Carrot

“ The carrot is naturally a biennial plant, though it is often produced in a single season, and especial efforts are made to produce quick-growing carrots. This vegetable is much more common in Europe than in the United States, and when grown here at all it is used chiefly in soups and often for cattle food. ”

“ The carrot makes a very good pie, and with a judicious use of eggs and cream can be made quite palatable. [Pg 232] When boiled and prepared for the table, the young and tender roots should be selected, as when large or old they become woody and fibrous. The carrot is excellent food for horses and cows. Unlike the turnip, it imparts no unpleasant taste to the milk, and is, therefore, very desirable for winter feed. The carrot contains a much larger proportion of sugar than most of the esculent roots ”

“ The slices of carrot should be peppered and salted before being dipped in the egg.
Carrots, Mashed.—When carrots are very old they are best mashed. Boil them for some time, then cut them up and rub them through a wire sieve. They can be pressed in a basin and made hot by being steamed. A little butter, pepper and salt should be added to the mixture. A very pretty dish can be made by means of mixing mashed carrots with mashed turnips. They can be shaped in a basin, and with a little ingenuity can be put into red and white stripes. ”

“ No, a carrot, like the radish, is a root and is grown from seed. As the seed bursts open, the sprout sends up two tiny leaves, while the root goes down into the earth to seek food for its [99] plant. The root grows fatter and fatter as it keeps on feeding the green leaves that in turn give the root sunshine and air. In the fall when the plant dies, the carrot is ready to be dug out and used.
“If it remains in the ground through the winter, it freezes but does not die. In spring, it sends up a new shoot and this flowers to make seeds. ”

“ The carrot leads in starch, sugar, etc., followed closely by the beets. There is very little poetry in any of the five vegetables here briefly described, though they may enter into the daily food of those who think of lofty things and write in the most elegant style. They are the humble, unobtrusive toilers in the gardens of the world. ”

“ Carrot seed should be sown in rows a foot or fifteen inches apart and one-half inch deep. The early varieties should be thinned to stand about two inches apart, while the main crop needs about four inches between each plant. Some people defer the thinning of their carrots until they are of sufficient size for the table. “Baby” carrots are one of the most delicious of vegetables when they are properly cooked, far preferable to the roots that have been allowed to mature. ”

“ Perhaps the consistency can best be described by saying that there should be equal quantities of vegetables and fluid.
Carrot Soup.—If you wish this soup to be of a good colour, you must only use the outside, or red part, of the carrot, in which case a dozen large carrots will be required. If economy is practised, half this quantity will be sufficient. Take, say, half a dozen carrots, a small head of celery, and one onion, and throw them into boiling water for a few minutes in order to preserve the colour. ”

“ Then add one middle-sized carrot, half as much turnip, one middle-sized leek, a stalk of celery, one of parsley, a bay-leaf, one onion with two cloves stuck in it, and two cloves of garlic. Keep the kettle between simmering and boiling heat for about five hours. Dish the meat with carrot, turnip, and leek around it, and serve it as a relevé. Strain the broth, and it is ready for use.
If the broth is required to be richer, use more beef and less water, but follow the same process; if weaker, use more water and less beef, but still follow the same process. ”

“ The culture of the carrot is practically the same as the parsnip, except that carrots are not thinned so much and are allowed to grow almost as thickly as planted. Carrots should be dug in the autumn and stored the same as parsnips or turnips. Any surplus can be fed sparingly to horses, mules or cattle. The roots of the carrot are used at all times of the year, mostly in soups, but they may be boiled and served with butter or creamed. Carrots are planted in rows 16 inches apart and the plants thinned out to 4 inches in the row. ”

“ In few vegetable productions are the effects of cultivation more conspicuous than in the carrot. The wild plants, which are common in most parts of England, have a root so small and woody, that no one could suppose they had any alliance whatever to the large and succulent root of the garden carrot. ”

“ CARROT AND CABBAGE SALAD 1 medium-sized carrot 2 cupfuls cabbage 1/2 cupful roasted peanuts French or Cream Salad Dressing
Clean and scrape the carrot. Wash the cabbage. Put the carrot (uncooked) , cabbage, and peanuts through the food chopper. Mix with French or Cream Salad Dressing. Add more seasoning if necessary. Serve at once. ”

“ To make Carrot or Parsnip Puffs:—Scrape and boil your carrots or parsnips tender; then scrape or mash them very fine, add to a pint of pulp the crumb of a penny-loaf grated, or some stale biscuit, if you have it, some eggs, but four whites, a nutmeg grated, some orange-flower-water, sugar to your taste, a little sack, and mix it up with thick cream. They must be fry'd in rendered suet, the liquor very hot when you put them in; put in a good spoonful in a place. ”

“ The various uses of the carrot in cookery are well known. But, although it contains much nutriment, this root is difficult of digestion; particularly if eaten raw, or imperfectly boiled. Carrots are an excellent fodder for cattle and horses, either alone or mixed with hay; and, if given to cows, in winter or the early part of spring, they are said to cause a great increase of milk. If carrots be boiled with their wash, hogs will thrive well upon them. In some parts of England this vegetable has been cultivated as a winter food for deer ”

“ Like any soufflé, it will fall if not sufficiently baked, or if not served very promptly.
CHARTREUSE OF SPINACH OR OF CABBAGE
Boil a large carrot and turnip; cut them into slices lengthwise three eighths of an inch thick, then into strips of the same width. Butter well a tin basin, with slightly flaring sides, or a plain mold. Ornament the bottom with hard-boiled egg, or with fancy pieces of the vegetables. Around the sides of the mold place close together alternate strips of the carrot and turnip. ”

“ It is remarkable how few vegetables, or “pot-herbs” as they called them, were grown in Elizabethan times. Vegetables which figured in the old Roman menus were considered luxuries in this country even in the days of the later Stuarts. The wild carrot is an indigenous plant in our islands, but of the cultivated carrot we were ignorant till the Flemish [Pg 116] immigrants introduced it in the early seventeenth century. ”

“ So that besides the noxious plants there is a long range of useful vegetables, as parsnips, parsley, carrots, fennel, dill, anise, caraway, cummin, coriander, and celery. The last, in its wild state, is said to be pernicious, but etiolation changes the products and renders them harmless. The flowers of all are too minute to be individually pretty, but every one knows how charming are the umbels of our wild carrot, resembling as they do the choicest old lace. ”

“ Carrot Soup.—Boil a good sized bunch of carrots (first slicing them) till quite tender, pulp them through a sieve into a stew-pan; add a tablespoonful of butter, salt, and cayenne to taste, and pour over about three pints of good stock; let it simmer a few minutes, and serve hot. ”

“ Carrot (Daucus) of which there are about twenty species are mostly natives of the Mediterranean countries. The common carrot is a biennial plant and is universally cultivated for the sake of its root. In all varieties of the wild plant this is slender, woody and of a very strong flavor; and that of the cultivated variety is much thicker and more fleshy, much milder in its flavor and qualities. Its color is generally red, but sometimes orange or yellowish white. ”

“ It can be used also for beer instead of malt, and, in distillation, it yields a large quantity of spirit. The carrot is proportionably valuable as it has more of the red than the yellow part. There is a large red variety much used by the farmers for colouring butter. As a garden vegetable, it is what is called the orange-carrot that is usually cultivated. ”

“ Carrot:—Carrots also like a soil that is rather on the sandy side, and on account of the depth to which the roots go, it should be deep and fine. The quality will be better if the soil is not too rich. A few for extra early use may be grown in the hotbeds or frame. If radishes and carrots are sown together, in alternating rows six inches apart, the former will be used by the time the carrots need the room, and in this way a single 3 x 6 ft. sash will yield a good supply for the home garden. ”

“ There comes a time during the week, even in careful housekeeping, when there is an accumulation of little things, a few olives, a slice or two of beet, perhaps two or three pieces of cooked carrot, a cold potato, a tiny little bit of cold fish, or cold meats, and not more than a tablespoonful or two of aspic jelly ”

