Scotland, Northern and Western England, Wales, the Isle of Man, and Ireland had a tradition of carving the roots into Jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween.

[3][4] The term swede (from "Swedish turnip") is used in many Commonwealth Nations, including much of the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

The name turnip is also used in parts of Northern and Midland England, the West Country (particularly Cornwall), Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Canada.

In Scotland, it is known as turnip, tumshie (also used as a pejorative term for a foolish or stupid person), or neep (from Old English næp, Latin napus).

[6] Some areas of south-east Scotland, such as Berwickshire and Roxburghshire, still use the term baigie, possibly a derivative of the Swedish dialectal word rotabagge.

[8] In north-east England, turnips and swedes are colloquially called snannies snadgers, snaggers (archaic) or narkies.

[10] The first known printed reference to the rutabaga comes from the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin in 1620, where he notes that it was growing wild in Sweden.

[11] According to the Natural Resources Institute Finland (now Luke), rutabaga or lanttu was most likely bred on more than one occasion in Northern Europe around the 16th century.

Studies by its research institute have shown that lanttu was developed independently in Finland and Sweden from turnip and cabbage in connection with seed cultivation.

In 1768, a Scottish botanist promoted Linnaeus' variety to species rank as Brassica napobrassica in The Gardeners Dictionary.

In Norway, kålrabistappe is an obligatory accompaniment to many festive dishes, including smalahove, pinnekjøtt, raspeball and salted herring.

Oven-baked root vegetables are another home-cooking classic in Finland: rutabaga, carrots, beetroots, and potatoes are roasted in the oven with salt and oil.

Karelian hot pot (karjalanpaisti) is a popular slow-cooking stew with root vegetables and meat cooked for a long time in a Dutch oven.

Finnish supermarkets sell alternative potato chips made from root vegetables, such as rutabagas, beetroots and carrots.

A mash produced using just potato and swede is known as ponsh maip in the North-East of the country,[22] as mwtrin on the Llyn peninsula and as stwnsh rwden in other parts.

[citation needed] In the US, rutabagas are not widely eaten but may be found as part of stews or casseroles, served mashed with carrots, or baked in a pasty.

Rutabaga and other cyanoglucoside-containing foods (including cassava, maize (corn), bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, and lima beans) release cyanide, which is subsequently detoxified into thiocyanate.

Goitres may develop when there is a dietary imbalance of thiocyanate-containing food in excess of iodine consumption, and these compounds can contribute to hypothyroidism.

Other chemical compounds that contribute to flavour and odour include glucocheirolin, glucobrassicanapin, glucoberteroin, gluconapoleiferin, and glucoerysolin.

[35] The roots and tops of "swedes" came into use as a forage crop in the early nineteenth century, used as winter feed for livestock.

[37] In the Middle Ages, rowdy bands of children roamed the streets in masks carrying carved turnips known in Scotland as "tumshie heads".

[38][39] In modern times, turnips are often carved to look as sinister and threatening as possible and are put in the window or on the doorstep of a house on Halloween to ward off evil spirits.