Skip to main content
Dessert

Candies Carrot Candy

A sweet confection made from grated carrots, sugar, orange juice and rind, ginger, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,377 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Candies Carrot Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a pot, combine grated carrots, sugar, orange juice, orange rind, and ground ginger.

  2. Boil the mixture until it thickens.

  3. Stir in chopped nuts and set aside to cool.

Shape and serve

  1. Once cooled, form the mixture into balls.

  2. Roll the balls in granulated sugar before serving.

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 + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,377 recipes

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

  2. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Ginger + nutstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Grated carrots
Provide the bulk and moisture that cook down into a thick, sliceable paste.
Sugar
Sweetens the candy and, as it cooks, thickens the mixture into a firm, chewy set.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and bright citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.
Ground ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma to the candy.
Chopped nuts
Add crunch and texture against the soft, chewy mixture.

The step that matters

Boil until it thickens. Sugar and carrot must cook long enough for the moisture to evaporate and the sugar to concentrate; stopping too early leaves a sticky mixture that will not hold its shape when formed into balls, while overcooking makes it hard and dry.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, sugar, orange, ginger):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, sugar, orange, ginger. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipes