japanese cuisine indirectly through the wasabi-substitute role discussed above.

Global production

Most production is in Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Belarus), Germany, Russia, and the United States. The U.S. crop is concentrated in the Mississippi River valley in southwestern Illinois (Collinsville area) and the upper Midwest, which produces the bulk of American commercial prepared horseradish. International trade is small relative to the regional consumption traditions.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

• Shares approach with: [[radish]] · [[daikon]]
• Member of: [[plants]]

Sources

• USDA NRCS Plants Database — Armoracia rusticana
• Wikipedia — Horseradish

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A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].