Fried Carrots
Take a few tender young carrots. Slice them (roundwise) very thin, roll them in brown sugar, and fry them brown in butter.
Sweet fried carrots — thin rounds rolled in brown sugar and cooked in butter until caramelized, closer to a candied side than a plain vegetable.
- Slice thinCut young carrots into thin rounds so they cook through before the sugar burns.
- Brown sugar caramelizesRolling the slices in brown sugar gives a glossy, candied surface as they fry — essentially glazed carrots.
- Butter over medium heatSugar scorches fast; keep the heat moderate and stir so the carrots brown evenly without turning bitter.
- Young, tender carrotsThe recipe rightly specifies tender young carrots — older ones can be woody and won’t soften in the short cooking time.
- A savory-sweet balanceA pinch of salt keeps the dish from cloying; carrot, butter and a little sugar were a Victorian favorite.
Carrots are naturally sugary — among the sweetest of common vegetables — so cooking them with sugar and butter, as here, only heightens what the root already offers. The familiar orange carrot itself is a relatively modern thing: earlier carrots were purple, yellow or white, and Dutch growers are traditionally credited with developing the deep-orange variety around the 16th and 17th centuries. By the 1800s the sweet, orange carrot was standard, and glazed or “fried” carrots like these were a common way to dress it up for the table.
From page 43 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
