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Fried Carrots

Fried carrot balls made with carrots, ham, onion, egg, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fried Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the carrots until tender, then chop them.

  2. Chop the cold meat and onion together finely.

  3. Mix the chopped meat and onion with the carrots.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Dip the balls in the egg.

  3. Fry in butter until golden brown.

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.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Form the bulk of the filling and give the balls their main flavour and moisture.
Cold meat
Adds savoury flavour and richness to the carrot mixture.
Egg
Coats the balls and helps the outside set and brown when fried.
Onion
Adds aromatic sharpness that balances the sweetness of the carrots.

The step that matters

Fry in butter until golden brown. Butter browns at a lower temperature than oil and can burn quickly. Medium heat gives even browning and a cooked interior without scorching the egg coating.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, onion, egg, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, onion, egg, butter. 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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