Daucus carota, an important root vegetable which had an unpromising origin. The wild carrot, which grows in much of W. Asia and Europe, has a tiny and acrid-tasting root. However, when it is cultivated in favourable conditions the roots of successive generations enlarge quickly. So the evolution of cultivars with enlarged roots is easily explained; indeed, what is puzzling is that it seems to have taken a very long time for D. carota var sativa, as the modern cultivated carrot is known, to appear.
The puzzle is all the greater because archaeologists have found traces of carrot seed at prehistoric lake dwellings in Switzerland. Also, the plant is included in a list of vegetables grown in the royal garden of Babylon in the 8th century bc. Here there is a clue: the plant is not in the list of ordinary vegetables but in that of aromatic herbs. It was probably being grown for its leaves or seeds, both of which have a pleasant carrot fragrance. It seems likely that this had also been the purpose of carrot cultivation in classical times, for there is little or no evidence to suggest that the Greeks and Romans enjoyed eating the roots.
Many writers state that the carrot in something like its modern form was brought westwards, at least as far as the Arab countries of the E. Mediterranean, from Afghanistan, where the very dark red, even purple, carrots of antiquity are still grown. The introduction is variously dated at the 8th or 10th century ad, i.e. the period of Arab expansion into the Middle East and C. Asia. This fits well enough with the fact that the earliest surviving clear description of the carrot dates from the first half of the 12th century, and was by an Arab writer, Ibn al-Awam. He described two kinds. One, which was juicy and tasty, was ‘red’; probably the purplish-red carrot referred to above and seldom seen now. The other, coarser and of inferior flavour, was yellow and green: this sounds like a predecessor of the typical hot-climate variety still grown in the Middle East and India. Ibn al-Awam said that carrots were eaten dressed with oil and vinegar or in mixtures with vegetables or cereals.
Ibn al-Awam was writing in Andalusia, whither the Arabs had brought the carrot by his time, and whence it reached other parts of Europe. For example, it came into use in France, the Netherlands, and Germany in the 14th century, and in Britain in the 15th. The Dutch were foremost in the cultivation of carrots, and improved Dutch varieties were brought to England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. From contemporary botanists' descriptions, and in particular from a painting (Christ and the Adulterers by Pieter Aertsen, Amsterdam, 1559) it is clear that all these carrots were pale yellow or purple, the purple kinds gradually falling from favour. In the mid-16th century a white type was described in Germany. (White carrots still occasionally appear as freaks in normal-coloured crops.)
The first sign of truly orange carrots is in Dutch paintings of the 17th century, and they were first described, also in the Netherlands, in the 18th. They soon assumed the dominance which they have had ever since. The orange colour is due to the presence of carotene, in its beta form; this is converted in the body to vitamin A. (The earlier purplish colour was provided by an anthocyanin pigment.)
Cultivated carrots of the European type were brought to the New World before 1565, when Hawkins mentions that they were grown on Margarita Island, off the coast of what is now Venezuela. These carrots were enthusiastically received by the American Indians, who had few good sweet roots to compare with them. In Oregon the Flathead Indians, though otherwise scrupulously honest, were said by a surveyor for the Pacific Railroad to be unable to resist digging up the white settlers' carrots.
Modern carrot varieties are specialized into different shapes. The conventional, and oldest, fairly long and tapered shape is that of ‘main crop’ carrots, which grow slowly and are ready from the middle to the end of the season. They keep well both in the ground and in storage, and generally have the best flavour for use as cooked vegetables. ‘Early’ carrots, the second principal category, are often narrow and cylindrical, for example Amsterdam.
Carrots contain quite large amounts of sugar, and have occasionally been used as a source of refined sugar; but in this role they cannot compare with the sweeter but otherwise useless sugar beet.
Despite this sweetness, carrots are most commonly met, in western kitchens, as an ingredient for savoury soups (Potage Crécy is the famous French carrot soup) and stews, or as a cooked vegetable in their own right, or grated to be eaten raw as a salad item.
Carrots being cooked by themselves are often slightly sweetened to bring out their natural sweetness, either with sugar or by browning to caramelize their natural sugar and convert some of their starch to sweetish dextrin. Another way of accentuating the flavour is by adding a little of one of their umbelliferous relatives: celery leaves, fennel seeds, chervil, or parsley.
In the Middle Ages in Europe, when sweeteners were scarce and expensive, carrots were used in sweet cakes and desserts. In Britain, for example, carrot puddings (and puddings made from other sweet root vegetables, such as parsnips) often appeared in recipe books in the 18th and 19th centuries. Such uses were revived in Britain during the Second World War, when the Ministry of Food disseminated recipes for carrot Christmas pudding, carrot cake, and so on and survive in a small way to the present day. Indeed, carrot cakes have enjoyed a revival in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century. They are perceived as ‘healthy’ cakes, a perception fortified by the use of brown sugar and wholemeal flour and the inclusion of chopped nuts, and only slightly compromised by the cream cheese and sugar icing which appears on some versions.
The role of carrots has a different emphasis in Asia. They are often conserved and preserved in jams and syrups. Shredded carrots are used as a colourful garnish for pilaf, notably in Iran and C. Asia. In Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent, they are also the basis of some types of halva and kheer.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
