Although recipes appear in seventeenth century cookery texts, this type of pudding reached it apogee in the following century. Popular flavours were marrow, almond, carrot, chestnut, lemon and Seville orange. Recipes abound in the popular cookery books of the Georgian period.

From Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq's cookbook - “The Book of Cookery preparing Salubrious Foods and Delectable Dishes extracted from Medical Books and told by Proficient Cooks and the Wise.” read more 950 carrot recipes here

Choose fresh tender and sweet carrots. Peel them and thinly slice them crosswise. For each pound of honey use 3 pounds of these carrots. Boil the honey and remove its froth. Pound the carrot in a stone mortar.  Set a clean copper cauldron with a rounded bottom on a trivet on the fire, and put in it the skimmed honey and carrots. Cook the mixture on medium fire until the carrots fall apart.

Add walnut oil to the pot. For each pound of homey used add 2/3 cup of oil. Pistachio oil will be the best for it, but you can also use fresh oil of almond or sesame. Add the oil before the honey starts to thicken. However you do not need to stir the pot. You only scrape the bottom gently when mixture starts to thicken to prevent it from sticking to it. To check for doneness, use a stick or a spoon to see whether the pudding is thick enough or not yet.

When pudding becomes thick, put the pot down, and spread the dessert on a copper platter. Set it aside to cool down before serving. It will be firm and delicious.

To make a pudding in a Carret root. Take your Carret root and scrape it fair, then take a fine knife and cut out all the meat that is within the roote, and make it hollow, then make your pudding stuffe of the liver of a gooce or of a Pig, with grated bread, Corance, Cloves and mace, Dates, Pepper, Salt and Sugar, chop your Liver very small, and perboile it ere you chop it, so doon, put it in your hollow root.
As for the broth, take mutton broth with corance, carets sliste, salt, whole Mace, sweet Butter, Vergious and grated bread, and so serve it forth upon sippets.

 Pare off some of the crust of Manchet bread and grate off half as much of the rest as there is of the root, which must also be grated. Then take half a pint of half Cream or New Milk half a Pound of fresh Butter Six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter. Then put in the grated Bread and with near half a Pound of Sugar and a little Salt ; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice and pour all into a convenient dish or pan buttered to keep the ingredients from sticking or burning; set it in a quick oven for about an Hour. And so have you a Composition for any Root Pudding. The Sauce is a little rose-water with Butter beaten together and sweetened with the Sugar Caster. (Giles Rose, one of the Master Cooks to Charles II, 1682.)

(From Garden of Herbs 1921 – Eleanour Rohde)

26. Pudding of Carrot. Pare off some of the Crust of Manchet-Bread, and grate of half as much of the rest as there is of the Root, which must also be grated: Then take half a Pint of fresh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of fresh Butter, six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of Sugar; and a little Salt; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Dish or Pan, butter'd, to keep the Ingredients from sticking and burning; set it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and so have you a Composition for any Root-Pudding.

Boyle 2 large carrots .... in a mortar and strain it thro a sive mix it with 2 grated briskets 1/2 a pound of butter sack and orange flower water sugar and a little salt and pint of cream mixt in 4 yolks of eggs and 2 whites beat these together and put it in a dish being covered with puff past and garnish the brim.

(Click on image for full page in detail).

135. A CARROT PUDDING.

Take three or four clear red carrots, boil and peel them, take the red part of the carrot, beat it very fine in a marble mortar, put to it the crumbs of a penny loaf, six eggs, half a pound of clarified butter, two or three spoonfuls of rose water, a little lemon-peel shred, grate in a little nutmeg, mix them well together, bake it with a puff-paste round your dish, and have a little white wine, butter and sugar, for the sauce.

27. CARROT PUDDING - another Way.

Take half a pound of carrots, when boil'd and peel'd, beat them in a mortar, two ounces of grated bread, a pint of cream, half a pound of suet or marrow, a glass of sack, a little cinnamon, half a pound of sugar, six eggs well beat, leaving out three of the whites, and a quarter of a pound of macaroons; mix all well together; puff-paste round the dish-edge.

Sauce. Wine and sugar.

BAKED OR BOILED CARROT PUDDING.

1259. INGREDIENTS.—½ lb. of bread crumbs, 4 oz. of suet, ¼ lb. of stoned raisins, ¾ lb. of carrot, ¼ lb. of currants, 3 oz. of sugar, 3 eggs, milk, ¼ nutmeg.

Mode - Boil the carrots until tender enough to mash to a pulp; add the remaining ingredients, and moisten with sufficient milk to make the pudding of the consistency of thick batter. If to be boiled, put the mixture into a buttered basin, tie it down with a cloth, and boil for 2-½ hours: if to be baked, put it into a pie-dish, and bake for nearly an hour; turn it out of the dish, strew sifted sugar over it, and serve.

Time - 2-½ hours to boil; 1 hour to bake. Average cost, 1s. 2d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons.

Seasonable from September to March.

Carrots, says Liebig, contain the same kind of sugar as the juice of the sugar-cane.

 In Victorian times, the upper classes would often eat very grand, fattening dishes. However, very few people were well-off, and the food eaten by the masses was often very simple, and cheap. Carrot pudding is a dish belonging to the latter food genre.

Ingredients

One large carrot, Approximately one tablespoon biscuit powder,  Three or four sweet biscuits, Four egg yolks, Two egg whites,  570ml cream, either raw or scalded, a few teaspoons ratafia (an alcoholic beverage, beware! - brandy will do!), a quarter of a nutmeg, 60g sugar.

Method  - Boil the large carrot until tender, and then mash it in a mortar. When the carrot is suitably mashed5, add the remaining ingredients, and stir the mixture together.

Bake all the ingredients in a shallow dish.

Times vary wildly for Victorian dishes, but 45 minutes at 180°C should do it.

Pakistani Carrot Pudding (gajraila) sometimes called halva

Ingredients

4 cups milk

¼ cup basmati or Carolina long-grain rice

1 pound carrots, scrubbed and grated

½ cup sugar (or more, depending on sweetness of carrots)

¾ teaspoon ground cardamom

½ cup golden raisins

¼ cup shelled pistachios

Method - Combine milk and rice in a medium saucepan, and set aside 30 minutes to soak. Add grated carrots, sugar and cardamom. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1½ hours, scraping down the sides of pan and stirring occasionally to keep rice from sticking.

If a thick pudding is desired, mash some of mixture with a potato masher or immersion blender. Add raisins. Taste for sweetness, adding more sugar if desired. Cook 30 minutes longer, stirring every so often. When pudding is done, transfer to 1-quart serving dish or individual ramekins. S

Sprinkle with pistachios. Serve warm or chilled. Yield: Serves 6. Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 293 calories, 7.9 grams fat (3.4 grams saturated), 6.3 milligrams cholesterol, 8.1 grams protein, 50.1 grams carbohydrates, 3.4 grams fibre, 119.2 milligrams sodium.

Candied Carrots

Candied carrots taste nice on their own, but can also be served as a side dish with many savoury meals. The idea of adding golden syrup to carrots, and then eating them as part of a main course may seem a little strange, but the Victorians did it.

Ingredients

 • 500g carrots

 • Two tablespoons golden syrup

• Salt (pinch)

• Two tablespoons butter

• Chopped mint or parsley

Method

1. Slice the carrots length-wise, and then boil them in salt water until nice and tender, and then drain.

2. In a separate pan, melt the syrup and butter together.

3. Add the carrots to the syrup and butter, and cook for 10 minutes.

4. Sprinkle some chopped mint or parsley over the top, and serve. A tablespoon of cream may also be added, according to personal preference.