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Turnips
Boil until tender; mash and season with butter, pepper, salt, and a little rich milk or cream. Serve with mutton.
A two-line recipe that assumes you know what turnips do in water. The only real technique here is getting the water out before the butter goes in.
- Which turnipIn an American book of this period "turnips" usually means the white purple-topped kind, not swede or rutabaga. Both mash well; swede takes longer and gives a sweeter, orange purée.
- TimingPeeled and cut into 1-inch pieces, turnips are tender in 15-20 minutes at a simmer. Whole they can take 40 minutes and cook unevenly, so cut them.
- Drain hardThis is the hinge. Turnips hold far more water than potatoes, and mashed straight from the pot they go soupy. Drain, then return to the dry pan over low heat for a minute or two, shaking, until the steam stops coming off.
- "Rich milk"The term is loose, but it generally meant unskimmed milk with its cream still in it, richer than today's whole milk. Warm it before adding, and use it sparingly for the reason above.
- SeasoningTurnips need more salt than you expect and take well to a grating of nutmeg or a spoonful of the mutton pan juices, though the original asks for neither.
- QuantityNo yield is given. Reckon about 2 lb of trimmed turnips, 2 tablespoons butter and 2-3 tablespoons cream for four people alongside a roast.
- Serving with muttonTurnip and mutton is a long-standing pairing, and the slight bitterness works against the fat of mutton. With lamb, which is milder, the dish can taste sharp -- a little more butter balances it.
Turnips were a winter staple long before they were a side dish, one of the roots that kept in a cellar or clamp from autumn until spring and fed both people and stock. The pairing with mutton is British and very old, carried into American cookbooks like this one along with the boiled-and-mashed treatment; in Scotland the same idea survives as "neeps" beside haggis. The Home Cook Book was compiled in Chicago in the 1870s from recipes contributed by local subscribers, and the turnip gets only these two lines -- written as a reminder rather than an instruction.