Rutabaga

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The rutabaga (from Swedish dialectal word rotabagge), swede (from Swedish turnip, being introduced from Sweden), or neep (from its Latin name Brassica napobrassica) is a root vegetable that originated as a cross between the cabbage and the turnip. The roots are prepared for human consumption in a variety of ways, and the leaves can be eaten as a leaf vegetable. The roots and tops are also used as winter feed for livestock, when they may be fed directly, or by allowing the animals to forage the plants in the field. Various European countries have a tradition of carving them into lanterns at halloween.

Video Rutabaga

Etymology

Rutabaga has many national and regional names. Rutabaga is the common North American term for the plant. This comes from the Swedish dialectal word rotabagge, from rot (root) + bagge (short, stumpy object). In the U.S., the plant is also known as Swedish turnip or yellow turnip.

The term swede (from "Swedish turnip") is used in many Commonwealth Nations, including much of England, Australia, and New Zealand. The name turnip is also used in parts of Northern and Midland England, the West Country (particularly Cornwall), Ireland, the Isle of Man, Manitoba, Ontario and Atlantic Canada. In Wales, according to region it is variously known as maip, rwden, erfin, swedsen or swejen in Welsh and as swede or turnip in English.

In Scotland, it is known as turnip, and in Scots as tumshie or neep (from Old English næp, Latin napus). Some areas of South-East Scotland, such as Berwickshire and Roxburghshire, still use the term baigie, possibly a derivative of the Swedish dialectal word rotabagge. The term turnip is also used for the white turnip (Brassica rapa ssp rapa).

Some will also refer to both swede and (white) turnip as just turnip (this word is also derived from næp). In North-East England, turnips and swedes are colloquially called snadgers, snaggers (archaic) or narkies. Rutabaga is also known as a 'moot' in the Isle of Man and the Manx Gaelic for turnip is 'napin'.

Its common name in Sweden is kålrot (literally "cabbage/kale root"). Similarly, in Denmark it is known as kålroe and kålrabi, while in Norway it is known as kålrabi or kålrot and in Estonia as kaalikas. In Denmark and Norway, kålrabi is sometimes confused with Swedish kålrabbi (kohlrabi). The Finnish term is lanttu. The Romanian term is nap. Rutabaga is known by many different regional names in German, of which Kohlrübe and Steckrübe are the most widespread and most commonly used in lists of ingredients.

Maps Rutabaga

History

The first known printed reference to the rutabaga comes from the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin in 1620, where he notes that it was growing wild in Sweden. It is often considered to have originated in Scandinavia or Russia. It is said to have been widely introduced to Britain around 1800, but it was recorded as being present in the royal gardens in England as early as 1669 and was described in France in 1700. It was asserted by Sir John Sinclair in his Husbandry of Scotland to have been introduced to Scotland around 1781-1782. An article on the topic in The Gardeners' Chronicle suggests that the rutabaga was then introduced more widely to England in 1790. Introduction to North America came in the early 19th century with reports of rutabaga crops in Illinois as early as 1817.

Botanical history

Rutabaga has a complex taxonomic history. The earliest account comes from the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin, who wrote about it in his 1620 Prodromus. Brassica napobrassica was first validly published by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 work Species Plantarum as a variety of B. oleracea: B. oleracea var. napobrassica. It has since been moved to other taxa as a variety, subspecies, or elevated to species rank. In 1768, a Scottish botanist elevated Linnaeus' variety to species rank as Brassica napobrassica in The Gardeners Dictionary, which is the currently accepted name.

Rutabaga has a chromosome number of 2n = 38. It originated from a cross between turnip (Brassica rapa) and Brassica oleracea. The resulting cross then doubled its chromosomes, becoming an allopolyploid. This relationship was first published by Woo Jang-choon in 1935 and is known as the Triangle of U.

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Human consumption

Finns cook rutabaga in a variety of ways: roasted, baked, boiled, as a flavor enhancer in soups, uncooked and thinly julienned as a side dish or in a salad, and as the major ingredient in the popular Christmas dish lanttulaatikko (swede casserole). Finns use rutabaga in most dishes that call for a root vegetable.

In Sweden and Norway, rutabaga is cooked with potato and sometimes carrot, and mashed with butter and either stock or, occasionally, milk or cream, to create a puree called rotmos (Swedish, literally: root mash) or kålrabistappe (Norwegian). Onion is occasionally added. In Norway, kålrabistappe is an obligatory accompaniment to many festive dishes, including smalahove, pinnekjøtt, raspeball and salted herring. In Sweden, rotmos is often eaten together with cured and boiled ham hock, accompanied by mustard. This classic Swedish dish is called fläsklägg med rotmos. In Wales, a similar mash produced using just potato and rutabaga is known as ponsh maip in the North-East of the country, as mwtrin on the Llyn peninsula and as stwnsh rwden in other parts.

In The Netherlands, rutabaga is traditionally served boiled and mashed. Adding mashed potatoes (and, in some recipes, similarly mashed vegetables or fruits) makes stamppot (English: mash pot), a dish often served alongside smoked sausage.

