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To Stew Carp

A carp stew cooked with flour, lard, water, red wine, lemon pickle, walnut catsup, mushroom powder, cayenne, onion, horseradish, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Stew Carp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and dry the fish with a clean cloth.

  2. Dredge the fish in flour.

  3. Fry the fish in lard until light brown.

Stew

  1. Place the fish in a stew pan with water, red wine, lemon pickle, walnut catsup, mushroom powder, cayenne, onion, and horseradish.

  2. Cover the pan to retain steam and stew gently until the gravy reduces to cover the fish.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the fish and place it on a serving dish.

  2. Thicken the gravy with flour and butter, boil briefly, and strain over the fish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Red wine + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Red wine + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together720 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Carp
The main protein, which is cooked gently in the stewing liquid until tender.
Flour
Coats the fish for browning and later thickens the gravy.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the stewing liquid.
Butter
Enriches the gravy and adds richness and smoothness when it is thickened.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma into the gravy as it stews.
Horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows during stewing.

The step that matters

Stewing gently until the gravy reduces. Covering the pan keeps steam in so the fish cooks gently and stays moist, while slow reduction concentrates the gravy. Boiling hard would toughen the flesh and break the fish apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, red wine, lemon, walnut, mushroom, pepper, clove):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, red wine, lemon, walnut, mushroom, pepper, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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