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Puree of Turnips, with Cream

A smooth puree of young white turnips blended with cream, butter, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Puree of Turnips, with Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the turnips by peeling and slicing them, then parboil until nearly tender.

  2. Drain the turnips and place them in a flat saucepan.

Make the puree

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then add the cream.

  2. Stir with a wooden spoon and reduce to the proper consistency.

Finish

  1. Before serving, stir in the butter.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Turnip + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Young white turnips
Form the bulk of the puree and give it its mild, earthy body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture as the puree reduces.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy finish and a rounder, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Reduce to the proper consistency. As water evaporates, the cream and turnip pulp thicken together. Stirring keeps the bottom from scorching, and stopping at the right point prevents a stiff, dry puree.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, nutmeg, cream, butter):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, nutmeg, cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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