Why it works: Carrot and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,509 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Carrots, Poulette
Ingredients
Directions
Clean and cut the carrots into fancy shapes using a vegetable scoop.
Parboil the carrots, then drain them.
Simmer the carrots in poulette sauce until tender.
Season with coarse sea salt and a few drops of Tabasco sauce.
Serve in paper cases or on fancy cut croutons.
Garnish with chopped hard boiled eggs.
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 + saucetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,509 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Carrot + eggtop 35% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,481 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Sauce + eggtop 39% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,895 recipes
Sauce and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,895 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
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, egg):
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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