Horseradish has deep roots in history
It’s central to Passover Seder plate as symbol of bitterness Jews experienced.
PITTSBURGH — Condiments often play a role in elevating a dish’s flavor. Where would a hot dog be without that ubiquitous squirt of ketchup or a ham sandwich without a slather of mayonnaise?
Then there’s horseradish. No shrinking violet, this long and knobby white root of the horseradish plant snaps the palette to attention when it finds its way into a sauce or spice blend. Hot and spicy, with a pungent odor that gives even seasoned cooks pause, it tastes like a radish on steroids.
Horseradish comes to mind this time of year because it is central to the Passover Seder plate as a symbol of the bitterness Jews experienced when enslaved in Egypt.
Yet the history of horseradish is as much cultural as it is a religious, said Adam Hertzman, marketing director of Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The Torah specifies eating a “bitter herb” as part of the Passover story.
The Mishnah, the first written collection of Jewish oral traditions also known as the “oral Torah,” specifies five types of bitter herbs, or maror, eaten on the night of Passover — none of which include horseradish, he said.
It’s likely that horseradish was the “bitter herb” most easily available for Eastern European and Russian Jews. Many Sephardic Jews don’t use horseradish at all; it’s usually endive.
Horseradish has a special connection to Pittsburgh. Prepared horseradish — and not ketchup — was the first product Henry J. Heinz bottled when he went into the food business back in 1869. He perfected the recipe after years of making it at home using produce from his mother’s garden, along with pickles, vinegar and chili sauce, said Emily Ruby, curator at the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District.
The iconic ketchup didn’t come on the market until 1876, according to a Heinz company timeline. But Ruby has seen advertisements from as far back as 1872 promoting ketchup as part of its product line.
“And it took a long time for ketchup to eclipse,” she said; it wouldn’t become the company’s best seller until the 1950s and ’60s.
Then, as now, horseradish was used primarily to spice up roast