No. 2714

Carrots with Cream

Carottes a la Creme

Cut some carrots into inch lengths; form the red parts remove cylindricals with a round vegetable cutter five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter; blanch until half done, then drain and saute in butter with a little sugar; moisten with white broth (No. 194a) and put on to cook; when ready to serve boil with cream and thicken with egg-yolks and fresh butter.

← No. 2713 Carrots, Viennese Style Carrots, Beets & Root Vegetables No. 2715 Stuffed Cauliflower a la Bechamel—Baked →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a classic glazed-then-creamed vegetable: parboil, saute in butter and sugar, braise in broth, finish with a cream and egg-yolk liaison. The whole dish hinges on the last step.

The liaison must not boilOnce the egg yolks go in, the sauce holds at about 160-175F and no higher. Bring it to a simmer and the yolks scramble into grains. Temper the yolks with a little of the hot cream first, return the pan to low heat, and stir until it coats a spoon.
"Boil with cream" is loose phrasingReduce the cream with the carrots until it thickens slightly, then pull the pan off the heat before the yolks and butter are added. Period restaurant kitchens generally worked on coal ranges, where a pan drawn to the side cooled quickly; on a gas or induction burner, take it off entirely.
The vegetable cutterA five-sixteenths-inch round cutter is a small column cutter, which cuts cylinders rather than balls. An apple corer of similar bore gets close. Uniform size matters more than the exact diameter, since these cook by the minute.
Why only the "red parts"Older carrot varieties tended to have a paler, woodier core than modern ones; the outer flesh was sweeter and better coloured, which is presumably why the recipe specifies it. Modern carrots are less sharply differentiated, so you can cut through much of the root without losing much; the trimmings go to stock.
White brothNo. 194a is the book's pale, unroasted broth. A light chicken stock, unsalted or lightly salted, does the job. Avoid dark or heavily reduced stock, which will muddy the colour the recipe goes to such trouble to preserve.
Blanching "until half done"For cylinders this small, two to three minutes in salted boiling water. Drain well before they hit the butter or the sugar will not glaze.
Sugar quantityUnstated, and it is meant to be small: about a teaspoon per pound of carrots, enough to help the butter form a glaze rather than to sweeten.
YieldAs written this is a garnish portion. Figure a pound of carrots, 1/3 cup cream and two yolks to serve four alongside a roast.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for more than thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's repertoire, and it runs to some 3,500 numbered receipts cross-referenced to one another the way this one points to broth No. 194a. The insistence on cutting small even cylinders from the outer flesh belongs to the same professional culture, where a garnish was judged first on uniformity.