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Creamed Salsify or Oyster Plant
Wash and scrape the salsify, throwing it immediately into cold water to which a little vinegar or lemon-juice has been added, to prevent discoloration. Cut in inch slices and cook in boiling water until tender, adding salt just before cooking is completed. When tender, drain and combine with medium white sauce. Serve with tiny fried sausage balls.
A plain vegetable dish that depends on two things: keeping the peeled root out of the air, and not letting the white sauce bury the flavor.
- The hinge: acidulated waterSalsify oxidizes to a dull gray-brown within a minute of scraping. Have a bowl of cold water with a tablespoon of vinegar or the juice of half a lemon standing ready before you touch the knife, and drop each piece in as it is cut.
- Buying itSold as salsify or oyster plant (Tragopogon porrifolius), a long tapering ivory root; the black-skinned scorzonera sold alongside it behaves the same way. Look for firm roots with no give. Allow around two pounds untrimmed to serve four.
- Cooking timeInch slices in boiling water take 20 to 30 minutes depending on thickness and age. Test with a knife tip rather than the clock. A little vinegar or lemon in the cooking water too keeps the pieces pale.
- Salt at the endThe recipe holds the salt back until cooking is nearly done, without saying why; late salting of vegetables was a common habit in cookbooks of this kind. It does no harm either way, but salting the water at the start seasons the salsify more evenly.
- Medium white sauceThe period standard is 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk, cooked until it coats a spoon. That is the right amount for a pound of drained salsify. Season with salt, white pepper and a scrape of nutmeg.
- The sausage ballsPinch bulk breakfast sausage into marble-sized balls and fry until browned through, about 8 minutes, draining them before they go on the plate. They are a garnish, not a component; a dozen is plenty for four servings.
- ServingServes four as a side dish. It holds badly, since the sauce thickens and the salsify softens on standing, so sauce it at the last moment.