Horseradish Ketchup Recipe

A while ago a reader sent me a very interesting question regarding a gelled seafood sauce. It is made by mixing tomato ketchup with horseradish and his question was very simple: Why and how does this sauce gel? He speculated about pectin (which is present in tomatoes), but wondered why ketchup then doesn’t gel on it’s own? And he also noted that horseradish ground with water does not have any gel like properties. So how come they can form a gel when mixed together?

The first thing that came to my mind was a previous blogpost on tomato gels with the pectin that’s there. Pectin in tomatoes is highly methylated (HM), meaning that a lot of sugar would be required for it to gel and that gelling is not promoted by calcium. But if it is mixed with juice from carrots or oranges which contain the enzyme pectin methylesterase (PME), the methyl groups are cleaved off (as shown below) to yield a low methylated (LM) type of pectin which will gel more easily, especially in the presence of calcium ions. Could something similar be the case in the gelled seafood sauce?

Once horseradish is cut, enzymes start to break down sinigrin to release allyl isothiocyanate (mustard oil) which is responsible for the pungent taste and the irritating effect on the eyes and sinuses. In biochemistry, horseradish is best known for an enzyme called horseradish peroxidase. I’m not sure if this is the enzyme that is responsible for the degradation of sinigrin, but adding together the bits and pieces my best guess is that some enzyme in horseradish does more or less the same thing as pectin methylesterase, cleaving of methyl groups to make the pectin more prone to gel. I haven’t been able to find any papers on this though, so if any readers know more about his – please feel free to fill me inn! And can you think of other foods where horseradish advantageously could be used for gelling?

Homemade Cocktail Sauce Without Horseradish

Before writing this blog post I wanted to test the gelling, so I took a pieces of horseradish, peeled it and grated it. The gratings were quite dry so I decided to mixed them with some water and then filter the mixture to obtain a horseradish extract. The Areopress coffee maker turned out to be perfect for this (as shown in the picture above). I then mixed the extract with approximately 6-8 times the amount of ketchup and left it in the fridge to gel. A before-and-after picture of the ketchup mixed with the horseradish extract is shown below. If I would make this again however, I’d probably not bother about filtration – instead I would use a food processor with knives to break up the cells in the horseradish as much as possible to maximize the release of the intracellular enzymes.

The suggested recipe I received with the question was as follows (more can be found by googling “seafood sauce” or “cocktail sauce” in combination with ketchup and horseradish):

Grate/grind horseradish with a little water. Mix with ketchup. Adjust with lemonjuice (and possibly salt) to taste. Refridgerate. The gelling doesn’t happen until a day or so later.

Ways To Use Creamed Horseradish

We use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. We do this to improve browsing experience and to show (non-) personalized ads. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.

The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.

Citrus Cured Sea Trout, Garden Beetroot Ketchup, Horseradish Mousse And Pickled Shallot

The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.

The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.While sometimes the bottled stuff may be just as good as homemade, that’s certainly not the case for this Horseradish Cocktail Sauce!

Using just a few ingredients you can whip up a sweet and spicy sauce that’s the perfect accompaniment to shrimp and other seafood.

Homemade Paleo Ketchup + 9 Quick And Easy Ketchup Variations

Whether you want to impress your guests or simply try a dipping sauce with a difference, you can always count on this Horseradish Cocktail Sauce recipe to get the job done.

It’s important to use horseradish instead of horseradish sauce, as this contains other ingredients like mayonnaise that will alter the consistency and taste of the sauce.

It adds umami to many dishes and helps to enhance the taste of this homemade cocktail sauce. While soy sauce is often recommended as a good substitute, the flavor is definitely different, with Worcestershire sauce being tangier and sweeter with a lot more depth.

Minute Cocktail Sauce Recipe

The sweetness of ketchup helps to balance out the spiciness of the horseradish in this sauce and adds some more acidity along with the lemon juice that really rounds out the flavor.

One of the benefits of making your own Horseradish Cocktail Sauce is that you have more control over not only how it tastes but the ingredients that go into it.

If you want to lessen the amount of sugar, opt for a sugar-free ketchup or one without high fructose corn syrup. To make it even cleaner, you could even try making your own!

Homemade Fresh Horseradish Ketchup

While this sauce is traditionally served as part of a shrimp cocktail, it goes just as well with other seafood and shellfish like crab, oyster, calamari and salmon. You can also serve it alongside other seafood meals like crab cakes, where it makes for a great dipping sauce.

If you accidentally added too much or got hold of some particularly powerful horseradish, simply adding in some more ketchup will help to lessen its spiciness.

Add in an extra teaspoon at a time, making sure to taste, to ensure you don’t take it too far the other way and end up with an overly sweet sauce.

Horseradish Balsamic Sauce

If you’re making Horseradish Cocktail Sauce for a dinner party, you can easily mix it up ahead of time so it is ready to serve on the day.

**** This post may contain affiliate links. See our fullPrivacy Policy. We may receive compensation by clicking on the links and or making a purchase.

Serving: 8 People Calories: 39 kcal Carbohydrates: 9 g Sodium: 329 mg Potassium: 123 mg Sugar: 7 g Vitamin A: 8 IU Vitamin C: 4 mg Calcium: 5 mg Iron: 1 mg

Creative Artisan Ketchup Flavors