From Edible South Shore
When I was young, my Uncle Bob said that Thanksgiving was the holiday that you pulled everything up out of the ground by its roots, boiled them to death, beat them to a pulp and dressed them with salt, pepper and butter, the Holy Trinity of New England sauces. And so it was with potatoes and carrots and parsnips and turnips. (The onions however always got creamed.)
But what kinds of roots were around in Plymouth in 1621? “All sorts of roots and herbs in gardens grow, parsnips, carrots, turnips, or what you’ll sow, onions, melons, cucumbers, radishes, skirrets, beets, coleworts, and fair cabbages.” -1654. Bradford, William. Verses. (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 11)
Notice – no potatoes. Interesting.
Cooks centuries ago DID cook and mash roots with butter, salt and pepper, but they also did some more interesting things that bear re-visiting.
“Young, small turnips should be cooked in water without wine for the first boiling. Then throw away the water and cook slowly in water and wine, and chestnuts therin, or, if one has no chestnuts, sage.” -Le Menagier de Paris, translated and reprinted in Pleyn Delight, by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler (University of Toronto Press, 1996).
This fourteenth century French recipe is a nice easy way to make some really tasty turnips. The par-boil takes away any bitterness that they have, and the long simmer with wine – or vinegar and sugar – compliments the sweetness of the turnip. Sage is an interesting substitute for chestnuts; fresh sage is best, and if you use dried – a little goes a long way.
Turnips with chestnuts or sage
Turnip
Salt
Wine (or vinegar and sugar)
Chestnuts, roasted or boiled and peeled, or Sage
Wash and peel the turnips. If they are larger than hen’s eggs, cut them into pieces. Cover with water, add some salt and bring to a boil. Boil about 10 minutes. Toss the water out. Add fresh water, some wine OR sugar and vinegar (this is the wine substitute in the 17th century), and chopped chestnuts or sage and continue cooking gently until the flavors merge and mellow.
–Kathleen M Wall
Plimoth Plantation
www.plimoth.org
Presumably, if the vinegar/sugar alternative was used in the 17th century, it would have been maple sugar! If they used sweet wine, it might have been Malmsey, which had been imported to England since the middle ages, and might have been brought over with the colonists.