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Carp, Stewed

A stew of carp with bacon, veal, onions, carrots, herbs, and wine, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Carp, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the carp thoroughly and cut it into slices.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the carp, bacon, veal, onions, carrots, thyme, parsley, chives, and garlic if using.

Stew and thicken

  1. Pour the glass of white wine over the carp and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

  2. Add equal parts of white wine and stock to cover the fish and vegetables.

  3. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Thicken the sauce with a little flour and butter, then add pepper, salt, and nutmeg.

  5. Boil while stirring continually until the sauce reaches the desired consistency.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Chive + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Carp
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender as it simmers gently in the liquid.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that enriches the cooking liquid as it renders.
Veal
Contributes meaty richness and body to the stewing liquid.
Flour and butter
Thicken the sauce, giving it body and a smooth, coating texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce and help flavor the fish.

The step that matters

Boil while stirring continually until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. Flour-thickened sauces can turn lumpy or stay raw-tasting if not stirred, and they thicken as they reduce, so constant stirring keeps the texture smooth and even.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, carrot, thyme, parsley, chive, garlic):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, carrot, thyme, parsley, chive, garlic. 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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