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Puree of Carrots

A smooth carrot puree made with carrots, onions, suet or butter, cornstarch, milk or stock, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Puree of Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Scrape and slice the carrots.

  2. Cover the carrots with cold water.

  3. Simmer gently for 45 minutes.

Make the puree

  1. In a frying pan, heat the suet or butter.

  2. Add the sliced onion and cook until light brown.

  3. Add the carrots.

  4. Press the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Return the mixture to the heat.

  6. Stir in the cornstarch moistened in a little cold water.

  7. Add salt, pepper, and the milk or stock.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide the main body and sweet flavour of the puree once cooked and sieved.
Cornstarch
Thickens the puree as it heats, giving it a smooth, spoonable body.
Suet or butter
Adds fat for richness and carries flavour when the onion is fried.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth as it browns in the fat.
Milk or stock
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the puree to a creamy consistency.

The step that matters

Stir in the cornstarch moistened in a little cold water.. Starch must be dispersed in cold liquid before it meets heat, otherwise it clumps. Once the puree is hot, it should be stirred until it thickens and loses its raw starchy taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, butter, milk, pepper. 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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