I’m an avid fan of hot sauce and love all sorts of spicy foods but nothing hits quite like horseradish. It doesn’t burn my tongue like typical hot sauces but it does make my eyes water and nose burn.
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Vegetables in the family of cabbages, mustards, and horseradish all have a chemical defense against grazing animals and insects. Inside of their cells they produce a sugar bonded to an amino acid (glucosinilates), which can be broken down by an enzyme (myrosinase) found in special cells apart from the ones containing the other substance. When something bites/chews/tears the leaves the enzyme is brought into contact with the glucosinilate and breaks a sulfur bond, creating a family of sulfur-bearing compounds called Isothiocyanates.
It’s those Isothiocyanates which make us feel a burn, it’s meant to deter animals from eating the plant, but we as humans developed a taste for it. This isn’t unlike hot peppers which produce capsaicin to deter mammals from eating them, but which humans have decided we like the taste of.
Horseradish and wasabi “hit different” than spicy things like peppers because their spiciness comes from different chemicals! We call them both “heat” because they both kind of burn, but that’s a big generalization. They’re two different flavours. It’s like saying “Why is the fruitiness of a strawberry different from the fruitiness of a cherry?”
Hot-sauce spiciness comes from capsaicin, a thick oily liquid. It activates pain receptors not taste buds, and tricks them to send the “this is hot temperature” signal. We call the sensation “burning” because to your brain it actually registers as burning, not as a flavour. The thick oiliness is also why hot sauce heat can linger longer than horseradish heat.
Horseradish and wasabi get their spiciness from “allyl isothiocyanate”, which is a volatile (thin and easily evaporating) liquid. That’s why horseradish heat gets into your nose and sinuses so easily – it’s evaporating from your mouth. It’s also why it doesn’t stay in your mouth as long as the thick oily hotsauce-spice.
https://www.pepperscale.com/pepper-heat-vs-horseradish-heat/
This compound is responsible for the distinctive flavor and burning sensation associated with horseradish.
Do you ever take a bite of horseradish, and it feels like someone drove a nail right between your eyes? That’s the best horseradish.
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