“ Carrots are most savory boiled with corned beef for two hours. They may also be boiled plain, cut in slices, and served with drawn butter. For old carrots not less than two hours will be necessary. Plenty of water must be used, and when cold the carrots are to be cut in dice. Melt in a saucepan a spoonful of butter; add half a teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of pepper, and a teaspoonful of sugar, and when the butter boils put in the carrots, and stir till heated through. ”

“ When the carrots are boiled tender, slice them lengthwise. Into a frying pan put one tablespoonful of butter, and when very hot put in the carrots; brown them lightly on both sides, sprinkle them with salt, pepper and a little sugar and garnish with parsley. ”

“ It bears divers stalks of fine cut leaves, lying upon the ground, somewhat like to the leaves of carrots, but not bushing so thick, of a little quick taste in them, from among which rises up a square stalk, not so high as the Carrot, at whose joints are set the like leaves, but smaller and finer, and at the top small open tufts, or umbels of white flowers, which turn into small blackish seed, smaller than the Anniseed, and of a quicker and hotter taste. ”

“ When the scum has done rising, and the surface of the broth is quite clear, put in one moderate sized carrot, a head of celery, two turnips, and two onions,—it should not have any taste of sweet herbs, spice, or garlic, &c. ”

“ Cut young carrots in small pieces, blanch them in salted water; melt some butter in a stew pan, add enough water and meat extract to make sufficient to cover the carrots, season with pepper, salt and a pinch of sugar and toss the carrots in this till they are tender. Then add the yolk of an egg and a tablespoonful of cream, holding the pan just off the fire with the left hand, while you stir with the right. When it is well mixed pour all out on a vegetable dish and sprinkle over with chopped parsley. ”

“ In preparing carrots for cooking, they should be scraped rather than peeled, in order to avoid wasting any of the vegetable. They are always cooked in boiling salted water, after which they can be treated in various ways. The water in which carrots are cooked should not be thrown away, as it may be used to flavor soup stock. If any carrots remain after a meal, they may be utilized in vegetable salad or soup. ”

“ TO STEW CARROTS.— Half-boil the carrots; then scrape them nicely, and cut them into thick slices. Put them into a stew-pan with as much milk as will barely cover them; a very little salt and pepper; and a sprig or two of chopped parsley. Simmer them till they are perfectly tender. When nearly done, add a piece of fresh butter rolled in flour. Send them to table hot. Carrots require long cooking; longer than any other vegetable.
Parsnips and salsify may be stewed in the above manner, substituting a little chopped celery for the parsley. ”

“ Prepare a nice thick stock, adding seasoning to taste. Cut up three carrots. Place the carrots in the saucepan in which the parsnips were cooked, being careful to wash it out first. Add the stock, bring to a boil and serve.
A LADY-FRIEND sends me the following instructions for growing vegetable marrows: In the sunniest part of the garden—the middle of the tennis-court is as good as anywhere else—dig a trench ten feet deep and about six wide, taking care to keep the top soil separate from the subsoil. ”

“ CARROTS are one of the root vegetables. They are similar in composition to beets, having practically the same total food value, which is for the most part carbohydrate in the form of sugar. Besides being valuable in the diet for their mineral salts and bulk, they add variety to the menu, especially in the winter, for upon maturing they can be kept for a long time if they are properly stored. As tiny young carrots, they are also much used as a summer vegetable, and when cooked whole and served in an attractive way they make a delicious vegetable dish. ”

“ A. F. Calvert, `English Illustrated,' Feb., p. 321:
"For the water-holders or `carriers' (made to fit the bodies of the horses carrying them, or to `ride easily' on pack-saddles) ."
Carrot, Native, (1) Daucus brachiatus, Sieb., N.O. Umbelliferae. Not endemic in Australia.
1847. L. Leichhardt, `Overland Expedition,' p. 64:
"The native carrot . . . was here withered and in seed."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants,' p. 124:
"Native carrot. Stock are very fond of this plant when young. Sheep thrive wonderfully on it where it is plentiful. ”