Frontier Food Fun: Creamed Carrots (Little House on the Prairie Style)

I loved reading the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a child. I actually kind of want to re-read them as an adult. And I still want to visit her houses one day.

I saw this cookbook while Christmas shopping last year. I ended up getting it for myself because it has a lot of background information and reads like a fun book. It is also illustrated. I wanted to cook like I was living on the frontier, even though I did not have the same cooking set up as Laura and her family.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of items we can eat at the moment, but the vegetables were pretty safe. I have heard of creamed corn but not creamed carrots, so this recipe was intriguing.

There are some other recipes I want to try, especially around the holidays. I plan on making pickles for all the mason jars I have at the house soon, and this book has a recipe for some. There is also one for succotash, which always reminds me of my grandmother.

There are snippets from the books that mention the recipe that you are about to make.

Almanzo ate four large helpings of apples 'n'onions fried together. He ate roast beef and brown gravy, and mashed potatoes and creamed carrots and boiled turnips, and countless slices of buttered bread with crab-apple jelly.
-Farmer Boy

Note: this recipe says it is 6 servings, but the serving sizes must be huge. We had creamed carrots for days and days.  The dogs almost had some creamed carrots, but we managed to finish them in time.

carrots, 3 pounds, without tops
chicken or veal broth (or water), 1 cup
butter, 2 tablespoons, soft
flour, 2 tablespoons
heavy or sour cream, 1/4 cup
salt and freshly ground pepper
saucepan, 2 quart; small bowl

Scrub carrots with a stiff brush and slice them into the saucepan, cutting disks about 1/8 inch thick. Add broth (or water), cover, and simmer until a fork will puncture a slice (about 15 minutes). Meanwhile in a small bowl, blend butter and flour with a fork. Gradually work in cream to make a thin paste. When carrots are tender,  remove pan from heat and stir in paste: blend well with a wooden spoon, but be careful not to bruise the carrots. Return to heat just until the cream bubbles. Turn into a serving dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.