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Large Stuffed Turnips
Boil whole 4 or 5 large turnips. Take them up, drain them, cut a slice from the top, and scoop out the middle. Beat the pulp which has been taken out with a little butter, flour, pepper, salt, and cream, and add the yolk of an egg. Fill the empty spaces with the mixture, put the tops on again, and brush them over with beaten egg. Brown them in a brisk oven, and serve very hot. Time to boil, from three-quarters to an hour and a half.
A straightforward vegetable side that depends on getting the turnips tender without letting them collapse, and on a filling stiff enough to hold its shape.
- The hinge: boil whole and unpeeledThe hinge: boil whole -- The recipe directs boiling the turnips whole, which keeps water out of the flesh and gives a scoopable, non-soggy shell. It says nothing about peeling either way; leaving the skin on until after boiling will help the cases stand up in the oven.
- TimingThree-quarters of an hour to an hour and a half covers everything from a young turnip to a large winter root. Test with a skewer at 35–40 minutes and continue in 10-minute steps; overcooked turnip will tear when you hollow it out.
- "A brisk oven"Read that as a hot oven, roughly 400-450F. The turnips are already cooked, so this is a short blast to set the egg wash and colour the tops — 10 to 15 minutes.
- The fillingMash the scooped pulp with about a tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of flour, a couple of tablespoons of cream, and one egg yolk per 4–5 turnips. The flour is there to bind watery pulp; if the mash is already dry, use less or it turns pasty.
- Drain thoroughlyTurnip holds a great deal of water. Let the shells sit cut-side down on a cloth for a few minutes, and drive off moisture from the pulp in a dry pan before enriching it.
- Egg washOne whole egg beaten with a pinch of salt is plenty for five turnips. Brush the lids and the exposed shoulders, not the join, or the tops will glue on.
- SeasoningTurnip needs salt more assertively than potato. A grating of nutmeg or a little mustard suits the butter-and-cream base.
- YieldFour or five large turnips serve four as a side dish. They can be filled ahead and browned just before serving; they do not reheat well twice.
Stuffed vegetables in this style — hollowed, the pulp enriched and returned, the lid replaced — were a familiar treatment in nineteenth-century English and American cookery, applied to turnips, onions, marrows and cucumbers alike. The turnip lent itself to it because it was cheap, stored well through the winter, and benefited from dressing up: butter, cream and egg yolk turn a plain field crop into something that can be sent to table in its own case.