Turnip and Potatoes

A composed vegetable dish from the era when a mould and a piping bag were standard equipment. The turnip balls should be cooked separately and drained hard, or they will weep into the potato ring.

• French scoopThis is a melon baller or Parisienne scoop. A 1-inch cutter gives the tidiest result; small young turnips are easier to cut than large woody ones.
• Ring mouldA ring pan of roughly 8 to 9 inches, well buttered, suits the quantity. The recipe does not say whether the potato is turned out before it is egg-washed or browned in the mould; if you unmould it, do so onto an ovenproof dish so it can brown free-standing.
• Browning temperatureThe recipe gives none. Use 425F for 10 to 15 minutes, until the egg wash is set and patched with gold. Any cooler and the ring dries out before it colours.
• Twenty minutes is longTurnip balls that size are tender in 8 to 12 minutes of gentle boiling. Twenty minutes turns them to mush and they will collapse when you pile them up. Test with a knife tip from the eight-minute mark.
• Drain thoroughlyAfter draining, return the balls to the dry hot pan for a moment to steam off surface water. Turnips hold a lot of liquid and it will pool in the potato ring.
• Butter or white saucePick one, not both. Melted butter with white pepper suits a plain roast; a thin bechamel makes the dish more substantial and lets it stand a few minutes before serving.
• YieldQuantities are not given. Allow enough mashed potato to fill your ring and rather more turnip than the finished pile suggests, since scooping wastes a good deal of each root.
• Timing the two partsBoil the turnips while the ring browns. Both want to reach the table hot, and the assembled dish does not hold well.