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Turnips a LA Bechamel

A casserole of boiled turnips mixed with bechamel sauce, topped with whipped egg whites and baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,842 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turnips a LA Bechamel

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the turnips

  1. Wash and peel the turnips, then cut them into quarters.

  2. Place the turnips in a saucepan with cold water and a pinch of salt, then bring to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, strain the turnips and rinse them in cold water.

  4. Transfer the turnips to a saucepan of boiling salted water and boil until tender.

  5. Drain thoroughly and wring them dry in a strong cloth.

  6. Rub the turnips through a wire sieve into a saucepan.

Make the puree

  1. Add butter, cream, white pepper, and salt to the puree, then sift in the flour.

  2. Stir with a wooden spoon until boiling.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a deep fireproof dish and pour the puree into it.

  2. Pour 2 tablespoons of cream over the puree.

  3. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff, then pipe them over the top of the puree.

  4. Place the dish in a tin of boiling water and bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the egg is golden.

  5. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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 main bulk of the puree, providing body and a mild, sweet flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the puree.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the casserole soft and creamy.
Fine flour
Thickens the puree as it boils, giving it a stable, spoonable texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam, they set in the oven to form a light, golden topping.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks, because the foam's air traps and sets in the oven to create the light topping; under-whipped whites will collapse and become dense.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, sauce, butter, cream, flour, egg, parsley. 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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