Home › The Principles of Cookery › TURNIPS, FOR GARNISH (another way)
TURNIPS, FOR GARNISH (another way)
When turnips are to be used for garnishing dishes they may be prepared either white or coloured. Pare the thick skin from them, wash and drain them, and either cut them into slices of uniform size, or turn them to any shape that may be desired. Throw them into boiling water, let them boil quickly for five minutes, then drain and dry them. If white turnip garnish is required, put the blanched turnips into a saucepan, cover with boiling stock, add a small lump of sugar and a little salt and cayenne, and let them simmer gently until they are tender without being broken. Let them remain in the stock till they are wanted. If brown turnip garnish is to be used, prepare the turnips, and blanch them as before. Dissolve an ounce of butter in a frying-pan, throw in the turnips, and shake them over a gentle fire till they are lightly browned. Drain them, and if not sufficiently tender stew them for a few minutes longer before serving. Time, about ten minutes to colour the turnips, twenty minutes to stew them. Probable cost, turnips, 5d. to 7d. per bunch.
A garnish method rather than a dish, and the technique still holds: blanch, then finish either in stock or in butter. Two details do the work — cutting the pieces to a uniform size, and stopping before they collapse.
- "Turn them"Turning is the old knife skill of paring a vegetable into a small barrel or olive shape, conventionally with seven faces. A plain 1-inch dice gives a similar effect with less waste.
- Pare the thick skinTurnips have a fibrous layer under the peel that stays woody however long you cook it. Take it off with a knife rather than a peeler, going deep enough to reach the clear flesh.
- The five-minute blanchBoiling first takes off the raw sulphurous edge and firms the pieces so they are less likely to break up in the second cooking.
- Small lump of sugarVictorian loaf sugar was broken from the cone into lumps of no fixed size; a teaspoon or so is a reasonable reading. It balances the mustard-oil bitterness rather than sweetening the dish.
- Holding in the stockLeaving them in hot stock until wanted works for a short service window; left much longer they go on absorbing liquid and soften past the point of holding a shape, so cool them in the stock and reheat instead.
- Browning in butterAn ounce is 2 tablespoons, enough for about a pound of blanched turnip in a wide pan. Keep them in a single layer and shake rather than stir, or the faces will not colour evenly.
- QuantityThe recipe gives none, beyond the bunch implied by the price note.
- Which turnipsSmall white or purple-topped turnips are meant. Swedes (rutabaga) are sweeter and denser and will need longer in the stock, though they take a brown finish well.
Garnishing was a taught skill in the late-Victorian kitchen, and turnips, cheap and firm enough to carve, lent themselves to the purpose. The white and brown pair reflects the two great sauce families of the period otal dish, pale vegetables with a white sauce or boiled meat, glazed brown ones with a roast or a rich braise. The price note, five to sevenpence a bunch, is one of the running features of Cassell's, which was written for households keeping close accounts; turnips at that price were among the cheapest things on the list, which is part of why a book aimed at the careful middle-class cook devoted a full entry to making them look like something.