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Turnips
Wash, peel, cut in thin slices across the grain, and place in kettle in as little water as possible; boil from half to three-quarters of an hour or until you can easily pierce them with a fork; drain well, season with salt, pepper and butter, mash fine and place on stove, stirring frequently until water is all dried out. Do not boil too long, as they are much sweeter when cooked quickly. Turnips may be steamed and finished as above, and are better than when boiled. They may also be sliced and baked.
A plain mashed turnip, and the method still works. The instruction that matters is the last one: drying the mash out over heat before it goes to the table.
- Dry the mashTurnips hold a great deal of water, and a wet mash tastes thin no matter how much butter goes in. Keep it over low heat, stirring, until it stops steaming heavily and pulls away from the sides of the pan.
- Which turnipThe recipe says only "turnips"; in this period that most often meant the small white purple-topped kind rather than rutabaga (swede), which is denser and yellow-fleshed and generally needs longer to cook. Rutabaga also mashes sweeter and coarser.
- Cooking timeHalf to three-quarters of an hour is long for young turnips cut in thin slices; they will be fork-tender in 15 to 20 minutes. Older, larger roots and rutabaga will use the longer end of the range.
- "Across the grain"Slice crosswise through the root rather than lengthwise, so the fibres are cut short. It matters most with big late-season turnips, which can be stringy.
- As little water as possibleAn inch in the pan, covered, is enough — this is closer to steaming than boiling, which is why the recipe rightly says steaming is better. Turnip flavour leaches into the water readily.
- SeasoningSeason after draining, as directed, and be generous with salt; turnip is bland and slightly bitter without it. A pinch of sugar or a spoonful of cream is not called for here but suits the mash.
- Baked, as mentionedThe book gives no temperature or time for the sliced-and-baked variation. In a modern oven, around 375°F for about 45 minutes, covered for the first half, gives tender slices with browned edges.
- YieldAbout 2 lb of turnips serves four as a side dish and reduces considerably once the water is driven off.
Turnips were a staple of the American winter cellar long before they were a choice, cheap and reliably storable through months when little else was available; the 19th-century cook met them constantly. The Dixie Cook Book, compiled in the 1880s from the same editorial stable as the widely reprinted Buckeye Cookery, treats them in the workmanlike register these vegetable chapters use throughout: wash, cut, cook, season, and a line or two on the variations worth knowing. The note that turnips "are much sweeter when cooked quickly" is a genuine observation rather than a flourish — long boiling in plenty of water pulls out sugars and leaves behind the sulphurous edge that gave the root its reputation. The writer prefers steaming to boiling.