Skirret ✦

Chervis

What it is

The English name comes from the Middle English skirwhit, white root, and Pliny records skirret as the vegetable the Emperor Tiberius had sent to him every year out of Germany. It held European gardens through the Middle Ages until the potato took its place, and what it lost on was labour: each plant yields a fistful of thin fingers around a woody core that has to come out.

In the kitchen

Boil the whole cluster 15 minutes first, then slip the skins and pull the fibrous core from each finger, because peeling raw is impossible and wastes half the root. Finish in butter and cream; the sweetness is already there.

Goes with

Butter Cream Nutmeg Honey Parsley Chicken Hazelnut

In season alongside

Borlotti bean Brussels sprout Butternut squash Cauliflower Earth chestnut Jerusalem artichoke

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