Carrots

A terse period formula that assumes you already know what drawn butter is and how long a carrot takes. The only real decision is how far to cook them.

• Cut size"Squares or bars" presumably means dice or batons; the recipe gives no size, so pick one — say half-inch dice or finger-length batons. Keep them uniform so they finish together; a mixed cut guarantees some mush and some crunch.
• Boiling timeSix to ten minutes in well-salted water for half-inch pieces, tested with a knife tip. The recipe gives no time; older instructions for boiled carrots frequently ran much longer, which collapses their structure and leaches the sugar into the water.
• Drain wellThis instruction is doing real work. Carrots hold surface water, and a wet vegetable thins any butter or sauce poured over it. Return the drained pieces to the dry hot pan for thirty seconds to steam off.
• Drawn butterNot clarified butter, despite the modern use of the phrase. In American cookery of this period drawn butter is a light flour-thickened butter sauce: a spoon of flour cooked in butter, thinned with hot water or vegetable liquor, seasoned and finished with more butter off the heat.
• Cream sauceA thin white sauce — a tablespoon each of butter and flour to a cup of milk, cooked until it just coats a spoon. Made with a little of the carrot cooking water in place of some of the milk it carries more flavour.
• SeasoningSalt the boiling water properly; carrots seasoned only after draining taste salty on the outside and flat within. A pinch of sugar is unnecessary with good carrots but rescues tired winter ones.
• YieldThe original gives no quantity. Reckon about 1 1/2 lb of carrots and a cup of sauce for four as a side dish.