Turnips with Potatoes

The instruction depends entirely on a recipe that is no longer in front of you: turnips peeled, boiled in salted water until tender, drained and mashed with butter, salt and pepper. Everything that follows is about controlling water.

• What "the foregoing recipe" meansThe preceding entry is not reproduced here, but a plain mashed turnip of this kind would run: peel turnips thickly, cut into even chunks, and boil in salted water until a knife goes through without resistance, roughly 20-30 minutes depending on size. Drain very well before mashing, with butter and seasoning to taste.
• The hinge: dry the turnipTurnip carries far more water than potato, and undrained mash turns the whole dish to soup. After draining, return the chunks to the dry hot pan over low heat for a minute or two and let the steam go off before you mash.
• Equal quantity, measured howThe phrase attaches to the mashed potato, so read it as an equal quantity of finished mash rather than equal raw weight. Roughly 1 lb of raw turnip to 1 lb of raw potato will get you near enough in practice.
• Both hot, or neitherThe recipe specifies hot mashed potatoes for good reason. Cold potato mash stiffens and beats into a gluey mass; combine the two while both are still steaming and fold rather than whip.
• Which turnip"Turnip" in older recipes may mean either the yellow swede (sold in North America as rutabaga), which is sweeter and denser, or the small white summer turnip; the text does not say which. Either works, but white turnips are wetter and need the drying step more.
• SeasoningThe potato dilutes whatever seasoning went into the turnip, so taste and correct salt and pepper after combining. A grating of nutmeg or a spoonful of cream would not be out of place.
• Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; on the rough proportions above, two pounds of raw vegetable would serve four to six as a side. The heated dish is not decoration -- this mash cools fast and thickens as it does.