[Sca-cooks] Cooking Turnips

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach jenne at fiedlerfamily.net:
>Is this a regional problem? Most people around here like turnips, at least
>armored, without having them treated like potentially poisonous greens
>such as pokeweed. Could there be different species of turnips? or
>something?
>
>I mean, yes, turnips here in PA (and in NY where I grew up) taste
>different than potatoes-- tangier. But not acrid! Acrid is the smell you
>get when you burn the bottom out of your tea kettle by letting it boil
>dry.
>
>Or are some people just really sensitive to the difference between turnips
>and the blandness of white potatoes?
>
>What about parnsips?

Well, parsnips can be strongly flavored, but that sharp
cabbage/mustard/radish thing isn't really what they suggest. More in
the carrot/parsley area.

It may simply be what people are used to. For example, when cooking
eggplant, I like to remove the bitterness by salting the raw slices
until a lot of the bitter juices have been exuded, then gently fry,
broil, or grill them, and then proceed with whatever the recipe calls
for. Then I bury them in a steel-reinforced concrete bunker and eat
something else, in order to be absolutely sure to avoid the last
traces of the nasty, bitter flavor.

Turnips, OTOH, I have no problem with. Yeah, they're a little sharp,
but also very sweet. It's just that the slight sharpness I detect in
turnips (or the abominable slimy bitterness of eggplant) comes across
differently to different people.

Another factor to bear in mind is that when some Americans say
"turnip" they really mean "rutabaga"; often when these people (again,
this is a regional thing, I think) taste real white turnips, they're
surprised by their non-awfulness.

Hmmm. Turnip gratin with mascarpone and a bit of gouda...

Adamantius
--
"No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes
deserves to be called a scholar."
	-DONALD FOSTER