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Baked Caep

A whole carp baked with stuffing, breadcrumbs, stock, onions, herbs, port wine, anchovies, and butter, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Baked Caep

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Stuff the cleaned carp as you would for soles and sew it up.

  3. Brush the carp all over with egg yolk and cover with breadcrumbs.

  4. Baste the carp with oiled butter and place it in a deep earthen dish.

  5. Add stock, sliced onions, bay leaves, herbs, port wine, and anchovies to the dish.

Bake and make the gravy

  1. Cover the dish and bake for 1 hour.

  2. Keep the fish warm.

  3. Heat the cooking liquid with butter rolled in flour, mustard, cayenne, and soy.

Serve

  1. Serve the fish garnished with lemon, parsley, and horseradish, with the gravy in a sauceboat.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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 its liquid so it stays moist.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the fish so the breadcrumbs stick and brown during baking.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the fish as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown while basting.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the cooking liquid that becomes the gravy.
Anchovies
Melt into the cooking liquid, adding savoury depth to the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering and baking the fish. The dish must be covered so the fish steams gently in the liquid; uncovered or overbaked fish dries out and the breadcrumb coating can scorch before the centre is cooked through.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, fish, basil, thyme, parsley, marjoram. 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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