Stuffed Turnips.—B

Navets farcis B (stuffed turnips with semolina) teach the quiet discipline of matching a vessel to its filling. The turnip must become tender without collapsing while the semolina stays creamy beneath its Parmesan, so the one true thing to know is this: hollow every turnip to the same thickness. Uneven walls give you hard shoulders and broken bottoms in the same pan.

The book assumed a tray of matched turnips trimmed by practiced hands, a consommé pot never off the range, and brigade quantities moving through a broad sauté pan. At home, eight evenly sized turnips, a good prepared consommé, a melon baller, and one snug ovenproof pan do the same work. Decorative turning and service-scale mise en place are scaffolding and can go; the hollowing, consommé-cooked semolina, Parmesan, and butter braise are the dish, and all four stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Properly cooked, the turnips are tender enough to cut with a fork, their pale shells gleaming with butter around a savory, softly set center. Don't chase a dark gratin crust. This preparation is finished by gentle braising and glazing. Before you touch the pan, set the turnips side by side and choose ones of nearly equal width; equal walls are the step that decides the whole dish.