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Swedes
Peel and cut the swedes into quarters in the same manner as ordinary turnips, and boil them in salted water until tender. Then drain them, and mash them smoothly with two ounces of butter, a table-spoonful of cream, and plenty of pepper.
A plain vegetable purée with no quantities given for the main ingredient; the butter and cream ratio suggests a dish for four.
- What a swede isCalled rutabaga in North America — the large yellow-fleshed root with a purple crown, not the small white turnip. Buy about 2 lb for the 2 oz butter and tablespoon of cream given here.
- Cut smaller than quartersA quartered swede takes 35-45 minutes and the outside collapses before the centre yields. Cut into 1-inch chunks and they cook evenly in 20-25 minutes, tender to a knife tip with no resistance.
- Drain hardSwede holds a great deal of water and a watery mash will not take butter. After draining, return the pieces to the dry hot pan over low heat for a minute or two and let the steam go off before mashing.
- Butter and creamTwo ounces is half a stick. A tablespoon of cream is very little for 2 lb of root — use double cream, and add more only if the mash is stiff rather than wet.
- Smooth means mashed, not blitzedA ricer or a stiff masher gives the texture wanted.
- Seasoning"Plenty of pepper" is the point of the dish — white pepper if you want it unspeckled. Swede takes salt heavily; taste after the butter goes in, since the boiling water gives it less than you would expect.
- ServingRoughly four portions as a side. It reheats well in a low oven, covered, and is traditional alongside boiled or roast mutton and with haggis.
Swedes reached British kitchens from Scandinavia in the later eighteenth century — the name is a contraction of "Swedish turnip" — and were first grown at scale as winter fodder for cattle before working their way onto the table. The recipe gives the root no separate quantities and simply points the cook back to the turnip method; the butter and pepper are what make it worth eating. In Scotland the same mash is "neeps", where turnip has long meant the swede, and it remains the standard partner to haggis. The plant's mildly bitter, sulphurous edge comes from the glucosinolates it shares with cabbage and mustard, which are water-soluble and substantially leached out by boiling.