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 ↓
Carrots a LA Vichy
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wash and scrape the carrots, then cut them into very thin slices.
Season the carrots with salt and pepper, and mix with clarified butter and stock.
Bake
Place the mixture in a well-buttered paper bag, close it up, and fasten with wire clips.
Put the bag on a wire grid in a 350°F (175°C) oven and cook for 25 to 30 minutes.
Serve
Slit the bag open and transfer the carrots with the liquid to a hot dish.
Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and serve hot.
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.
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 provide sweetness as they cook.
- Clarified butter
- Adds fat and rich flavour while helping the carrots cook gently without drying.
- Stock
- Provides moisture so the carrots steam and become tender inside the sealed bag.
The step that matters
Sealing the paper bag. If the bag is not closed tightly, steam escapes and the carrots dry out or cook unevenly. A well-sealed bag traps moisture so the carrots braise gently in their own liquid.
“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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