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To Cook Parsnips
Parsnips when large require at least one and a half hours to boil. When done, peel off the skin, split them in halves, and serve with butter and cream; or the parsnips may be mashed and mixed with an egg batter, and seasoned.
Parsnips are better when left in the ground all winter.
A brief note rather than a formal recipe: boil whole and unpeeled, then dress simply or turn into fritters. The timing is the only figure given, and it belongs to a much bigger parsnip than most shops sell now.
- Cut the timeAn hour and a half suits the thick, woody field parsnips of a century ago. Supermarket roots of 6-10 inches are tender in 20-30 minutes whole, less if cut; test with a knife tip at the thickest point.
- Skin on, then offBoiling unpeeled keeps the flesh from waterlogging and the skin slips off in sheets while the roots are hot. Hold them in a cloth and rub rather than trying to peel them cold.
- The woody coreLarge old parsnips have a fibrous core that stays stringy however long it cooks. Split the halves and lift it out with the tip of a knife before serving or mashing.
- Butter and creamThe first serving is simply hot roots with butter and a spoonful of cream, seasoned. A splash of the cream warmed in the pan with the butter coats them better than cold cream poured over.
- The egg batter versionThe book says only that the mash is mixed with an egg batter and seasoned; it does not say how it is cooked, though the usual period treatment is a fritter. To make it so: mash the drained parsnips, beat in an egg with a spoonful or two of flour, season, and fry spoonfuls in shallow butter or dripping until browned on both sides. Drain the mash well or the batter will not hold.
Parsnips were an important source of starch and sweetness in northern Europe before the potato displaced them, and they remained a winter standby in nineteenth-century American kitchens because they store where little else will. The recipe's closing line reflects real kitchen-garden practice: cold converts some of the root's starch to sugar, so roots dug in late winter or early spring taste markedly sweeter than those pulled in autumn. That sweetness explains why parsnips turn up in period recipes for wine and for sweetened puddings.