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Turnips, Boiled
Turnips should only be served whole when they are very young, and then they should be covered with white sauce. When they have reached any size they should be mashed. Pare the turnips, and wash them; if very young a little of the green top may be left on; if very large they should be divided into halves or even quarters. Throw them into slightly-salted water, and let them boil gently till tender. Drain, and serve them. Time to boil, old turnips, three-quarters of an hour to an hour and a half; young turnips, fifteen to twenty-five minutes. Probable cost, 5d. to 7d. per bunch. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A plain boiled vegetable, but the timings belong to an era of large storage turnips rather than the small ones sold now.
- The hinge: size dictates everythingCut turnips to a uniform size before they go in the water, or the small pieces collapse while the large ones stay hard. The book directs large roots to be halved or quartered.
- Modern timingsSupermarket turnips, quartered, are tender in 15-20 minutes; large swedes in chunks take 25-35. The book's hour and a half assumes a woody, overwintered root that no longer reaches most kitchens.
- Test rather than timeA knife should meet no resistance at the centre. Overcooked turnip turns watery and sulphurous, which is often held to account for the vegetable's poor reputation.
- "Turnip" here may mean swedeVictorian usage was loose, and the very large roots described may be what a British cook now calls swede and an American calls rutabaga. Swede is denser and takes longer to soften.
- MashingDrain very thoroughly and return the turnips to the dry pan over low heat for a minute to steam off water before mashing, otherwise the purée is thin. Butter, pepper and a little cream are the usual finish.
- White sauce for the young onesA plain béchamel, about 1 oz each butter and flour to half a pint of milk, seasoned with salt, white pepper and a scrape of nutmeg.
- Costs and yieldThe pence-per-bunch figure is a historical price, not a guide. Reckon on about 1.5 lb of prepared turnip for five or six as a side dish.
Boiled turnip was basic to the Victorian table: cheap, keeping well through winter in a clamp or cellar, and used as much for fodder as for the dining room. The distinction the book draws between very young turnips served whole in white sauce and older roots fit only for mashing reflects a seasonal supply that modern year-round growing has flattened, since spring-sown baby turnips and hard winter keepers were entirely different vegetables to a nineteenth-century cook. The habit of leaving a little green top on the youngest ones is practical as well as decorative, and the leaves themselves were eaten as turnip greens where they were not sent to the animals. Long boiling of the kind specified here was common British practice for root vegetables well into the twentieth century, and is often blamed for the English reputation for overcooked veg.