BOILED CARROTS.
1100. INGREDIENTS.—To each 1/2 gallon of water, allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt; carrots.
Mode.—Cut off the green tops, wash and scrape the carrots, and should there be any black specks, remove them. If very large, cut them in halves, divide them lengthwise into four pieces, and put them into boiling water, salted in the above proportion; let them boil until tender, which may be ascertained by thrusting a fork into them: dish, and serve very hot. This vegetable is an indispensable accompaniment to boiled beef. When thus served, it is usually boiled with the beef; a few carrots are placed round the dish as a garnish, and the remainder sent to table in a vegetable-dish. Young carrots do not require nearly so much boiling, nor should they be divided: these make a nice addition to stewed veal, &c.
Time.—Large carrots, 1-3/4 to 2-1/4 hours; young ones, about 1/2 hour.
Average cost, 6d. to 8d, per bunch of 18.
Sufficient,—4 large carrots for 5 or 6 persons.
Seasonable.—Young carrots from April to June, old ones at any time.
[Illustration: CARROTS.]
ORIGIN OF THE CARROT.—In its wild state, this vegetable is found plentifully in Britain, both in cultivated lands and by waysides, and is known by the name of birds-nest, from its umbels of fruit becoming incurved from a hollow cup, like a birds-nest. In this state its root is whitish, slender, and hard, with an acrid, disagreeable taste, and a strong aromatic smell, and was formerly used as an aperient. When cultivated, it is reddish, thick, fleshy, with a pleasant odour, and a peculiar, sweet, mucilaginous taste. The carrot is said by naturalists not to contain much nourishing matter, and, generally speaking, is somewhat difficult of digestion.