How To Choose Rutabagas:
Choose those rutabagas with medium size, fleshy and heavy roots. Sometimes, it can be difficult to tell through the wax if the outside is flawed, but you should avoid any rutabagas that have clear cuts, bruises, cracks, or soft spots. You should feel the shiny wax rutabaga firmly by touching the skin. Do not choose any that feel squishy. You can find rutabagas in the market throughout the whole year. However, for those rutabagas which are newly harvested, they starting to be sold in the market during early winter. Like most other vegetables, the flavor and texture suffers with long storage. Count on at least 1/2 pound per person. One medium size rutabaga should serve 3 to 4 person.
How To Store and Prepare Rutabagas:
Rutabagas can keep well in different methods. Before storing, make sure you do not wash or peel them.
- The perfect temperature to store rutabagas is around 50 Fahrenheit with dry atmosphere. By having this storage area, they will keep up to 2 weeks.
- At room temperature they will keep up to 7 days
- If unwrapped in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator they will last around 2 weeks.
- You can divide rutabagas into 2 different portions and cook them separately only when you need it. Just cut off the amount required and refrigerate the rest in plastic wrap. Make sure you tightly wrap it. Use the rest of the rutabagas within a day or two.
Remember to peel rutabagas only just before cooking. There is usually no waste except for the peel. You can cut rutabagas into your preferable size and shape.
You might find it a bit difficult to peel rutabagas with thick coating wax. A tip to ease this process is to cut a slice off the stem and root ends. Lay the rutabaga on the cut side, and cut off sections of the peel from top to bottom and around the root, just like how you would peel a grapefruit. Or cut the root into quarters and then take out the peel.
