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Browned Parsnips
1 quart parsnips 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons butter or bacon drippings 1/8 teaspoon pepper Wash, pare and cut parsnips into 1/2 inch slices. Cover with boiling water and boil until tender, 25 to 30 minutes; drain. Brown on greased griddle or frying pan. Season with salt and pepper.
A straightforward two-stage vegetable: boil, then brown. The only things needing translation are the volume measure and the modern habit of buying parsnips far larger than the ones this recipe assumes.
- A quart of parsnipsRoot vegetables were measured by volume in this period. A quart of half-inch slices is roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb of trimmed parsnips, or three to four medium roots -- enough for about four as a side.
- Core the big onesSupermarket parsnips are often much larger than the ones this recipe assumes, and large roots have a woody central core that tends to stay fibrous even when the outer flesh is tender. Quarter them lengthwise and cut the core out before slicing.
- Boiling timeTwenty-five to thirty minutes is long for half-inch slices and can leave them too soft to hold up on the griddle. Ten to fifteen minutes, until a knife meets slight resistance, keeps their shape.
- Bacon drippingsThe alternative fat brings its own flavour, and it browns more cleanly than butter because it has no milk solids to burn. If using butter, add a little neutral oil or use clarified butter.
- Dry before browningThis is the hinge. Drained parsnips carry surface water that will steam rather than sear. Let them sit in the colander a few minutes, or return them to the dry hot pan briefly, before they meet the fat.
- The griddleA cast-iron griddle or a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, slices in a single layer, undisturbed for three or four minutes a side. Crowding the pan is the usual reason browned parsnips come out pale and soft.
- Season at the endThe recipe holds the salt and pepper until after browning, which is where they work best on a crust.
Parsnips were a staple winter root in Britain and North America long before the potato displaced them, valued because frost in the ground converts some of their starch to sugar and makes them noticeably sweeter after the first hard freeze. That sweetness is exactly what browning exploits: the sugars caramelize on a hot griddle. Cookbooks of this era treated parsnips as an ordinary March vegetable, one of the few fresh things left in the root cellar at the end of a long winter. By the mid-twentieth century they had largely fallen out of the American repertoire, which is why a recipe this plain now reads as slightly unfamiliar.