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Stewed Carrots

A dish of carrots simmered in butter, cream, salt, cayenne, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stewed Carrots

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Divide the carrots lengthwise; if small, boil until tender.

  2. Remove from water and slice thinly in a saucepan.

  3. Add butter to the carrots.

Stew

  1. Stir salt and cayenne pepper into the cream and pour over the carrots.

  2. Let them stew for 15 minutes.

  3. Transfer to a serving dish.

Finish with the egg custard

  1. Bring the cream to a boil in the saucepan.

  2. Stir in the well-beaten egg yolks and pour over the carrots.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender as they stew.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the carrots.
Cream
Provides moisture and richness, and carries the seasoning over the carrots.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a light custard that coats the carrots when stirred in.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, so the cream must be hot but not boiling vigorously when they are added. Stirring in beaten yolks gently prevents them from scrambling into lumps and keeps the sauce smooth and thickened.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, pepper, egg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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