Root Vegetable Mystery

[BadRabbit]

Last night I roasted some cubed turnips, rutabagas, and golden beets with bacon and maple sugar. We regularly eat turnips but we don't eat beets or rutabagas near as often.

Here's the mystery, one of the three roots did not work as well as the others but they were all very similar in color once cooked so my wife and I were having trouble determining which was the culprit. I am nearly certain it was not the turnips.

Overall the dish was a great success but I would like to leave out the offending root next time.

The facts:

After cooking, one of the roots was decidedly more orangy-yellow than the others. My wife insists this was the rutabaga. We liked this root.

Also after cooking, one of the lighter yellowish-white color ones was the root that we didn't really care for and I suspect that was the beet (it was slightly perfumy tasting).

My confusion is that the beet started out bright orange and the rutabaga close to white but they now seem to have swapped colors.

Do golden beets get paler as they cook? I know that rutabagas typically get more color.

Edited March 22, 2012 by BadRabbit (log)

[feedmec00kies]

Not that I know of. I've never cooked rutabaga but I've made golden beets before and IIRC, they didn't really change in color.

[Alcuin]

Rutabagas are starchier than turnips and beets. The texture would be the best way to differentiate if color won't. Rutabagas are like starchy turnips, and turnip are crisper in texture than fully cooked beets. Beets are more finely grained than turnips.

In my experience, rutabagas are off white. They might have picked up some color from the beets, though, because beets leach pigment no matter what color they are. I've never seen them turn white though. The color dulls, but doesn't change.

edited for clarity

Edited March 22, 2012 by Alcuin (log)