TURN YOUR TURNIPS INTO KRAUT

Enlarge Image Image Gallery TOP: Handle in hand, Ott shreds a turnip. LEFT.The spaghetti-like strands that come out are several feet long! ABOVE: Shreds, salt, water, and a bit of processing will equal . .. turnip kraut! PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR

by Kelly Farrens

You don't have to eat this root crop "boiled, boiled, or boiled"; not if you boldly . ..

Turnips are a boon to the self-reliant gardener. The leaves are vitamin-packed and delicious, and the mineral-rich roots can easily be stored over the winter in a cool basement or root cellar. (Just cut the tops off to within half an inch of the roots and sink the turnips into boxes filled with either moist sand or sawdust.)

Sad to say, though, Brassica rapa does have an "image problem": Few root crops are as devoid of glamour as the lowly turnip. While its garden mate the potato can end up in such high-class dishes as vichyssoise, and carrots even make it into cake . . . the turnip is usually served boiled or maybe-on special occasions-mashed. Recently, however, O.W. "Ott" Bogner of Crofton, Nebraska, a man who knows a lot about food preparation (he owned a steakhouse and lounge for 37 years), taught me a whole new way to process this vegetable . . . making turnip kraut!

SAUER RUBEN

"A Kentucky friend gave me this recipe a number of years ago," Ott says, "and I've been enjoying it ever since. In fact, that same friend constructed a dandy turnip shredder for me-one that gives me spaghetti-like strips-but you can use any kitchen tool with a shredding blade to prepare the roots."

First, Ott peels the turnips with an ordinary paring knife. Then he centers each root on his shredder and turns the handle ... and the blades cut the vegetable into long, continuous strings that spiral down into a clean washtub. Bogner puts these strips into quart canning jars.

"I prefer the wide-mouth type," he told me, "because they're easier to fill."

That done, the krautmaker cuts the turnip strings level with the top of each jar and adds one heaping teaspoon of pickling salt to every quart. Next, he fills the containers with hot tap water and puts the lids on loosely, so that the kraut can ferment. When the fixings are kept in a warm place (ideally 68° to 70°F), their "working" period lasts about six weeks,