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To Stew Carrots

A creamy carrot stew made with broth, cream, butter, and optional parsley and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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To Stew Carrots

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 ↓

To Stew Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Half boil and carefully scrape the carrots.

  2. Slice them into a stew-pan.

Stew

  1. Add broth, cream, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer until very tender, about 15-20 minutes.

  3. Ten minutes before serving, add butter rubbed in flour and minced parsley if desired.

  4. Add sugar for extra flavor if you like.

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

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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 soften into a tender, sweet vegetable base.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the stewing liquid, giving a smoother, silkier texture.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the stewing liquid with the butter, giving a light, smooth sauce.
Broth
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the carrots and carries savory flavor.

The step that matters

Simmer until very tender. Carrots need enough time in gentle simmering liquid for starch to break down fully; cooking too briskly can break the cream or leave the carrots unevenly soft.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, cream, pepper, butter, flour, sugar):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

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