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Carp Baked

Baked carp with stuffing, bread crumbs, stock, onions, herbs, port wine, anchovies, and a lemon‑cayenne sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Carp Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the carp

  1. Stuff the carp and brush it with the beaten egg.

  2. Cover the carp with bread crumbs and drizzle with oiled butter.

Bake

  1. Place the carp in a deep baking dish with stock, sliced onions, bay leaves, parsley, marjoram, and basil.

  2. Add port wine and anchovies.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the carp 15 minutes before serving to reserve the cooking liquid for the sauce.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, then add enough flour to absorb the fat.

  2. Pour in the reserved liquid and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat, squeeze in lemon juice, and season with cayenne pepper and sugar.

  4. Serve the carp on a dish, garnished with parsley, and the sauce in a separate boat.

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. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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 and carries the stuffing and flavours.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating so it adheres to the fish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the fish.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and browning, and forms the base of the sauce roux.
Port wine
Adds depth and sweetness to the cooking liquid that becomes the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the reserved cooking liquid into a smooth sauce.

The step that matters

Bringing the sauce to a boil while stirring constantly. Flour thickens liquid only when its starch is heated and dispersed evenly; stirring prevents lumps from forming and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, butter, parsley, marjoram, basil, port wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, butter, parsley, marjoram, basil, port wine. 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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