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Carrots.

Carrots cooked in salted water, then simmered in beef broth or veal gravy with salt, sugar, parsley, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Carrots.

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Carrots.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Cut the tops of the carrots into even lengths of about 2.5 inches and trim one end to a point.

  2. Boil the carrots in salted water for 45 minutes.

Simmer in broth

  1. Drain the carrots and arrange them upright in a broad saucepan.

  2. Pour in beef broth or veal gravy to half their height.

  3. Add salt and sugar.

  4. Boil briskly for 30 minutes or longer if needed.

Serve

  1. Serve the carrots upright.

  2. Keep them hot while thickening brown gravy with parsley and lemon juice.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Carrot + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Form the main bulk and provide natural sweetness when cooked until tender.
Beef broth or veal gravy
Supplies savory flavor and moisture, and concentrates as it simmers around the carrots.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the savory broth and balances the salt.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the gravy and balances its richness.
Brown gravy
Thickens the sauce and adds body and browned, savory flavor to the dish.

The step that matters

Boil briskly for 30 minutes. A brisk boil reduces the liquid and concentrates its flavor into a richer sauce. Watch the pan, since too much evaporation can leave the carrots dry or scorch the bottom.

“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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