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Oyster Plant Beurre
Scrape and trim bunch of fresh oyster plants (salsify). Plunge them in cold water with 2 tablespoons vinegar for 5 minutes, drain and cut into inch-long pieces. Drop them in sauce pan with 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon salt and 1 1/2 qts. cold water. Cover and simmer for 40 minutes. Drain, and heat in frying pan with 1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter, 2 saltspoons salt and juice one-half lemon and 1 tablespoon minced parsley.
A straightforward salsify dish whose only unfamiliar step is the flour-and-water cooking liquid, which is there to keep the roots white rather than to thicken anything.
- Oyster plant is salsifyTragopogon porrifolius, a long tapered pale root sold at farmers' markets and some greengrocers in autumn and winter. Black-skinned scorzonera is a close relative and behaves the same way once peeled.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so the finishing salt is half a teaspoon in total. The tablespoon of salt in the cooking water is for the blanching liquid, which is drained away and discarded.
- The flour in the water is a blancSalsify oxidises to a dull grey within minutes of peeling. The flour-and-acid cooking liquid, a classic blanc, shields the cut surfaces and keeps the pieces ivory. Whisk the flour into a little cold water first or it will sit in lumps.
- Work fast when peelingPeel under running water or straight into the acidulated bath. The roots bleed a sticky white latex that darkens skin and blackens the flesh; a vegetable peeler and a bowl of vinegar water at your elbow is the whole technique.
- Check well before 40 minutesCooking time depends entirely on the thickness of the root. Modern salsify is often thin and can be tender in 20 to 25 minutes; test with a knife tip and drain the moment it gives, since overcooked salsify collapses into fibres.
- The finishing panThis is a butter and lemon toss, not a fry. Keep the heat moderate so the butter stays emulsified and does not brown, and add the lemon juice and parsley off the heat.
- YieldA bunch of salsify is untrimmed weight and loses a good deal to peeling. The recipe gives no yield, but a bunch of this sort would serve about four as a side.
Salsify is generally said to have taken the name oyster plant from a faint marine sweetness some cooks find in the cooked root, and nineteenth-century American seed catalogues traded on that comparison; mashed "mock oyster" fritters were a common use. It was a familiar kitchen-garden vegetable through the 1800s and early 1900s, valued because the roots could be left in the ground over winter and lifted as needed, and it later faded from American markets.