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Stewed, Carp

A stew of carp simmered in beef gravy with spices, anchovies, mustard, walnut ketchup, and butter, served with fried bread, horseradish, and lemon.

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. Lay the cleaned carp in a stew pan.

  2. Add beef gravy, onion, cloves, Jamaica pepper, blati, and port wine.

  3. Simmer covered until nearly done.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in chopped anchovies, made mustard, walnut ketchup, and butter rolled in flour.

  2. Boil the gravy for a few minutes, then add soy sauce.

  3. 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
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked gently in the gravy until tender.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the gravy as the butter melts, giving it body.
Anchovies
Dissolve into the gravy, adding savoury depth without a fishy flavour.
Walnut ketchup
Adds a dark, concentrated savoury flavour to the sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and fruity depth to the gravy while it simmers.

The step that matters

Boiling the gravy after adding the flour-butter mixture. Flour thickens only when it reaches a boil and the starch swells. Boiling for a few minutes cooks out raw flour taste and sets the gravy's body. Stirring helps prevent lumps.

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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