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Glazed Carrots
For this, carrots must be cut into even cones or ovals, and it is convenient to use imported carrots in glass bottles. If these are used they are already boiled; if fresh carrots are used scrape, wash them and cut out little shapes with patent cutter, then boil slowly until tender, but not quite done, and put 4 cups of them in frying pan with 4 tablespoons melted Crisco, sprinkle with fine sugar, and stir over hot fire until they begin to brown; add 4 tablespoons stock they were boiled in, adding more stock if needed, and continue stirring until carrots are nicely glazed.
A simple stovetop glaze, and the only tricky part is timing: the carrots go into the fat underdone so they finish cooking as the sugar caramelizes.
- CriscoThis book was published by Procter & Gamble to promote Crisco, so shortening appears where a cook would otherwise reach for butter. Use 4 tablespoons butter for better flavor, or a neutral oil if you want the carrots dairy-free.
- Bottled carrotsImported carrots "in glass bottles" were small whole carrots preserved in brine or water, sold as a luxury import. Drained canned or jarred baby carrots are the direct equivalent; they need no pre-cooking, only a rinse and a thorough pat dry so they brown rather than steam.
- "Patent cutter"A proprietary hand tool for cutting vegetables into uniform shapes; the recipe does not say which, and it was probably something like a vegetable scoop or small shaped cutter. A paring knife and a little patience gives the same tapered cones, and the trimmings go into stock.
- Fine sugarSuperfine or caster sugar, which dissolves fast in hot fat. Granulated works; the recipe gives no amount, so add it as a light sprinkle rather than a pour, or the pan turns to syrup before the carrots color.
- The hingeBoil the fresh carrots only until a knife meets slight resistance. Fully tender carrots collapse in the pan before the glaze sets, and you end up with sweet carrot mash.
- Heat control"Hot fire" over a gas or induction burner means medium-high, not full blast. Sugar in fat goes from amber to bitter quickly, so keep the carrots moving and pull the pan down a notch as soon as they take color.
- The stockThe cooking water is doing real work here, deglazing the pan and thinning the caramel into a glaze that clings. If you used jarred carrots, substitute a few tablespoons of light chicken or vegetable stock.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; four cups of carrots is enough for six or so as a side dish. Glaze them just before serving; reheating dulls the shine and the sugar stiffens as it cools.
A Calendar of Dinners was written by Marion Harris Neil and issued by Procter & Gamble in the mid-1910s, shortly after Crisco went on sale in 1911, and its purpose was to show American cooks that a hydrogenated vegetable shortening could stand in for butter and lard in every course, glazed carrots included. The technique itself is older and thoroughly French: carottes glacées, in which sugar, fat and a little cooking liquid reduce to a coating, and in which the vegetable is trimmed into neat uniform shapes so it cooks evenly and looks deliberate on the plate. The suggestion to buy imported carrots in bottles is a reminder of how much of the period's fashionable cooking leaned on European preserved goods, and of how much labor the "patent cutter" was meant to save a household that had a great deal of hand work to get through before dinner.