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Turnips, Large, Stuffed

Turnips are boiled, hollowed, filled with a butter, flour, and cream mixture, then baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,874 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Turnips, Large, Stuffed

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turnips

  1. Boil the turnips until tender, about 45 minutes to 1.5 hours.

  2. Drain the turnips and cut a slice from the top of each.

  3. Scoop out the middle of the turnips and place the pulp in a bowl.

Fill and bake

  1. Beat the pulp with butter, flour, pepper, salt, cream, and egg yolk.

  2. Fill the hollowed turnips with the mixture and replace the tops.

  3. Brush the turnips with beaten egg.

  4. Brown the turnips in a 400°F (200°C) oven or in front of the fire.

  5. Serve very hot.

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 + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smooth, savoury flavour.
Flour
Thickens the mashed turnip pulp so the filling holds its shape.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, making the filling softer and creamier.
Egg yolk
Binds the filling and helps it set gently while cooking.
Egg
Brushed on the outside, it promotes browning and a glossy finish.

The step that matters

Brown the turnips in a 400°F (200°C) oven or in front of the fire.. Turnips are already cooked, so the goal is only to set the filling and brown the surface. Too little heat leaves the filling loose, while too much can dry the edges and scorch the egg.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Turnipthe original

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