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Stewed Carrots

Stewed carrots simmered in broth, milk, butter, and flour, seasoned to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Stewed Carrots

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Stewed Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the carrots

  1. Scrape and boil whole carrots for 45 minutes.

  2. Drain and cut into round slices ½ inch thick.

  3. Place in a pot with 1 cup of weak broth and cook for 30 minutes.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add 3-4 tablespoons of milk and a lump of butter rolled in flour.

  2. Season to taste, then boil briefly.

  3. 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,259 recipes

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

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

Whole carrots
Form the main body of the dish and provide natural sweetness as they cook.
Weak broth
Adds savory flavor and moisture while the carrots simmer.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the texture of the stewed sauce.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated, giving the sauce body.

The step that matters

Add the butter rolled in flour. Flour starch thickens the liquid only when it is dispersed and heated, so stir the floured butter in well and boil briefly. Dropping it in as a lump can leave dry clumps and an uneven sauce.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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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