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Preserve

Carrot Jam

A sweet preserve made from young carrots, sugar, lemon, almonds, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,351 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Carrot Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Wash the carrots.

  2. Scrape the carrots.

  3. Cut each carrot into 3 or 4 pieces.

  4. Place the carrots in a preserving pan with just enough water to cover them.

  5. Simmer gently until tender.

  6. Drain the carrots well.

  7. Pass the carrots through a fine sieve. Weigh the pulp.

Make the jam

  1. Return the pulp to the preserving pan.

  2. Add an equal weight of sugar to the pan.

  3. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Boil for 5 minutes while stirring and skimming.

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 + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Carrot + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together416 recipes

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

  4. Almond + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Young carrots
Provide the bulk and body of the jam, forming the pulp that sets.
Preserving sugar
Sweetens and preserves the jam, and helps it thicken as the water evaporates.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and supports setting.
Bitter almonds
Contribute a distinct nutty, bitter aroma that complements the carrots.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the finished jam.

The step that matters

Slowly bring the mixture to a boil. Heating slowly lets the sugar dissolve fully before boiling, which prevents grainy crystals. Stirring and skimming during the boil keep the jam from scorching and remove foam for a clear, smooth result.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, almond, brandy):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, almond, brandy. 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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