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Turnip Ragout
Melt three tablespoons of butter, wher hot add one quart of finely sliced raw turnip with one tablespoon of finely chopped onion. Cook slowly on the back of the stove till tender. Add one teaspoon of sugar, one teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of flour. Cook two minutes, then add one cup of milk.
A braise-and-thicken vegetable dish that works out as a creamed turnip; the whole method happens in one pan and the original assumes you know when to stop.
- "Back of the stove"On a wood or coal range the back was the cooler zone, away from the firebox. Read it as low heat; finely sliced turnip will want something like 20-30 minutes, stirring now and then so the butter does not brown. Covering the pan helps but is not in the original.
- Quantity of turnipA quart of finely sliced raw turnip is roughly a pound to a pound and a quarter trimmed, or two to three medium purple-top turnips. Slice thin, an eighth of an inch or so, since thicker pieces will take considerably longer to soften in butter alone.
- The hingeThe flour goes in after the turnip is already tender and must cook a full two minutes in the fat before any milk arrives, or the sauce tastes of raw paste. Add the milk gradually and stir until it thickens.
- Turnip or swedePeriod American books often meant the white turnip here. Rutabaga (swede) works but is denser and sweeter, and needs longer and a little more liquid.
- SeasoningOne teaspoon of salt for this volume is reasonable but assumes unsalted butter; taste before adding it all. A grating of black pepper or nutmeg is in keeping with the style.
- FinishingThe recipe stops at the milk. Simmer another two or three minutes until the sauce coats the turnip; it should be loose, not stiff.
- YieldServes four as a side dish. It reheats gently but thickens on standing, so slacken with a spoonful of milk.
Creamed and buttered root vegetables were a staple of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American cookery, when turnips stored well in a cellar and appeared on the table from autumn through spring. Calling it a "ragout" reflects the period habit of borrowing French kitchen vocabulary for plain dishes: the word is generally traced to ragouter, to revive the appetite, and is usually taken to denote a stew in a thickened sauce, which is roughly what happens when the flour and milk are worked into the buttery pan. The technique is a roux built directly on top of the cooked vegetable rather than made separately.