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Carrots

Braised carrots served with a reduced glaze gravy.

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

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and scrape the carrots, then keep them in cold water until ready to use.

Cook the carrots

  1. Place the carrots in a pan with boiling stock and sugar; boil until tender.

  2. Remove the carrots and keep them hot.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add glaze and seasoning to the gravy.

  2. Reduce the gravy by boiling until it is halved.

  3. Dish the carrots and pour the gravy around them before serving.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + sugartop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,211 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

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

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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

Young carrots
Provide the main vegetable body, which softens and sweetens as it cooks in the stock.
Glaze
Adds concentrated savoury flavour and body to the gravy as it reduces.
Brown stock
Cooks the carrots and forms the base of the gravy, carrying flavour and moisture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the carrots brown lightly as the liquid reduces.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy. Boiling the gravy until it is halved concentrates its flavour and thickens it through evaporation. Taking it too far can make it overly salty or syrupy, while stopping too early leaves it thin and weak.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Sweet potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper. 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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