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TURNIPS (au Beurre)
Put some young turnips into a stewpan with four ounces of salt butter and a lump of sugar. Simmer gently until soft, add a little pepper, and serve in the sauce they were cooked in, with a little chopped parsley strewn over.
A short French-style braise in butter, and the whole thing hinges on cooking the turnips slowly enough that they glaze rather than fry.
- Quantity and yieldThe original gives no weight. Four ounces (115 g) of butter suits about 2 lb (900 g) of small turnips, serving four to six as a side.
- "Young turnips"This means the small, tender spring roots, golf-ball to egg size, not the large storage turnips of winter. Peel thinly and leave whole if small, or halve; large old turnips will need quartering and will taste coarser and more sulphurous.
- Salt butterButter salted for keeping was often saltier than modern salted butter, though it varied a good deal. Use salted butter and taste before adding any more salt; unsalted plus a good pinch works just as well.
- "A lump of sugar"Lump sugar was cut from a loaf and varied in size; a teaspoon or so of granulated sugar is a reasonable stand-in. Its job is to help the butter and turnip juices reduce to a glaze, not to sweeten the dish.
- The hinge: gentle heat, lid onThe hinge: gentle heat -- The original says only to simmer gently. Covering the pan over low heat lets the turnips steam in their own liquid and the butter; shake the pan occasionally. Too high a flame browns the butter and leaves the centres raw; reckon on roughly 15-25 minutes depending on size.
- Finishing the sauceIf liquid remains when the turnips are tender, uncover and boil hard for a minute or two so the butter and juices emulsify into a light glaze. Serve immediately, with the parsley added off the heat.
- StewpanA heavy-based saucepan or sauté pan with a tight lid. Choose one wide enough to hold the turnips in a single layer.
Au beurre is one of the plainest entries in the French vegetable repertoire, and the form of the title -- an English name with a French tag in brackets -- is typical of late-Victorian household books, which absorbed French cookery terms while keeping English headings. The sugar is not an affectation: turnips are mildly bitter, and sugar with butter is the basis of what French kitchens call glazing, the same treatment given to carrots and small onions. Turnips were among the cheapest and most reliable roots in Britain, grown at scale as field fodder as well as for the table, so young spring turnips finished in butter and served in their own sauce were a notably plainer vegetable given generous treatment.