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Carp, Stewed

A stewed carp dish with vinegar, flour, white wine, horseradish, cream, and egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 743 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Carp, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash the carp in vinegar and water.

  2. Cut the fish into fair-sized pieces.

  3. Roll each piece in seasoned flour.

Stew

  1. Place the pieces in a covered stewpan.

  2. Pour the white wine over the fish.

  3. Cook for nearly an hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Carefully remove the fish onto a dish.

  2. Stir the horseradish, cream, and egg yolk into the sauce.

  3. Pour the sauce over the carp.

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. Flour + horseradishtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together743 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Vinegar + horseradishtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Carp
Is the main protein, which turns flaky and tender as it stews.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the braising liquid, helping flavour the fish and sauce.
Egg yolk
Thickens and enriches the sauce as it gently heats.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce.
Horseradish
Adds sharp pungency that cuts through the richness of the cream and yolk.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk into the sauce. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently, but if the sauce gets too hot it can curdle and turn grainy. Stir it in off the heat or over low heat.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, flour, white wine, cream, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Horseradishthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, flour, white wine, cream, egg. 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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