[Sca-cooks] period mashed turnips

[Philippa Alderton]

--- "Mark.S Harris" <mark.s.harris at motorola.com>
wrote:

> Perhaps just a personal preferance, perhaps it's
> just that I've not
> had turnips cooked right. But they've always had
> this bitterish
> taste to them. Some have said that choosing only the
> smallest,
> youngest turnips will minimize this. I've not tried
> making this
> myself. It may also be that I'm really looking for a
> potato substitute.

Well, Stefan, a lot of foods related to the cabbage
family have a bitter taste to some folks- dunno if
turnips are related, but cabbage, brussel sprouts and
broccoli all are (Bear? Can you check if turnips are
part of them, too?) The bitter taste is to a specific
chemical in the family of cruciferous veggies, to
which some folks react, and others don't- it's so well
known that the reaction is used as a genetic marker,
and taught as an experiment in Freshman biology
classes.

But as to your reaction to turnips- they tasre bitter
to me, too, but I happen to like the flavour. When
serving them to people who are unfamiliar with them,
though, I usually add a bit of sugar- that seems to
cut the bitterness for most people.

Here's a recipe from some modern country folks you
might try- it's fairly inexpensive for a one-pot meal,
and tastes good on cold New England days like I'm
facing now.

Pork chops and turnips (designed for one person)

1-2 turnips
1/4 head of cabbage
1-2 pork chops
celery seed
sugar
butter
pepper (or my favorite)
Mrs Dash

Cut turnips into bitesize chunks, either quarters or
eighths, and scatter on the bottom of a small(modern,
not cast iron) frying pan, and sprinkle with sugar- a
teaspoon or two, not a lot. Coarse chop cabbage and
place on top, in an even layer. Sprinkle with celery
seed and dot with butter. Lay pork chops on top,
fitting to cover as much of the pan as possible, pour
a tablespoon or so of water (again, not a lot- you
just want to keep things damp until the veggies give
up their own juices) on surface to dampen and trickle
into the pan, and sprinkle with pepper or Mrs Dash to
usual preferences. Cover all with a fairly tight lid
or tin foil, and put on a low heat. Go do smething
else for 45 minutes or an hour, just checking once or
twice to make sure you have it on enough heat to cook
without burning it- your stove's simmer setting is
what you want.

You can easily expand this recipe for 2 or four
people, depending on how big your frying pans are- the
basic idea is to keep the depth of veggies and meat to
a couple of inches, and basicly cover the veggies with
one layer on meat so the meat steams and releases its
juices into the veggies below, while they are making
their own juice. You can add a few carrots or parsnips
or whatever if you slice them thinly and keep the
thickness of the whole dish down- this is just the
basic recipe, which I use as a base.

And, folks, I'm going into more detail here than I
normally would, specificly for Stefan, who is a
beginning cook ;-) although a well experienced and
loved archivist ;-)

Phlip

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