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Carrots, Stewed

A creamy stew of sliced carrots simmered in stock, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Scrape the carrots and boil them in water until half cooked.

  2. Drain and cut the carrots into thin slices.

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, heat the butter and stir in the flour.

  2. Add the stock and milk, stirring over heat until smooth.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then add the sliced carrots.

Stew and serve

  1. Simmer gently until the carrots are tender, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add the cream and serve.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 dish and, once simmered, give it a soft, tender texture.
Butter
Provides fat for cooking the flour and adds richness to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquids into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess to the sauce, making it smooth and rich.
Stock
Supplies the main liquid and savoury flavour of the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky finish to the stew.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the sauce until smooth. Flour must be cooked into the butter and whisked into the warm liquids to avoid lumps. Stirring steadily while heating lets the starch disperse and thicken evenly.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, flour, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, flour, 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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