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Spring Carrots

Carrots simmered in butter, stock, and sugar until glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Spring Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and scrape the carrots.

  2. Parboil the carrots for 10 minutes.

  3. Dry the carrots on a cloth.

Glaze and serve

  1. Return the carrots to a saucepan with sugar, stock, and butter.

  2. Boil gently for about 30 minutes or until tender.

  3. Remove the cover and boil fast until the stock reduces to a glaze.

  4. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with the glaze.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Carrot + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,083 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + sugartop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Main vegetable; they soften during gentle simmering and absorb the glaze.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the reduced stock brown and thicken into a glaze.
Stock
Provides liquid that reduces into a savory, concentrated glaze coating the carrots.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the glaze a smooth, glossy finish.

The step that matters

Boil fast to reduce the stock. Once the cover is off, a rapid boil evaporates water quickly, concentrating the stock and sugar into a glaze. Boiling too gently leaves a thin liquid, while over-boiling can scorch the sugar and butter.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Carrotthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, parsley. 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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