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Turnip Radishes, to Boil
Radishes are generally eaten raw with salads, etc. The small white turnip radishes are, however, sometimes boiled and served as a vegetable, and the ordinary long radishes, when young, may be tied in bunches, boiled till tender, and served like asparagus on toast. They are good with either boiled or roast meat. To boil turnip radishes proceed as follows. Take the radishes when young and freshly pulled. Wash them well, trim them neatly, leaving about an inch of the stalks, and lay them in cold water for half an hour. Drain them, and throw them into plenty of boiling water slightly salted. Let them boil gently till tender. Drain them, and serve in a tureen with melted butter poured over them. Time to boil, fifteen to twenty-five minutes. Probable cost, 1d. or 2d. per bunch. Sufficient, one bunch for one or two persons.
A short vegetable dish from the era when almost nothing was eaten raw if it could be boiled. Two details in the original will mislead a modern cook: what "melted butter" means, and how long radishes actually need.
- "Melted butter" is a sauceIn British cookery books of this period melted butter means a white sauce made with butter, flour and water or milk, not butter simply melted in a pan. Cassell's has a separate entry for it. Plain browned butter also works, but it is not what is being called for.
- Turnip radishesThese are the round or oval globe radishes sold everywhere today, white or red-and-white. "Long radishes" are the long-rooted, tapering sorts; the nearest modern equivalent on sale is the French breakfast radish. Neither is a daikon, which needs quite different treatment.
- Cut the timeFifteen to twenty-five minutes is longer than modern globe radishes usually need; they are generally tender in 8 to 12 minutes of gentle simmering. Test with a skewer and stop while they still hold their shape, or they collapse to mush and turn watery.
- The half-hour soakNot optional decoration. Cold water firms up radishes that have gone limp between field and kitchen, and it loosens grit trapped where the stalk meets the root. Leave the inch of stalk on as directed, as the original does, for neatness and to give something to hold them by.
- Peppery heatBoiling drives off most of the mustard-oil bite, leaving something closer to a mild turnip. If the radishes are very hot when raw, expect a noticeable sulphurous smell during cooking; a lid left ajar helps.
- Long radishes as asparagusTie them in small bundles with kitchen string so they can be lifted out whole and drained upright. Serve on toast that has been buttered and set on a warm plate, since the vegetable sheds water as it sits.
- Yield and costOne bunch serves one or two people, though the size of a Victorian bunch is not recorded; judge by eye against a modern bunch. The "1d. or 2d." is a late-Victorian market price and tells you only that this was among the cheapest vegetables on the stall.
Cassell's puts radishes among the salad vegetables and then notes that they are "sometimes boiled" — the text itself says they are generally eaten raw, so boiling is presented as the exception rather than the rule. Cooking radishes was not unusual on the Continent: French kitchens have long braised or buttered them, and the practice survives in restaurant cooking today. The instruction to tie young long radishes in bunches and serve them on toast "like asparagus" is one of many Victorian dishes in which cheap garden produce was dressed in the manner of an expensive delicacy — a cousin of mock turtle soup. The price note, a penny or two a bunch, shows how cheap the raw material was.