Home › The Principles of Cookery › Turnips, Young, Stewed in Butter
Turnips, Young, Stewed in Butter
Take two pounds of mild young turnips, cut them into small squares, or turn them to any shape that may be preferred. Dissolve two ounces of fresh butter in a saucepan sufficiently large to hold the vegetables in a single layer. Put in the turnips, and simmer them very gently until they are tender without being broken. A few minutes before they are done enough, sprinkle a little salt and white pepper over them. Put them in the centre of a dish, and arrange fried or broiled cutlets neatly round them. Time, three-quarters of an hour to an hour to stew the turnips. Probable cost, 6d. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A plain butter-braise that stands or falls on heat control: the turnips cook in fat alone, with no liquid but their own juices, so anything above the barest simmer will brown and then scorch them.
- The hinge: single layer, lowest heatUse the widest pan that holds 2 lb of cut turnip in one layer, and keep the flame low enough that the butter never sizzles hard. Two ounces of butter is about 4 tablespoons, which is enough to coat but not to fry, so a covered pan helps them steam in their own moisture.
- TimingThree-quarters of an hour to an hour reflects very slow cooking of genuinely young turnips. Modern turnips in 1/2-inch pieces are usually tender in 20 to 30 minutes; test with a knife tip rather than watching the clock, and stop while they still hold their shape.
- "Turn them to any shape"Turning means paring each piece into a small barrel or seven-sided football with a small knife, the classic garnish cut. Squares are the same dish with less knife work.
- Choosing the turnips"Mild young" means small white or purple-topped turnips, roughly golf-ball size, not the large woody ones sold late in the season. Older roots turn bitter and sulphurous under long cooking in fat; swede or rutabaga is a different vegetable and behaves differently here.
- Salt at the endSalting late, as the recipe instructs, avoids drawing out water early. White pepper is the usual choice where dark specks would show against a pale vegetable.
- The cutletsThe recipe does not say what meat; cutlets of this period would commonly be mutton, lamb or veal, cooked separately and set around the turnips to make a full course. On its own it serves five or six.
- Cost6d. is sixpence in pre-decimal British currency, given because Cassell's routinely priced its dishes for household budgeting. It carries no useful modern equivalent.
The method here is the French *étuver au beurre* — cooking in butter with no added water so the vegetable concentrates rather than dilutes. Turnips were among the cheapest roots in the Victorian market and were often boiled to a mash and served with mutton; presenting them turned and ringed with cutlets was the way a plain root was promoted to the dinner table, borrowing the plating logic of the French garnished entrée. The pairing with lamb or veal is long-standing and practical: turnip's slight bitterness cuts fatty meat.