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SALSIFY, BOILED (M. Soyer's way)
"I do not know," says M. Soyer, "why this vegetable, which is held in such high esteem on the Continent, should be so little esteemed with us. I will here supply their manner of cooking it, and perhaps you will give it a fair trial. Take twelve middling-sized ones, scrape them well till quite white, rub each with lemon, and put it in cold water. Put into a stewpan a quarter of a pound of beef or mutton suet cut in small dice, one onion, a bit of thyme, a bay-leaf, a table-spoonful of salt, and four cloves; put on the fire, and stir for five minutes; add two table-spoonfuls of flour, and stir well; then add three pints of water. When just boiling, put in your salsify, and simmer till tender. They will take nearly one hour. Dish on toast; sauce over with Dutch, maitre d'hotel, or onion sauce, or a very good demi-glaze, or Italian sauce. Should any remain, they may be made into fritters thus: Put them in a basin, add a little salt, pepper, two spoonfuls of vinegar, half a chopped shallot, and a spoonful of oil; place in the salsify, and let it remain for some hours. When ready to serve, make a small quantity of batter, dip each piece in it, and fry for five minutes in lard or fat; dish up with fried parsley over."
Soyer is describing a blanc — a flour-and-fat cooking liquor that keeps pale roots from browning — rather than plain boiling. That is the point of the method, and everything else follows from it.
- The hinge: acid and airScraped salsify discolours quickly to a dull grey. Rub each root with the cut lemon and drop it straight into the cold water as the recipe says, and do not let any root sit exposed while you peel the next.
- Sticky sapSalsify and its black-skinned relative scorzonera bleed a milky latex that dries to a varnish on hands and knives. Peel under running water or wear gloves, and wipe the blade often.
- QuantityTwelve middling roots is roughly 1 1/2 lb (700 g) trimmed, enough for four as a vegetable course. Three pints of water should just cover them in a wide pan; add more if it does not.
- The suetA quarter pound of beef or mutton suet is the fat half of the blanc. Butter or a neutral oil works in the same weight if you want the dish meat-free, though the flavour is leaner.
- The saltA tablespoon in three pints reads alarming but the liquor is discarded, not served. It seasons the roots as they simmer, much as pasta water does.
- TimingSalsify sold today is often tender well inside the hour, usually in 20 to 30 minutes. Start testing with a knife tip at 20; the full hour will reduce slender roots to threads.
- The saucesDutch sauce is the period name for hollandaise; maitre d'hotel is butter worked with parsley and lemon; demi-glaze is demi-glace. Any of them, or a plain onion sauce, suits the flavour, which sits between artichoke heart and parsnip.
- The frittersThe vinegar, oil and shallot are a short marinade, not a dressing; the recipe leaves the salsify in it for some hours, and the refrigerator is the safer place for that. Fry in hot lard or fat until coloured -- well-drained pieces may take rather less than the five minutes given.
Alexis Soyer (1810-1858) was among the most publicly visible cooks in Victorian Britain: chef of the Reform Club, author of popular cookery books aimed at every class of household, and later the reformer of army field kitchens in the Crimea. Cassell's editors quoted him freely, and his complaint here is a genuine one — salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius, sometimes called the oyster plant for a supposed resemblance in flavour) was a familiar winter root on the Continent while British cooks largely ignored it. The blanc he describes is standard French practice for pale vegetables and offal, and the closing note on leftovers turned into marinated fritters is characteristic of him: a chef who cooked for a gentlemen's club but wrote constantly about not wasting food.