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Stewed Carrots

A dish of boiled carrots simmered in butter and cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 and boil for 1 to 2 hours until tender.

  2. Slice the boiled carrots very thin.

Stew

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the cream.

  2. Add the sliced carrots to the saucepan.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and let stew for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring gently.

Finish and serve

  1. If desired, skim out the carrots and mix a little flour or beaten egg yolks into the cream.

  2. Bring to a boil and pour over the carrots 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.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 and, once tender, soften into the cream.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour through the stew.
Cream
Forms the stewing liquid, adding moisture and a smooth, rich texture.
Egg yolks
Optional; when heated gently they thicken the cream into a richer sauce.
Flour
Optional; starch that thickens the cream into a looser sauce.

The step that matters

Bring the cream to a boil after adding egg yolks or flour. If the cream boils after egg yolks are added, the yolks can scramble and curdle, and flour needs heat to swell and thicken smoothly. Heating gently and stirring keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, pepper, flour, 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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