Carrots, Sliced
INGREDIENTS for dish for 4 persons.-5 or 6 large carrots, a large lump of sugar, 1 pint of weak stock, 2 oz. of fresh butter, salt to taste. AVERAGE CosT, 8d.
CARROTS, STEWED.
Scrape and wash the carrots, cut them into slices of an equal size, and boil them in salt and water until half done; drain them well, put them into a stewpan with the sugar gar and stock, and let them boil over a brisk fire. When reduced to a glaze, add the fresh butter and a seasoning of salt; shake the stewpan about well, and when the butter is well mixed with the carrots, serve. There should be no sauce in the dish when it comes to table, but it should all adhere to the carrots.
TIME.-Altogether, hour.
SEASONABLE.-Young carrots from April to July; old ones at any time.
This is a classic glaze: carrots are parboiled, then finished in stock and sugar until the liquid reduces to a syrup that coats them. The whole point is the final state of the pan, so watch the liquid rather than the clock.
- The hingeStop the moment the stock has reduced to a shining film that clings to the carrots. A minute too long and the sugar catches and turns bitter; a minute too short and you serve carrots in a puddle, which the recipe explicitly rules out.
- A pintBeeton's pint is the imperial one, 20 fl oz, so use 2 1/2 cups rather than 2. "Weak stock" means a light veal or chicken broth, or water with a little stock; a concentrated modern stock cube will make the glaze salty as it reduces.
- A large lump of sugarVictorian loaf sugar was broken from a cone, and a "large lump" is probably in the region of a tablespoon of granulated sugar, though lump sizes varied. Start with two teaspoons for six carrots and taste at the end.
- Parboiling"Half done" for sliced carrots is about 4 to 5 minutes in salted water. Drain them thoroughly, because carried-over water dilutes the glaze and lengthens the reduction.
- Fresh butterButter in 1861 was often salted for keeping, so "fresh" means unsalted. Add it off the heat or at the barest simmer and shake the pan so it emulsifies into the syrup instead of splitting into a greasy slick.
- TimingThe stated total time has lost its fraction. Reckon on about 20 to 25 minutes altogether: 5 minutes parboiling, then 15 or so of brisk boiling to reduce, depending on how wide your pan is.
- Pan and yieldA stewpan here is a wide, shallow saucepan; the broader the base, the faster the stock reduces. Five or six large carrots serves four as a side dish.
Glazing root vegetables in stock, sugar and butter is a French kitchen technique that English cookery drew on in the nineteenth century, and this entry sits among Beeton's vegetable dishes, its opening line offering the carrots as an accompaniment to stewed veal. The instruction that no sauce should remain in the dish is the tell: the carrots supply their own sauce by concentration, a habit of thrift and flavour. Beeton's seasonal note is worth reading as a reminder of pre-refrigeration supply, with tender young carrots available only from April to July and the coarser storage crop on hand year round.