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Carrots Au Otten

A baked carrot dish with cheese, sauce, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Carrots Au Otten

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Peel and dice the carrots.

  2. Cook the carrots in salted boiling water until tender, leaving ½ cup of liquid.

  3. Drain the cooked carrots and reserve the liquid.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour together, then gradually add the reserved hot water, stirring constantly until thickened.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer half of the carrots, sprinkle some grated cheese on top, then add the remaining carrots and cheese.

  2. Pour the sauce over the dish, sprinkle with cracker crumbs, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 bulk of the dish and provide natural sweetness when cooked until tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps carry flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by absorbing the hot liquid as it cooks with the butter.
Cheese
Melts into the layers, adding savoury flavour and helping the top brown.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping during baking.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Adding the hot liquid gradually while stirring constantly keeps the butter and flour mixture smooth. Flour needs continuous stirring and gradual liquid to thicken evenly without lumps.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, sauce, butter, flour):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, sauce, butter, flour. 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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