Keeping toxins at bay
As a health tonic, horseradish helps with digestion on the cellular level, from tongue to stomach to gut. It’s good for sinus trouble, not only for its antibiotic properties but also because of its heat. It helps keep toxins at bay in the bladder and stimulates urine flow to help flush anything out. A vinegar made from it is claimed to treat dandruff, and poultices made from it can help arthritis, muscle aches and chest congestion.
Further claims include an ability to protect us from environmental toxins. Studies have proven it a fighter against staph, listeria and E. coli, another reason to have some in your meat sandwich! It also may be good for gall-bladder problems, gout, facial neuralgia, toothache, skin blemishes, chilblains, intestinal worms and kidney stones, and is said to relieve colds, flu and hay fever, by thinning out the mucus.
But how to get it? It’s mild in its solid form, but as soon as it’s grated its spicy, pungent volatile oils are released. The flavor is very strong. When horseradish is bottled, becoming “prepared horseradish,” vinegar is added, which halts the release of oils and stabilizes it.
Horseradish’s pungency adds a delightful zest to many foods, most commonly red meat and seafood, in the form of classic sauces to accompany them. People braver in the kitchen than I put it in their scrambled eggs or eat it straight. Some put it in egg salad or deviled eggs or jazz up their potato salad or cole slaw with it. Others dump spoonfuls in soups or mix it into mashed potatoes.
Dr. Andrew Weil recommends spiking baked apple or pear dishes with it. My brother-in-law Mig makes a mean Bloody Mary with horseradish from his garden. Recently I made a zippy sauce of the freshly grated stuff with yogurt and chopped shallots for my St. Patty’s Day corned beef.
It should be consumed right after grating. Unless you add vinegar, it will lose its spiciness and vigor quickly. As it will, generally, if cooked.
For purposes more medicinal than gastronomical, some simply grate it and put it on crackers, or add some sweetener and vinegar, or infuse it in water.
If broccoli and cabbage give you tummy troubles you may have the same effect from horseradish, and pregnant women are advised to avoid large quantities of it. This column does not substitute for the advice of your healthcare practitioner.
