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Baked Carp

A whole carp baked with vegetables and a savory sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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 ↓

Baked Carp

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare and bake

  1. Procure a good-sized carp and stuff it.

  2. Place the carp in a baking dish with the onions, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, thyme, and bay leaf.

  3. Moisten with port wine, water, salt, pepper, and oil.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 2 hours.

  5. Check if done by inserting a knife; the flesh should leave the bone easily.

Make the sauce

  1. For the sauce, mince the large Spanish onion and the two common onions.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the salad oil and sauté the onions until yellow.

  3. Add port wine and flour, mixing well.

  4. Pour in the broth or water and add glaze or brown gravy.

  5. Boil, then drain the stock from the vegetables and add them to the sauce.

  6. Simmer until thick, then add Harvey sauce, essence of anchovies, pickled mushrooms, and cayenne pepper.

Serve

  1. Pour the drained liquid from the fish over the dish, sauce it, and serve.

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. Parsley + thymetop 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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, cooked gently in moisture until the flesh flakes from the bone.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the onions and liquid, giving it body.
Spanish onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth to the sauce as it softens and turns yellow.
Port wine
Adds acidity and fruity depth to the cooking liquid and sauce.
Pickled mushrooms
Add a tangy, savory note to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Checking the fish for doneness. Carp overcooks quickly and becomes dry and tough. The flesh should separate easily from the bone when it is done, so test with a knife before removing it from the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, thyme, port wine, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, thyme, port wine, pepper. 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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