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Stuffed Turnips
Choose turnips all of one size, peel them, cut off the tops and scoop out their insides. Chop fine two onions and enough mutton to fill the turnips, stir in with it two tablespoonfuls of well-washed rice, one tablespoonful of chopped parsley and a small quantity each of salt and pepper. Mix all these items together well. Stuff the turnips with the mixture, replace their tops, thus forming lids, place them in a saucepan, moisten to their height with broth, put in a small lump of salt and stew them gently till tender. Pour in one wineglassful of malt vinegar and one tablespoonful of powdered sugar, and finish cooking them. Arrange the turnips tastefully in a group in the center of a hot dish, pour the remainder of their cooking stock around them, and serve.
A dolma in root-vegetable form, and one of the easier stuffed dishes to bring off provided the turnips are firm and the rice has room to swell. The sweet-sour finish goes in late, and the reason matters.
- Vinegar goes in last for a reasonAcid slows the softening of both rice and turnip flesh. Stew until the turnips yield to a skewer before adding the vinegar and sugar, or they will be slow to soften afterwards.
- A wineglassfulRoughly 2 fluid ounces, about 1/4 cup. Malt vinegar at that quantity against a saucepan of broth is assertive; taste the liquid before committing all of it, since modern malt vinegar runs 5 percent acidity.
- Choosing the turnipsPurple-top turnips of about 3 inches across, roughly 6 oz each, hollow out neatly and hold their shape. Larger ones are more likely to be woody at the core and stronger in flavour. Leave a wall about 1/2 inch thick so they do not collapse in the stewing.
- Rice quantityTwo tablespoons of raw rice will roughly triple, so it is a binder for the meat rather than a bulk filler. Pack the stuffing loosely or the lids will lift off as it expands.
- MuttonMature sheep, stronger and fattier than lamb, is not sold in most American markets. Ground lamb shoulder is the closest substitute; the shoulder fat is what keeps the filling from going dry in a wet stew.
- "Powdered sugar"In this period the phrase means finely ground granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Use ordinary granulated.
- The salt lumpSalt was still sold in blocks and lumps in this period, though "a small lump" may mean no more than a small quantity. Season the broth to taste, remembering it will reduce and concentrate.
- Vessel and heatA wide saucepan or braiser that holds the turnips in a single layer, lids upward. Barely simmering, covered; the recipe gives no timing, so test with a skewer from about 30 minutes on, then allow a further 10 minutes or so after the vinegar goes in.
- YieldThe recipe gives no count; the filling quantities suggest something in the order of six to eight turnips, enough for four as a main course with bread or six as a side. The cooking liquid is the sauce, so reduce it if it looks thin.
Stuffed vegetables in a sweet-sour braise are a Levantine and Ottoman habit, and the pairing of mutton, rice, parsley and a vinegar-and-sugar finish is often said to be the signature of that tradition. Turnips took the role that vine leaves, courgettes or quinces play elsewhere, being cheap and available all winter in the northern European kitchen garden. Oscar Tschirky's book of 1896 is deliberately encyclopedic: it gathers hundreds of vegetable dishes of every national origin. That a turnip dish this frankly domestic appears alongside terrapin and canvasback duck says something about how broad the Waldorf's repertoire had to be.