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Stewed Carp

A stewed carp with beef gravy, spices, and walnut ketchup, served with fried bread and horseradish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Stewed Carp

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stew

  1. In a stewpan, lay the cleaned carp with beef gravy, onion, cloves, Jamaica pepper, black pepper, and port wine.

  2. Simmer covered until nearly done.

  3. Add chopped anchovies, made mustard, walnut ketchup, and butter rolled in flour.

  4. Shake the pan and let the gravy boil for a few minutes.

  5. Stir in soy sauce before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread, fried roe, horseradish, and lemon.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Clove + mustardtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,829 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Carp
Provides the main flesh that becomes tender as it simmers in the gravy.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour and butter thicken the gravy into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Anchovies
Adds deep savoury umami flavour that blends into the gravy.
Walnut ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, slightly tangy depth to the sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity acidity that balance the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Shake the pan and let the gravy boil for a few minutes. Boiling cooks the flour-and-butter mixture so it thickens the sauce and loses its raw floury taste. Shaking distributes the butter and flour evenly so no lumps form.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, clove, pepper, port wine, mustard, ketchup):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Sesamefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, clove, pepper, port wine, mustard, ketchup. 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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