Baby carrots

[shkrobius]

I've met countless people believing that "baby carrots" are, literally, carrot "babies" that are harvested before they are fully grown. In fact, "baby carrots" are fully grown substandard carrots that are hacked into 2" pieces and polished down in a potato peeler to look like the small ones

Comments

[selfmade]

I never thought of these as of "baby" carrots. I thought of them as of some type of fully grown tiny carrots. Never knew they cut them. But they do taste better to me. Pretty much as a middle part of average young russian carrot, the lower part being too bitter and upper part too thick.

[shkrobius]

>>But they do taste better to me.

Now that you know they won't. It's all in the head.

[selfmade]

oh, yes they do. The thinner the carrot the tastier. I can make an experiment though when I buy groceries next time.

[stas]

I learned the baby carrot secret some time ago, but I still like them more than the regular ones. I've recently read that placebo helps people even if they know it's a placebo - apparently works with carrots too.

[shkrobius]

Wow!- at least three commenters tell me they like baby carrots more than the regular ones. I do not know. May be your baby carrots ARE tastier than ours. All of them come from CA and you guys in the Bay Area are right there, so you are getting them fresh. The stuff we are getting here is not very good, as they travel refrigerated for many days. In each pack, at least one is slimy or squishy. There is simply no comparison with the local carrots. Also, I like Danvers more than Imperator, and that's what we usually get locally.

[stas]

Yes, since these are essentially peeled carrots and my experience is that peeled carrots lose their prime quite fast, I can totally imagine they taste differently. Or maybe it's just an illusion because they have that cute form :)

[seminarist]

It is not surprising that an older, larger carrot tastes better: whatever a carrot accumulates as it grows, it has accumulated more of.

[shkrobius]

Western carrots have defective genes that keep juvenile metabolism in the mature state. The joke is that all carrots are "baby carrots". I wrote about it in today's post.

BTW, I discovered that since 2001 carrots are legally a fruit in Europe. http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/trivia.html#veg
Little wonder that these European carrots taste better!