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Carrots, Sliced and Glazed
Wash and scrape some fine large carrots, and cut them into equal slices. Partly boil them in salt and water, drain, and put them into a saucepan with just sufficient stock to cover them, a piece of butter, a little salt, and a good-sized lump of sugar. Boil quickly until the gravy is reduced to glaze. Shake the saucepan over the fire for a few minutes, till al the gravy adheres to the carrots. Time, one hour and a half. Probable cost, 6d. or 8d. per bunch. Sufficient, six large carrots for five persons.
A standard glazed carrot, written before anyone thought to specify pan sizes or heat levels. The technique holds up; the timing does not.
- The hingeThe liquid must reduce to a syrup that coats, not a puddle that boils away to nothing. Watch the last two minutes closely and pull the pan the moment the bubbles turn thick and slow, or the sugar will catch and turn bitter.
- TimingAn hour and a half is far longer than the dish needs today; the figure may also cover preparation and parboiling rather than the glazing alone. Parboil sliced carrots 4-6 minutes, then glaze 8-12 minutes uncovered over brisk heat. They should keep some bite.
- "A good-sized lump of sugar"Sugar of the period was commonly sold as a loaf or cone and broken up in the kitchen, so a 'lump' was not a standard measure and could vary widely. Start with two teaspoons for six carrots and taste as it reduces.
- "A piece of butter"Read this as about 1 oz (2 tablespoons). It emulsifies with the reducing stock to make the glaze glossy rather than merely sweet.
- StockThe recipe simply calls for stock and assumes some is to hand. Any light chicken or beef stock works; vegetable stock or even water with an extra knob of butter is acceptable, though the glaze will be thinner in flavour.
- Pan choiceUse a wide shallow pan, not a tall saucepan. Reduction depends on surface area, and a deep pan will overcook the carrots before the liquid is gone.
- Cutting"Equal slices" is the point of the instruction. Uneven pieces glaze at different rates and some will collapse. Rounds of about a quarter-inch are reliable.
- YieldSix large carrots for five people is generous by our portions; treat it as a side for four to six.
Glazing root vegetables in stock, butter and sugar is a French technique that is generally said to have entered English cookery books by way of the professional kitchen, and by the time Cassell's was compiled in the 1870s it appears to have been reasonably familiar. The inclusion of a "probable cost" per bunch is characteristic of the book: it was written for households running to a budget and often to a hired cook, and the pricing is usually taken to have helped the mistress check the kitchen accounts. Carrots themselves were cheap, storable through winter in sand or a clamp, and sweet enough that sugar and butter turned an everyday root into something that could sit beside a joint at dinner. The instruction to shake rather than stir the pan may perhaps suggest trained practice, since a spoon breaks up softened slices where a shake does not, though that is an inference from a single word.