This is an excellent way of dressing the vegetable when it is mild and finely grained; but its flavour otherwise is too strong to be agreeable. After they have been washed, wiped quite dry, and pared, slice the turnips nearly half an inch thick, and divide them into dice,. Just dissolve an ounce of butter for each half-pound of the turnips, put them in as flat as they can be, and stew them very gently indeed, from three quarters of an hour to a full hour. Add a seasoning of salt and white pepper when they are half done. When thus prepared, they may be dished in the centre of fried or nicely broiled mutton cutlets, or served by themselves.
For a small dish: turnips, 1-1/2 lb.; butter, 3 oz.; seasoning of white pepper; salt, 1/2 teaspoonful, or more: 3/4 to 1 hour. Large dish: turnips, 2 lbs.; butter 4 oz.
TURNIPS IN GRAVY.
To a pound of turnips sliced and cut into dice, pour a quarter of a pint of boiling veal gravy, add a small lump of sugar, some salt and cayenne, or white pepper, and boil them quickly from fifty to sixty minutes. Serve them very hot.
TO BOIL CARROTS.
Wash the mould from them, and scrape the skin off lightly with the edge of a sharp knife, or, should this be objected to, pare them as thin and as equally as possible; in either case free them from all blemishes, and should they be very large, divide them, and cut the thick parts into quarters; rinse them well, and throw them into plenty of boiling water with some salt in it. The skin of very young carrots may be rubbed off like that of new potatoes, and from twenty to thirty minutes will then be sufficient to boil them; but at their full growth they will require from an hour and a half to two hours. It was formerly the custom to tie them in a cloth, and to wipe the skin from them with it after they were dressed; and old-fashioned cooks still use one to remove it; but all vegetables should, we think, be dished and served with the least possible delay after they are ready for table. Melted butter should accompany boiled carrots.
Very young carrots, 20 to 30 minutes. Full-grown ones, 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
CARROTS. (ENTRÉE.)
(The Windsor Receipt.)
Select some good carrots of equal size, and cut the upper parts into even lengths of about two inches and a half, then trim one end of each into a point, so as to give the carrot the form of a sugar loaf.[[111]] When all are ready, throw them into plenty of ready-salted boiling water, and boil them three quarters of an hour. Lift them out, and drain them well, then arrange them upright, and all on a level in a broad stewpan or saucepan, and pour in good hot beef-broth or veal gravy to half their height; add as much salt as may be needed, and a small teaspoonful of sugar, and boil them briskly for half an hour, or longer, should they require it. Place them again upright in dishing them, and keep them hot while a little good brown gravy is thickened to pour over them, and mixed with a large teaspoonful of parsley and a little lemon-juice; or sauce them with common béchamel (see Chapter [V].), or white sauce, with or without the addition of parsley.