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Stewed Carp

A stew of carp with mushrooms, carrot, onion, stock, claret, herbs, capers, served over hot toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Stewed Carp

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the fish, mushrooms, carrot, and onion.

  2. Add the clear stock, claret, parsley, thyme, clove, pepper, and salt.

  3. Simmer for one hour.

  4. Stir in the capers.

  5. Carefully serve the stewed fish over hot toast in a deep dish.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 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 as the fish that gently cooks and flakes in the stew.
Claret
Adds acidity and wine flavour that brightens the rich stewing liquid.
Mushrooms
Contribute savoury, earthy flavour and moisture to the stewing liquid.
Capers
Add a sharp, briny acidity that cuts through the richness of the stew.

The step that matters

Simmer for one hour. Gentle simmering cooks the fish through without breaking it apart, while letting the stock and claret reduce and concentrate. A rolling boil would toughen the fish and cloud the liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, mushroom, carrot, parsley, thyme, clove, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, mushroom, carrot, parsley, thyme, clove, 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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