To the Carrots, to Make Much of Time

Will you dismiss me as a produce shill
If I say we're eating carrots still?
It's true: And so our cooking scheme
Begins with carrots, nutmeg, and cream
Baked in ramekins in a bain-marie.
(It tested my food vocabul'ry.)

And yet it excited me most because
We had to discuss just what it was.
(You'll excuse me if I stop to say
That kitchen debate is our forte.
And should research be in demand.
We keep books and laptops close at hand.)

The need for taxonomy confirmed,
Let's take a moment to define our terms:
A souffle's a dish that gets its height
From mounds of lofty whipped egg white.
Forgive me if this seems abstruse:
You need whipped cream to make a mousse.

A souffle's baked until its risen
While mousse meets heat to great derision.
This recipe uses both eggs and cream
But neither's whipped. And so it seems
That though the 'Net led us astray,
We baked a fine carrot puree.