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To Stew Carp

Carp soaked in vinegar and herbs, then stewed in Madeira and veal stock and finished with a thickened egg yolk and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

To Stew Carp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cleaned carp in a deep pan with vinegar, mace, cloves, salt, Jamaica pepper, sliced onions, and herbs for 1 hour.

Stew the fish

  1. Transfer the fish to a stew pan with the soaking liquid, chopped liver, Madeira, and veal stock.

  2. Stew for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the fish.

  3. Remove the fish and keep warm over hot water.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the cooking liquid and add beaten egg yolks, cream, flour, and butter.

  2. Stir constantly and add lemon juice just before serving 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the strained liquid into a smooth, rich sauce when gently heated.
Flour
Helps thicken the sauce so it clings to the fish.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky, mellow texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy finish and rounder flavour to the sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce just before serving.
Veal stock
Provides the savoury body and base flavour of the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and cream to the strained liquid. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat but scramble and curdle if the liquid gets too hot or is not stirred constantly. Keep the heat low and stir steadily until the sauce turns smooth and lightly thickened.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, pepper, onion, parsley, basil, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, pepper, onion, parsley, basil, thyme. 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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