Why it works: Wine and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,958 recipes. Both carry cis-isoeugenol, which smells clove, spicy. The science ↓
Carp, Sauce Matelote
Ingredients
Directions
Place the carp in a small oval fish kettle.
Add wine, vegetables, water, salt, cloves, and peppercorns.
Cook until the fish is done and the flesh easily separates from the bone.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Wine + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,958 recipes
Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carp
- The main protein; its flesh cooks into flakes that separate from the bone.
- Wine
- Adds acidity and aromatic flavour to the cooking liquid.
- Cloves
- Adds a warm, aromatic note to the cooking liquid.
- Peppercorns
- Adds a mild, aromatic pepper flavour to the cooking liquid.
The step that matters
Cook until the flesh easily separates from the bone. Fish flesh turns firm and dry when overcooked, because its proteins tighten and squeeze out moisture. Check the fish early and stop as soon as it flakes easily from the bone.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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