Have you ever watched a horse movie? Seabiscuit? Black Beauty? Any movie with horses in it? If you answered yes, you will be familiar with the concept of "horse carrots." There’s always a scene where the stablehand or trainer or whoever takes a huge carrot and feeds it to a horse. A truly massive, audibly crunchy carrot, appropriately sized for a horse. That is a horse carrot.
Human beings eat horse carrots too. You can buy them at almost any grocery store. They’re usually sold loose, by the pound, in a big bin. You might walk by and pick one up and say something like, Wow, this is a large carrot! You probably know what I’m talking about. And it can be tempting to buy these monstrous carrots—it definitely seems efficient. You only have to peel one carrot instead of four! They're easier to butcher! But here’s the thing: You should always avoid the big carrots and opt for the smaller ones instead.
When it comes to vegetables, bigger is almost never better, and this is particularly true with carrots. Those horse carrots have higher starch levels, more water, less flavor, and minimal natural sweetness. They are a shade of what a carrot should be. They’re more impressive when it comes to size, but when it comes to flavor, you’re getting almost nothing.
And we use that natural sweetness for establishing a base flavor in a wide variety of dishes. If we’re using carrots in a mirepoix (that combination of chopped vegetables that chefs sweat out to start soups and the like), we’re expecting them to do the heavy lifting in the sugars department. You won’t get that base layer of flavor if you use a horse carrot. You’re really just adding moisture and starch. And if carrots are the star of the dish, well, you get the picture.
So what kind of carrots should you buy? If you’re the intuitive type, you’d say, The smaller ones! And you’d be right. To be clear, I’m not talking about bagged baby carrots. You shouldn’t buy those either. I’m talking about the reasonably-sized, slender carrots that usually come in a bunch, sometimes with the green tops still attached. These carrots tend to be sweeter, with a more concentrated carrot flavor. Whether you’re using them in soup, baking them into a cake, roasting them to eat as a side, or just snacking on them with a little yogurt dip.
We should all be riding the small carrot wave. It’s going to make your food taste better, and that will make you happier. I’m just looking out for your happiness. And the horses! They need carrots too. Leave the horse carrots for the horses. That's how things should be.