In Scotland, separately boiled and mashed, rutabagas (neeps) and potatoes are served as "neeps and tatties" ("tatties" being the Scots word for potatoes). In a traditional Burns supper, the main course of haggis (the Scottish national dish). Neeps mashed with carrots or potatoes is called clapshot. An Orkney variety of clapshot is made by addingadds onions. Regionally, neeps are a common ingredient in soups and stews.

In England, swede is boiled together with carrots and served either mashed or pureed with butter and ground pepper. The flavored cooking water is often retained for soup, or as an addition to gravy. Swede is an essential vegetable component of the traditional Welsh lamb broth called cawl and Irish stew as eaten in England. Swede is also a component of the popular condiment Branston Pickle. The swede is also one of the four traditional ingredients of the pasty originating in Cornwall.

In Canada they are considered winter vegetables, as along with similar vegetables they are able to be kept in a cold area or cellar for several months. They are primarily used as a side dish. They are also used as filler in foods such as mincemeat and Christmas cake.

In the US, rutabagas are mostly eaten as part of stews or casseroles, served mashed with carrots, or baked in a pasty. They are frequently found in the New England boiled dinner.

In Australia, swedes are used as a flavor enhancer in casseroles, stews and soups.

Rutabaga was once considered a food of last resort in both Germany and France due to its association with food shortages in World War I and World War II. Boiled stew with rutabaga and water as the only ingredients (Steckrübeneintopf) was a typical food in Germany during the famines and food shortages of World War I ("Steckrübenwinter" 1916/17) and between 1945 and 1949. As a result, many older Germans had unhappy memories of this food.

Phytochemistry

Rutabaga and other cyanoglucoside-containing foods (including cassava, maize (corn), bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, and lima beans) release cyanide, which is subsequently detoxified into thiocyanate. Thiocyanate inhibits thyroid iodide transport and, at high doses, competes with iodide in the organification process within thyroid tissue. Goitres may develop when there is a dietary imbalance of thiocyanate-containing food in excess of iodine consumption, and it is possible for these compounds to contribute to hypothyroidism. Yet, there have been no reports of ill effects in humans from the consumption of glucosinolates from normal amounts of Brassica vegetables. Glucosinolate content in Brassica vegetables is around one percent of dry matter. These compounds also cause the bitter taste of rutabaga.

As with watercress, mustard greens, turnip, broccoli and horseradish, human perception of bitterness in rutabaga is governed by a gene affecting the TAS2R bitter receptor, which detects the glucosinolates in rutabaga. Sensitive individuals with the genotype PAV/PAV (supertasters) find rutabaga twice as bitter as insensitive subjects (AVI/AVI). For the mixed type (PAV/AVI), the difference is not significant for rutabaga. As a result, sensitive individuals may find some rutabagas too bitter to eat.

Other chemical compounds that contribute to flavor and odor include glucocheirolin, glucobrassicanapin, glucoberteroin, gluconapoleiferin, and glucoerysolin. Several phytoalexins that aid in defense against plant pathogens have also been isolated from rutabaga, including three novel phytoalexins that were reported in 2004.

Rutabaga contains significant amounts of vitamin C: 100 g contains 25 mg, which is 30% of the daily recommended dose.

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Other uses

Livestock

The roots and tops of "swedes" came into use as a forage crop in the early nineteenth century, used as winter feed for livestock. They may be fed directly (chopped or from a hopper), or animals may be allowed to forage the plants directly in the field.

Halloween

People living in the British Isles have long carved turnips and often used them as lanterns to ward off harmful spirits. In the Middle Ages, rowdy bands of children roamed the streets in hideous masks carrying carved turnips known in Scotland as "tumshie heads". In modern times, turnips are often carved to look as sinister and threatening as possible, and are put in the window or on the doorstep of a house at Halloween to ward off evil spirits.

Since pumpkins became readily available in Europe in the 1980s, they have taken over this role to a large extent. In the Isle of Man, turnip lanterns are still carved at Hop-tu-Naa (Manx equivalent of Halloween), lit with a candle or electric torch, and carried from house to house by some children, with the accompanying Hop tu Naa song; hoping for money or treats of food. The smell of burning turnip is an evocative part of the event.

Festivals

The International Rutabaga Curling Championship takes place annually at the Ithaca Farmers' Market on the last day of the market season. This international annual event brings competitors from a number of countries to compete in the Turnip Toss (8 and under division) and the Rutabaga Curl ("Adult" division). The event commences with the eternal Brassica flame being presented, acquired from the flaming rutabaga atop Mt. Cruciferae in Greece. The Procession of the Athletes follows, with the Rutabaga Chorus being sung, the tossing of the first rutabaga, and then the competition gets going with contestants competing in rounds - the top three winners of each round going to the final curl. (www.rutabagacurl.com)

Askov, Minnesota, is the former "Rutabaga Capital of the World" and was a hub of rutabaga cultivation until A. Henriksen's rutabaga warehouse operation burned in the 1970s. The city of Askov is currently home of the annual Askov Fair and Rutabaga Festival, held during the fourth weekend of August.

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See also

• List of vegetables

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References

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External links

• Alternative Field Crops Manual: Rutabaga--Center for New Crops & Plant Products, Purdue University
• Smillie, Susan. "Are 'neeps' swedes or turnips?", The Guardian, 25 January 2010.

Source of article : Wikipedia