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Puree of Turnips

A creamy puree made from young turnips, onion, carrot, and milk, finished with butter, mace, egg yolks, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Puree of Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the puree

  1. Peel and slice some young turnips, add an onion and carrot sliced, cover with boiling water and cook until tender.

  2. Mash them in the water and press through a fine sieve.

  3. To a pint of the puree have a pint of boiling milk.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the puree to the fire, and stir into it a large heaping tablespoonful of butter and a small pinch of mace.

  2. Take the milk from the stove and stir briskly into it two egg yolks beaten with two tablespoonfuls of cream.

  3. Remove the puree from the stove and stir the eggs and milk into it, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

284Calories
15 gProtein
19 gFat
14 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Turnips (in the method)
Form the smooth body of the puree once cooked and pressed through a sieve.
Egg yolks
Thicken the puree gently and add richness when stirred in off the heat.
Milk
Loosens the puree and adds creaminess and body.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the egg mixture.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs and milk into the puree off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and scramble if overheated. Removing the puree from the stove before adding the egg mixture, and stirring briskly, keeps the texture smooth and creamy.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, egg, pepper. 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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