Garden Parsnip - (Pastinaca sativa)

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Garden Parsnip - (Pastinaca sativa) JoAnn Guest Jan 19, 2005 20:55 PST

Medicinal Action and Uses

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/p/parsni12.html#recsou

 

Recipes

---Synonyms---(French) Le Panais. (German) Die Pastinake.

---Part Used---Root.

 

---Habitat---The Wild Parsnip is a native of most parts of Europe,

growing chiefly in calcareous soils, by the wayside and on the borders

of fields.

---

The food value of Parsnips exceeds that of any other vegetable except

potatoes.

The Parsnip, together with the carrot, was cultivated by the Ancients.

The finest strain raised by Professor Buckrnan, between 1848 and 1850,

as a result of his experiments in selection, was named by him the

'Student,' and having been further improved, still takes the first rank.

It differs in several respects from the wild plant.

 

According to Pliny, Parsnips were held in such repute by the Emperor

Tiberius that he had them annually brought to Rome from the banks of the

Rhine, where they were then successfully cultivated. They are dressed in

various ways and are much eaten with saltfish during Lent.

 

In Holland, Parsnips are used in soups, whilst in Ireland cottagers make

a beer by boiling the roots with water and hops, and afterwards

fermenting the liquor. A kind of marmalade preserve has also been made

from them, and even wine which in quality has been said to approach the

famed Malmsey of Madeira.

 

Parsnip 'seeds' as the fruit is commonly called, are pleasantly

aromatic, and were formerly collected for their melicinal value and sold

by herbalists.

 

They contain an essential oil that has the reputation of " curing "

intermittent fever.

A strong decoction of the root is a good diuretic and assists in

removing obstructions of the viscera.

It has been employed as a remedy for jaundice and gravel.

 

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Culpepper wrote:

'The wild Parsnip differeth little from the garden, but groweth not so

fair and large, nor hath so many leaves, and the root is shorter, more

woody and therefore, more medicinal.

 

The Garden Parsnip nourisheth much and is good and wholesome, but a

little windy, but it fatteneth the body if much used. It is good for the

stomach and reins and provoketh urine.

 

The wild Parsnip hath a cutting, attenuating, cleansing and opening

quality therein.

It easeth the pains and stitches in the sides and expels the wind from

the stomach and bowels, or colic. The root is often used, but the seed

much more, the wild being better than the tame.'

 

Gerard, speaking of its uses as a vegetable, observes:

'The Parsneps nourish more than do the Turneps or the Carrots, and the

nourishment is somewhat thicker, but not faultie nor bad.... There is a

good and pleasant foode or bread made of the rootes of Parsneps, as my

friend Master Plat hath set foorth in his booke of experiments.'

 

Tournefort, in The Compleat Herbal (1730), wrote of Parsnips, that:

'they are commonly boiled and eaten with butter in the time of Lent; for

that they are the sweetest, by reason the juice has been concocted

during the winter, and are desired at that season especially, both for

their agreeable Taste and their Wholesomeness.

 

For they are not so good in any respect, till they have been first nipt

with Cold. It is likewise pretty common of late to eat them with

salt-fish mixed with hard-boiled eggs and butter . . . and much the

wholesomer if you eat it with mustard.'

 

John Wesley, in his Primitive Physic, says:

'Wild parsnips both leaves and stalks, bruised, seem to have been a

favorite application; and a very popular internal remedy for cancer,

asthma, consumption and similar diseases.'

 

The roots are sweeter than carrots. They contain both sugar and starch,

and for this reason beer and spirits are sometimes prepared from them.

 

In the north of Ireland, they have been often brewed with malt instead

of hops and fermented with yeast, the result being a pleasant drink, and

Parsnip wine, when properly made, is esteemed by many people.

 

Parsnips are not only a valuable item of human food, but equal, if not

superior to carrots for fattening pigs, making the flesh white, and

being preferred by pigs to carrots.

Washed and sliced and given with bran, horses eat them readily and

thrive on them. In Brittany and the Channel Islands, they are largely

given to cattle and pigs, and milch cows fed on them in winter are said

to give as much and as good milk, and yield butter as well-flavoured as

when feeding on grass in May and June.

--

 

RECIPES

 

To prepare Parsnip Soup, scrape and cut Up 2 large Parsnips or 4 small

ones, and wash them carefully. Peel 6 large potatoes and boil them with

the Parsnips in a quart of water.

When soft, mash and pass through a sieve. Boil up again in the water

and pour on to slices of bread in the tureen, adding 2 OZ. of butter.

The addition of a little cream, in more favourable times, of course

makes the soup more savoury.

 

---Stewed Parsnips----

Wash, peel and cut 3 Parsnips into slices, then boil them till they are

nearly done, drain them and let them cool. Melt 2 or 3 OZ. bacon fat in

a stewpan; when hot, fry the Parsnips to a light brown colour. Next add

a tablespoonful of flour and moisten with sufficient brown stock just to

cover the Parsnips. Season with salt and pepper, and 1 or 2

tablespoonsful of tomato sauce. Bring to the boil and let the Parsnips

simmer slowly for another 20 minutes. Dish up and serve with the

prepared sauce.

 

---Parsnip Cakes---

Parsnips mashed with a little butter and pepper and salt, and then

dipped into flour and formed into small, round cakes, are nice if fried

in lard, dripping or bacon fat.

 

---Parsnip Salad---

Plainly-boiled Parsnips, when cold, make an excellent salad. Slice the

Parsnips, not too thinly, and season with salt and pepper, and mix with

a simple French oil and vinegar salad dressing.

 

---Parsnip Wine---

Take 15 lb. of sliced Parsnips, and boil until quite soft in 5 gallons

of water; squeeze the liquor well out of them, run it through a sieve

and add 3 lb. of coarse lump sugar to every gallon of liquor. Boil the

whole for 3/4 hour. When it is nearly cold, add a little yeast on toast.

Let it remain in a tub for 10 days, stirring it from the bottom every

day; then put it into a cask for a year. As it works over, fill it up

every day.

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

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