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Purine of Carrots

A smooth carrot puree made by simmering carrots, onions, butter, stock, sugar, and velouté, then straining and thickening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Purine of Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. Combine sliced carrots, butter, and quartered onions in a stewpan.

  2. Cook until the vegetables are soft.

  3. Add stock and sugar, then stew gently for 3 hours.

  4. Pass the mixture through a tamis.

  5. If the puree is too thin, reduce it on the fire until thickened.

Finish

  1. Stir in velouté and skim to clear.

  2. Ensure the puree is thick enough to mask the entree.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Carrot + buttertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,083 recipes

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

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

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

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 puree and give it its flavour and body.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour while the vegetables soften.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they cook down slowly.
Velouté
Thickens the puree and gives it a smooth, coating consistency.

The step that matters

Reducing a thin puree. Reducing on the fire evaporates excess water, so the puree thickens without extra flour. Reducing too far, or too gently, changes the texture and can scorch the bottom of the pan.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, sugar. 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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