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Stewed Carrots

A simple stew of carrots simmered in broth and finished with cream and butter.

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

Stewed Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrots

  1. Scrape the carrots and soak them in cold water for at least 30 minutes.

  2. Boil the whole carrots for 45 minutes until tender.

  3. Drain and slice the carrots into ¼ inch thick rounds.

Stew and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the sliced carrots with the broth or water, adding salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Stew gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Just before serving, stir in the cream or milk and the butter.

  4. Bring to a boil and serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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 soften to a tender texture through boiling and stewing.
Broth or water
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the carrot slices and carries the seasoning.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the stewing liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and the flour coating helps thicken the finished liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream or milk just before serving. Dairy added to a liquid that is kept at a rolling boil for long can curdle or separate. Adding it late and only bringing the dish back to a boil keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, cream, butter, flour. 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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