Pastinaca sativa, an umbelliferous plant which grows wild in Europe and W. Asia and has been cultivated to produce an edible root. (The root of the wild parsnip is small, woody, and inedible, but sweet and with a distinct parsnip aroma; so it could originally have been used as a flavouring. Cultivation for this purpose would have improved its size and led to edible forms.)
The earlier ancient writers did not distinguish between parsnips and carrots. The first name for ‘parsnip’ was the Latin pastinaca; but even as late as the 1st century ad Pliny the Elder was using this to mean ‘carrot’ as well. Later writings such as those of Apicius suggest that the Romans cultivated parsnips, and held them in some esteem. The English name ‘parsnip’ comes, through French, from pastinaca with the ending ‘nip’ to indicate that it was like a turnip.
In medieval Europe there was a dearth of sweeteners; sugar was a rare, imported luxury, and honey expensive. Moreover the potato, prolific source of starch, had not yet arrived from America. So the sweet, starchy parsnip was doubly useful and became a staple food. Besides being eaten as a vegetable it could be used as an ingredient in sweet dishes. Dorothy Hartley (1954) observes that parsnip has ‘the type of sweetness that mingles with honey and spice, so that some boiled plum and marrowfat puddings, flavoured with spice and sweetened with honey, were made with a parsnip base’.
As sugar became more readily available and with the gradual introduction of the potato, the standing of the parsnip in Europe waned. It is now eaten mainly in N. Europe, to only a moderate extent in Britain, and hardly at all in S. Europe. Nor has it gained much importance in other regions. Consumption in the USA is small. One of the reasons for such a generally half-hearted attitude is that the parsnip has a taste which, although not strong, is peculiar and not to everyone's liking. Its oddly semi-sweet quality makes it an awkward partner to other foods, although it goes very well with salt cod, for example. Large, old parsnips can be woody; even young ones tend to have a tough core which may be better discarded.
The parsnip is grown in colder climates, and is one of the few vegetables which is positively improved by frost. The effect of freezing the living root is to convert some of the starch into sugar. The plant can thus be left in the ground until needed.
Parsnips of modern varieties grow to 20–40 cm (8–15″) long, and need lengthy cooking, although less than carrots. Most of the flavour lies directly under the skin, so peeling is to be avoided. They may be cut into large chunks, parboiled, and finished by baking or braising; or steamed and mashed. Baking produces a crisp, brown, slightly caramelized outside which is agreeable; and parsnip ‘chips’ (US: French fries) are good.
‘Wild parsnip’ is a name sometimes used for an unrelated root, Cymopterus montanus, eaten by the Indians of the south-west of the USA and Mexico, where it is called ‘gamote’. The roots are peeled, baked, and ground into meal.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Hartley, Dorothy (1954), Food in England, London: Macdonald.
