No. 2847

Turnips Glazed

Navets Glaces

Prepare some cylindricals of turnips one inch in diameter and one and a half inches long, having them beveled on both ends; blanch these in salted water, refresh and when well drained put them into a frying pan containing very hot butter. Color and season with salt and a pinch of sugar; drain once more, then place them in a sautoir and moisten with broth (No. 194a). When cooked the liquid should be reduced to a glaze.

← No. 2846 Truffle Timbale a la Perigord Carrots, Beets & Root Vegetables No. 2848 Turnips. with Spanish, Bechamel or Allemande →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a two-stage glaze: the turnips are browned in butter first, then finished in broth until the liquid reduces to a coating. The shaping is decorative but the blanching is functional.

The hingeThe liquid must reduce to a syrupy film clinging to the turnips, not evaporate to nothing. Add broth to come about halfway up the pieces, keep it at a bare simmer uncovered, and swirl the pan at the end; if it dries out before the turnips are tender, add a splash more.
SautoirA shallow straight-sided pan, wide enough to hold the turnips in a single layer. A 10-inch skillet or saute pan does the job. Crowding them in two layers means uneven glazing.
"Refresh"Plunge the blanched turnips into cold water to stop the cooking, then drain thoroughly. Wet turnips will steam rather than color in the butter, so let them dry on a towel.
Cylindricals, beveledRanhofer wants a cylinder with both ends beveled, close kin to the knife-turned (tourne) shapes of the French kitchen, cut with a small knife from thick slices of a large turnip. Skipping it costs you nothing in flavor; 1-inch chunks or halved baby turnips glaze the same way, though they cook faster.
Broth No. 194aRanhofer's cross-reference is to one of his plain broths. Any unsalted or lightly salted chicken or veal stock works; avoid heavily reduced or salty commercial broth, since the reduction will concentrate whatever salt is in it.
The pinch of sugarNot for sweetness but to help the glaze take on color and gloss. Purple-top turnips can be sharp, but the recipe says a pinch: a generous pinch, roughly a quarter teaspoon for a pound of turnips, is the scale intended.
Timing and yieldBlanch 3-4 minutes, brown 4-5 minutes, then 10-15 minutes in the broth until a knife slides in with no resistance. A pound of trimmed turnips serves four as a side.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) codified the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef for over thirty years, and its vegetable chapters are essentially French practice written out in English. Navets glaces belongs to a family of glazed root vegetables — carrots, onions, chestnuts, turnips — that were standard garnishes for braised and roasted meats, and turnips in particular were the traditional partner to duck and mutton in French cooking. The insistence on turning each piece into an identical beveled cylinder reflects a period in which uniformity of shape was itself a mark of a professional kitchen.