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Carrots A-LA-francaise

A French-style carrot dish simmered with butter, milk, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Carrots A-LA-francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Scrape the carrots.

  2. Cut the small ends in half and the large ends into eighths.

  3. Boil the carrots in water with salt and sugar for 1 hour.

  4. Drain the carrots on a cloth.

Cook in butter and milk

  1. Melt the butter in a stew-pan.

  2. Toss the carrots until nearly absorbed.

  3. Pour in the milk.

  4. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

Finish with the sauce

  1. Set the carrots on a serving dish.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and stir them into the milk.

  3. Simmer for 2 minutes.

  4. Pour the sauce over the carrots and serve.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,259 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
Form the body of the dish and absorb butter and sugar as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour into the carrots.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess as it reduces.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk into a smooth, lightly set sauce.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the carrots as they cook in the water.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks into the milk. Hot milk can scramble egg yolks into lumps if they are added carelessly. Keep the heat gentle and stir steadily so the yolk proteins set slowly and evenly, thickening the sauce smoothly.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, 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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