Horseradish Is The Perfect Ingredient For Adding An Extra Zing To Your Pot Roast

Horseradish may be a root vegetable, but it is hardly ever eaten like one. Unlike other root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips, horseradish is typically grated up and used as a condiment. It's often paired with red meat, usually prime rib and roast beef, or added to the same things you might add mustard to, such as deviled eggs, sandwiches, and salad dressing. If it's never occurred to you to toss some into your already fantastic pot roast, you may want to consider doing so.

If you're not careful, pot roast can turn out pretty one-dimensional, especially if you only add the bare minimum of ingredients. But even a basic pot roast made with just beef, carrots, celery, and onions can be elevated with a bit of horseradish. Horseradish has a sharp, peppery flavor, so when you add it to pot roast, it introduces a layer of zestiness. As a result, your pot roast will taste much more balanced and satisfying. However, there are things to keep in mind when incorporating this powerful, pungent element into your dish.

Horseradish can transform the flavor of any dish, but if it also contains meat, like in a pot roast, it can help to enhance the texture. Prepared horseradish, the most commonly available type of horseradish, isn't actually pure horseradish. It's actually pickled with vinegar. This vinegar tenderizes the meat in the pot roast because it's an acid, and acids break down protein and collagen in the meat. Vinegar is usually added to a marinade before cooking, but it's effective when cooked into a pot roast, too.

Only prepared horseradish will have this effect, though. Another store-bought variety, known as creamed horseradish, isn't pickled but rather mixed with dairy such as sour cream. It can still add the same distinct horseradish flavor to a pot roast, but without vinegar it won't tenderize the meat as much (though it will still have a relaxing effect on the muscle fibers). If you want the tenderest beef, just make sure you're opting for prepared horseradish rather than the creamed version of the condiment.

If you've ever had horseradish before, you know that a little goes a long way because it has a pretty strong flavor. When it comes to pot roast though, you can use as much as 8 ounces, a whole jar, for a chuck roast around 4 pounds. That might seem like a lot of horseradish, but because it will be diluted with the juices from the meat and vegetables, the taste shouldn't be too overwhelming. If you're looking for a somewhat subtler zing, however, you can take a page from chef and TV personality Geoffrey Zakarian, who adds just a couple of tablespoons of prepared horseradish — which he calls "my flavor, sort of, enhancer" — when making the sauce for his New England pot roast.

It takes about 1 tablespoon of vinegar to tenderize a quarter pound of meat, so if you don't want to use any more horseradish to your pot roast than you really need to, you may want to make your own prepared horseradish, which would allow you can control the ratio of vinegar to grated horseradish. But whether you make your own or use store-bought horseradish, ultimately the amount you should add to your pot roast depends on how tender you want the meat to be, and how zesty you want the final product to taste.