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Some Kitchen Kinks: Salsify
Salsify. This vegetable is sometimes called oyster plant, because the flavor suggests that of the oyster, particularly when the boiled vegetable is sliced and fried in butter. Salsify is one of the roots that may be left in the ground over winter, thus making this vegetable available for the late summer, fall, and spring.
To prevent this root from turning dark it must be dropped as soon as it is pared and cut into a mixture of flour and water made slightly acid with vinegar. For 6 good-sized roots mix together 1 tablespoonful of vinegar, 2 tablespoonfuls of flour, 1 teaspoonful of salt, and 3 pints of water. Wash and scrape the roots, then cut into slices about 3 inches long. Drop into the prepared water. Place the stewpan on the fire and cook the salsify thirty minutes, counting from the time it begins to boil. Drain and serve in a white sauce. Or mix together 1 tablespoonful of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, 1 teaspoonful of lemon juice, and 1 teaspoonful of minced parsley or chervil. Add this to the drained salsify and serve at once.
A straightforward boiled root with two finishes. The one thing that governs success is the acidulated flour-water bath, which keeps the pared root from oxidising to a dull grey-brown.
- The blancFlour, vinegar, salt and water make what French kitchens call a blanc: the flour clouds the water and shields the cut surfaces from air while the acid slows browning. Cut each root straight into the liquid rather than letting pieces sit on the board, and cook them in the same liquid.
- Quantities in modern termsThree pints is 6 cups (about 1.4 litres) of water to 2 tablespoons flour, 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt. Six good-sized roots is roughly 1 1/2 lb trimmed, serving four as a side.
- Thirty minutes is longThirty minutes, counted from the boil, is longer than modern practice for cut pieces; these are often tender in 15 to 20 minutes. Test with a knife tip and stop when it meets no resistance, since overcooked salsify collapses into fibres.
- Handling the rootSalsify exudes a sticky milky sap when scraped, and it marks hands and boards. Work under cold running water or wear gloves, and scrape rather than peel deeply.
- White sauceAn unqualified "white sauce" in books of this period is usually a plain butter-flour-and-milk sauce: roughly 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour cooked together without colouring, then 1 cup of milk whisked in and simmered until it coats a spoon. Season with salt and pepper.
- Fried in butterThe oyster comparison in the opening line is best tested by the frying method mentioned there: boil, drain, dry the slices thoroughly, then brown them in butter. Wet slices will steam instead of colouring, and the resemblance depends on the browning.
- Buying itWhat markets sell as salsify is often scorzonera, the black-skinned relative; it behaves the same way and takes the same treatment. Choose firm roots without soft spots, and use them within a week or two of purchase.
- OverwinteringThe note about leaving roots in the ground still holds for gardeners. Frost sweetens salsify, and roots can be lifted through winter and into early spring until the plant sends up a flowering stalk, after which they turn woody.
Salsify is Tragopogon porrifolius, a Mediterranean biennial grown for its slender taproot and long a fixture of European kitchen gardens before it faded from general use in the twentieth century. The name "oyster plant" is an English-language nickname chiefly attested in nineteenth-century, largely American, usage; it is generally said to rest on a faint marine sweetness in the cooked root that was thought suggestive of oysters, especially when fried ound judged generous. Its place in a household compendium like this one has less to do with fashion than with storage: salsify was among the vegetables that could be left in the ground and dug as needed, filling the long gap between the last of the stored roots and the first of the spring greens. The flour-and-vinegar bath prescribed here is the standard blanc of French practice, applied in the same way to salsify, cardoons and artichoke bottoms, all of them vegetables that darken the moment a knife touches them.