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Oyster Plant
Oyster plant, which is the root of a plant sometimes called salsify and "purple goat's beard," is excellent when cooked. It is not so generally known as it deserves to be. It may be boiled and served with maitre d'hotel, Dutch, onion, or Italian sauce. To prepare the roots for dressing, cut off the ends of each, and scrape off the outer rind till the flesh is reached, which somewhat resembles the parsnip in color and appearance. Rub them with lemon juice or vinegar, and throw them into cold water until they are to be boiled. They will be better for lying in it for an hour or two. Boil in salted water until tender; drain and serve with sauce.
A plain method for boiled salsify that still works; the only real technique is keeping the peeled roots from browning.
- Acidulated water is the hingeScraped salsify oxidises to grey-brown within minutes. Rub with lemon or vinegar and drop straight into cold acidulated water, and add a squeeze of lemon to the cooking water as well.
- What to buy"Oyster plant" and "purple goat's beard" are salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius). Farmers' markets and some greengrocers carry it in autumn and winter; the black-skinned scorzonera is a close substitute and cooks the same way.
- Scrape, don't peel deepThe flesh sits just under a thin rind. A vegetable peeler or the back of a knife is enough; the sap is sticky, so rinse hands and blade as you go.
- TimingCut into 2-inch lengths, salsify is tender in 20 to 30 minutes at a gentle simmer, depending on thickness. Whole large roots can take 40. Test with a knife tip rather than a clock.
- SoakingThe recipe recommends an hour or two in cold water, which helps the colour and firms up limp roots. There is no need to leave them much longer than that.
- The sauces namedMaitre d'hotel is butter worked with lemon juice and chopped parsley; "Dutch" is hollandaise; "Italian" in books of this period generally points to a sauce italienne, brown or white, with mushrooms, shallot and herbs. Any of them, or simply butter and pepper, suits it.
- YieldAbout 1 1/2 lb of roots serves four as a side dish. Salsify shrinks less than it looks like it will.
Salsify is said to have earned the name oyster plant from a faint marine sweetness in the cooked root that eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cooks likened to oysters, and it was often mashed, bound with egg and crumbs, and fried as mock oyster fritters. It was a common kitchen-garden root in Europe and in American gardens through the 1800s, valued because it kept in the ground over winter and could be dug as needed. The compiler's slightly defensive tone here -- "not so generally known as it deserves to be" -- suggests the root was already unfamiliar to many readers. It remains a specialty vegetable today, being slow to clean and quick to discolour.