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Puree of Turnips

A smooth puree made from boiled turnips, cream, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,252 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Puree of Turnips

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and slice the turnips, then cook them in salted water until tender.

  2. Rub the cooked turnips through a colander into a saucepan.

Make the puree

  1. Stir in a roux, pepper, and salt.

  2. Dissolve a bit of baking soda in ½ cup of hot cream.

  3. Add the dissolved mixture to the turnip mixture.

  4. Remove from heat after it has boiled once.

  5. Beat in a frothed egg.

  6. Do not boil again.

Finish

  1. Set the saucepan in boiling water for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

  2. Optionally, add a few drops of onion juice for extra flavor.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Turnip + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together797 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 main body and bulk of the puree once mashed smooth.
Hot cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the puree a smooth, soft texture.
Roux
Thickens the puree by starch gelatinizing as it heats.
Egg
Sets with gentle heat to add structure and body to the puree.

The step that matters

Do not boil again after adding the egg. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated. Boiling the puree after the frothed egg is beaten in can make it grainy and split, so remove it from heat and hold it gently in the water bath.

Swap the turnip

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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