Carrots

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Baby Cut Carrots

Many food writers start off perky entries on Carrots with "Carrots add sweetness....", but clearly they didn't have any of the Carrots of our childhood.

Woody, manky old roots that seemed as though they had spent the winter in cello bags. Roughly scraped, thickly hacked, boiled for hours till a dull orange and plopped without adornment or season onto a plate, ready for the weekly Sunday dinner showdown. It took many people years to recover and consider them again.

If you are going to be grating Carrots to be incorporated into a recipe, or making a soup or stew of them, the bagged Carrots are fine. Otherwise, if they are to be a feature on their own, try to buy them with the greens still attached, as they will be fresher and sweeter, and try to use in up in a few days. But avoid any on which the top part of them is green, as they might be slightly bitter.

Big Carrots often have tough centres. Carrots that have begun sprouting white roots have been in storage a long time. Big, old Carrots -- often described as woody -- are in fact just that. They will have a large amount of lignin in them: lignin is the substance that makes wood wood.

Baby Carrots

Baby Carrots
- © Denzil Green

Baby Carrots


There isn't really any such as thing as Baby Carrots: they are cultivars that mature at much smaller sizes than other Carrots. That being said, however, what you buy in small plastic bags in grocery stores may not even be that. They are often just small, baby-carrot looking pieces carved out of large Carrots. Generally, processors get about three "Baby Carrots" out of one large carrot. Look closely at the stem end: if it doesn't look real, it may well just be green food dye to make the top of the piece look as though a stem had been there. Owing to the work involved and the demand for Baby Carrots, they are able to sell these faux-babies for twice the price of what the full-size Carrots would have commanded. Unless you see the stems attached, assume that the Baby Carrots you are buying are just pieces of full-sized Carrots. If you want to pay the extra for the shape, or for the convenience of having the pieces already peeled and washed for you, do so, but don't do so thinking you're getting superior taste: true Baby Carrots will be milder and sweeter.

Cooking Tips
Unless you have bought manky old Carrots in a cello bag, don't peel them. Just rinse and scrub them lightly with a vegetable brush: this will preserve the many nutrients just below the skin.

Steam for 7 minutes or boil in salted water for 5 minutes.

If you are going to serve Carrots raw, cut them into strips and plunk into cold water to firm them up even more. For a bit more interest, put a slice of raw onion in the water. Though if you are contemplating serving your guests a plate of raw veggies accompanied by onion soup mix dip in a bread bowl, you are hereby served fair notice that it might take more than an onion slice in the water to peak anyone's interest.

If you only have woody Carrots to work with, please don't try to serve them to people only lightly cooked in the Asian fusion style. Your guests might as well be eating chips of orange plywood. These old Carrots need a reasonable boil, or better yet, to be made into a lovely carrot mash with cream and butter.

Cooking times for freezing:

  • Wash, remove tops, peel. Boil small whole carrots for 5 minutes, diced or sliced carrot for 2 minutes. Plunge in cold water, drain, package, and freeze.

Nutrition
Per 100 g (3 1/2 oz) 23 calories. Good source of vitamin A. Also contain some protein, carbohydrate, folacin and fibre.

Per 1 pound (450g) bag of baby carrots: 242mg sodium

Carrots do not lose very much of their nutritional value during cooking. In fact, some argue that well-cooked Carrots are more nutritional than raw ones, as cooking breaks down the lignin in Carrots, making more of the nutrients available to our bodies.

Equivalents
1 large carrot = 1/4 pound = 1 cup grated
1 pound Carrots = 450g = 1 average bunch = 6 - 8 medium or 4 very large = 3 cups chopped = 2 1/2 cups grated = 1 1/3 cups cooked and mashed

Storage
To store fresh bunched Carrots, twist off the leafy green tops as they will draw off moisture and nutrients from the Carrots. Place in plastic bag and refrigerate for 10 days to 2 weeks (Carrots that have come with their tops on may need to be used up sooner than those that came packed tops off in cello bags.) Don't store in with apples or pears, as the ethylene gas they give off can give Carrots a bitter taste.

Freezing: Leave small Carrots whole; cut large Carrots into thin slices. Blanch in boiling water:

Small, whole Carrots: 5 minutes
Diced or sliced: 3 minutes

Plunge into cold water to cool. Then drain well, pack, and freeze.

History
Carrots are native to Afghanistan. Wild Carrots had (and still have) scrawny roots compared to the fat roots obtained from cultivated Carrots. Early varieties were red, purple or black. The orange variety of Carrots is a modern variety, developed in Holland only in the 1600's, where it was perhaps popular because it was the colour of the House of Orange.

Carrots were used by both the Romans and Greeks, though they knew them as purple or white vegetables that grew with "forked" roots, unlike today's single tuber. They would grow them in kitchen gardens. The Romans would eat them raw dressed in oil and vinegar, or cooked. Both the Romans and the Greeks believed Carrots had aphrodisiac properties. The Roman Emperor Caligula once forced the whole Roman Senate to eat Carrots to inspire them for an orgy. The Romans called them "carota".

The Romans certainly brought Carrots with them to England, but as most food history credits their re-introduction to England with Flemish refugees during the reign of Elizabeth I, it is uncertain what happened to the Carrots of England in the intervening period. In any event, the mid 1500's are when Carrots took off again in England. Queen Elizabeth, reputedly presented with some Carrots and some butter as a present, sent them off to her kitchen, and a kitchen classic was born: buttered Carrots. During the ensuing reign of James I (James VI, pace Scottish readers), its popularity grew to the point where ladies would stick carrot ferns in their hair.

The orange Carrot became the popular one not just because of its jaunty colour, but also because purple ones turned brown and mushy when cooked.

Carrots were brought to America, and some escaped into the wild where they became the wildflower now known as Queen Anne's Lace.

Purple ones are making a bit of a comeback as a specialty vegetable. Thanks to continued development, the colour is attractive, and stays when cooked, and they are very sweet and juicy.

Literature & Lore
"The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond." -- Mae West (American actress, 1892 - 1980)

"Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who live in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter." -- Fran Lebowitz (American writer)

Also called:
Daucus carota (Scientific Name); Carottes (French); Karotte, Möhren (German); Carote (Italian); Zanahorias (Spanish); Cenoura (Portuguese); Carota (Roman); Gaajar, Nimboo (Indian) Top...