Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Carrots in a Puree
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the carrots
Scrape and quarter the carrots, discarding the pale yellow inside.
Wash the outsides and boil them in plenty of water with salt until tender.
Drain the carrots and place them in a saucepan with butter.
Make the puree
Stir over heat with a wooden spoon until the butter begins to fry and the carrots are well mashed.
Add a small ladleful of consommé, a little sugar, and salt, stirring until nearly reduced to the original thickness.
Incorporate three tablespoons of sauce tournee and stir for three minutes.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a large dish, adding more consommé if it is too thick.
Return it to the saucepan and heat over the fire for four to five minutes before serving.
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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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Carrot + saucetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,509 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Carrot + buttertop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,083 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Carrots
- Form the main body of the puree, giving bulk, sweetness and colour.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and frying it lightly gives the carrots a deeper flavour.
- Sauce tournee
- Thickens the puree and adds body and a smooth, creamy texture.
- Good consommé
- Adds liquid to loosen the mash and bring savoury depth to the puree.
The step that matters
Reducing after adding the consommé. Stirring until the mixture is nearly reduced to its original thickness matters because too much liquid makes the puree thin and watery, while the sieving step depends on a workable consistency.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, sauce):
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, sauce. 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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