Rat-tail radish
Raphanus caudatus · Root vegetable
Top 10 pairings
The rat-tail radish is a radish grown not for its root but for its long, slender, crunchy seed pods — the immature siliques that a radish plant forms after flowering. Eaten raw, stir-fried or pickled, the pods are crisp and juicy with a clean, peppery mustard-oil bite milder than the root, and can grow anywhere from a few centimetres to well over a foot long, curling and tapering like the tail that gives them their name. It is one of the few radishes prized entirely for its pods, a culinarily distinct use of the familiar garden crucifer.
Picking a good onedrag
Snapping hard, tops upLimp, pithy, hollow
Shop firmEveryday bestSalads, slaws, tacos, quick pickles.
TopsGreen and flopping, no yellow in them
HeftFirm all over, tail bends a little
SkinMatte, a fine cracked line or two
Smell at the stemEarthy and neutral, faintly green
These cues are Radish's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
90%
Edible part
4.5 g · stem ends and rootlets off
5 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
90–95%
Humidity
Bagged, not sealed
Airflow