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RACINES (a la Creme)
Take some good carrots, scrape and wash them; put them on to boil for half an hour, then cut them into long slices, and put them in a stewpan with a piece of fresh butter, a bunch of parsley, green onions, sweet basil, two shallots, and a clove of garlic. Put on the fire, add a pinch of flour, and a little good broth; let them simmer till the sauce is reduced by about one-fourth. Take out the bunch of herbs, put in the yolks of three eggs beaten up with a little cream; thicken the sauce but do not let it boil again. Just before serving add a little vinegar.
A French-style carrot ragout finished with an egg-and-cream liaison. The hinge is the last step: once the yolks go in, the pan must stay below a simmer or the sauce will scramble.
- The nameRacines is French for root vegetables, and à la crème tells you the finish. Only carrots are specified here.
- Parboil, then sliceThe recipe boils the carrots whole for half an hour before slicing. With modern carrots, 12-15 minutes to just-tender should be enough, since they will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Bunch of herbsParsley, green onion (scallion) and basil tied together so the bunch lifts out cleanly, as the recipe directs. Whether the two shallots and the clove of garlic are meant to be tied in with them or added loose is not clear from the text.
- A pinch of flourThis is a very light thickening, added to the buttered carrots before the broth goes in; the yolks do most of the work later. The recipe specifies no quantity beyond a pinch, and gives no weight of carrots.
- Good brothThe recipe says only 'a little good broth', with no indication of what it was made from or how much. Reduce it by about a quarter, as directed.
- The liaisonBeat three yolks with a few tablespoons of cream, temper with a ladle of the hot sauce, then return the mixture to the pan off the heat and stir until it coats a spoon. Anything approaching a boil will curdle it.
- The vinegarA little vinegar at the very end, just before serving, to cut the richness. Adding it earlier or over heat risks breaking the yolks.
The method is a small lesson in the egg-yolk liaison, the classic French thickening that survives in blanquettes, fricassees and sauce poulette: a sauce enriched with yolks must never boil. Finishing with a splash of vinegar reflects an older taste for sharpness to balance butter and cream. Carrots were an inexpensive winter root in Victorian Britain.