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To Boil Turnip Tops
123 702. Gather young turnip tops in the spring, wash and drain well, put them into plenty of boiling water, with a little salt; boil for twenty minutes, or a little longer; then take them out and serve plain after draining them, or chop them fine, and mix them with a little butter, pepper, and salt.
Turnip tops are the leafy shoots and flowering stems of the turnip, sold today as turnip greens or, in Italian markets, as cima di rapa. The method is sound; only the timing belongs firmly to the nineteenth century.
- Cut the boiling timeTwenty minutes turns the leaves to khaki sludge and drives off most of the flavour. Young tops need three to five minutes in fast-boiling water; thicker stems and buds, six to eight. Older, coarser greens gathered late may genuinely want fifteen, which is likely what the original assumes.
- Plenty of water, and keep it movingThe instruction is not padding. A large volume of hard-boiling salted water returns to the boil quickly and keeps the greens green; a crowded pan stews them and dulls the colour.
- Salt level"A little salt" understates it. Salt the boiling water generously, and the greens will need less seasoning afterwards than the recipe implies.
- Drain hardTurnip tops hold a surprising amount of water in their crevices. Press them in the colander or the butter will slide off into a grey puddle on the dish.
- BitternessSpring tops taken before flowering are mild. Anything cut after the buds open is markedly bitter, and blanching in a first change of water tames it if that is not what you want.
- QuantityGreens collapse to a fraction of their raw bulk, so allow a generous handful of untrimmed tops per person as a side dish.
- The buttered versionChopping and dressing with butter, pepper and salt is the better treatment for stringy stems, since chopping cuts the fibres short. Do it in the warm pan off the heat so the butter melts without frying.