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Puree of Turnips

A smooth puree of cooked turnips mixed with veal gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and veal are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,343 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenol, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Puree of Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the turnips.

Cook the turnips

  1. In a saucepan, combine the turnips, butter, and a pinch of salt.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the turnips look white.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add the veal gravy and simmer until thickened.

  2. Skim off any excess fat and strain the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Serve the pureed turnips in a dish and pour the gravy over them.

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. Turnip + vealtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,343 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  2. Butter + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Turnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,100 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Turnips
Form the bulk of the puree, providing the main body and mild flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky texture in the puree.
Veal gravy
Adds savoury depth and body, thickening into a sauce that coats the puree.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the turnips look white.. Stirring keeps the turnips from sticking and scorching on the pan base, which would add bitter, burnt flavours. Gentle heat lets them soften evenly so the puree strains smoothly.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Onionfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, veal. 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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