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Scalloped Parsnips
A breakfast cup of mashed parsnips 1 ounce of butter 4 ounces bread crumbs Pepper and salt Boil the parsnips as in the preceding recipe, and when quite tender drain them well, and rub them through a sieve. Butter some scallops or one small French baking dish. Throw in some bread crumbs, and shake out all that do not stick to the butter. Take half the butter, and stir it into the mashed parsnips; if they are not hot enough to melt the butter, warm them on the stove or over the fire; season with pepper and salt, and put them either in the scallops or the little dish. Cover them with the bread crumbs. Break up the remainder of the butter into little bits, and put over the top. Brown in a hot oven.
A simple gratin of sieved parsnip under a buttered crumb crust. Everything goes into the dish already cooked, so the oven is only there to brown the top.
- A breakfast cupA breakfast cup is larger than a teacup, roughly 8 to 10 fl oz, so read it as a generous cup of mashed parsnip. Reckon on somewhere around a pound of parsnips before peeling and boiling.
- "Scallops"These are scallop shells or small individual gratin dishes, not the shellfish. Any set of shallow ramekins works; the recipe assumes a wide surface for the crumb topping.
- A hot ovenTake that as 425-450F. The contents are already cooked and hot, so the dish needs only 10 to 15 minutes to colour the crumbs and melt the butter dots.
- Breadcrumbs by weightFour ounces of crumbs is a lot against one cup of parsnip -- about two cups if they are soft fresh crumbs, nearer one cup if they are fine dry ones. Use enough for a covering layer and reserve the rest rather than burying the vegetable.
- Rubbing through a sieveParsnips have a fibrous core that mashing will not break down. Sieving is what gives the smooth texture here; a ricer or food mill does the same job faster. Cutting the core out of large roots before boiling reduces the work.
- Drain thoroughlyBoiled parsnip holds a surprising amount of water. Let it steam dry in the colander for a few minutes, or the purée will be loose and the crumb layer will go soggy from below.
- SeasoningParsnips are sweet and take salt and pepper heavily. A grating of nutmeg, or a little mustard, will lift it if the dish tastes flat.
- YieldServes two to three as a side dish, depending on the size of the scallops.
Parsnips were a staple winter root in Britain long before the potato displaced them, valued because frost sweetens them and they keep well in the ground through the cold months. The construction is that of a made dish rather than a plain vegetable: a starchy, sweet, filling root is bound with butter, seasoned sharply and given a browned crust. The instruction to butter the dish and shake out the loose crumbs is standard gratin practice, and gives the sides a thin crisp shell.