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Dessert

Carrots Stewed in Sugar and Cream

A sweet carrot dish stewed with sugar, cream, and orange flowers, finished with egg yolks, whites, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Carrots Stewed in Sugar and Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Scrape and clean the carrots.

  2. Boil the carrots in a saucepan of water until tender and most water is absorbed.

Make the mixture

  1. Mash the carrots and mix in the milk and potato flour.

  2. Add the dried orange flowers and crushed sugar.

  3. Whip the egg yolks and whites together, then stir into the mixture with warmed butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Heat the mixture in the oven until thickened.

  2. Turn out onto a dish and serve hot, sprinkled with caster sugar.

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. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Carrot + orangetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Potato + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Form the bulk of the dish and give it body and sweetness once cooked and mashed.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the mashed carrot into a creamy base.
Potato flour
Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape when set.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help it set into a tender, creamy texture when heated.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to add lightness and help it rise and set in the oven.
Warmed butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture in the oven until thickened. Egg proteins set when heated, so the mixture thickens as it cooks. Overheating can make the eggs curdle or turn grainy and dry, so it should be heated only until just set.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, milk, potato, flour, sugar, egg, butter. 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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