Name: Carp Stewed
Ingredients: 1 carp; ½ cup port or claret wine; 1 tablespoon blood (from the carp); 2 tablespoons bread, toasted and sliced; 1 lemon, sliced; barberries (to taste)

Why it works: Wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Carp Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Clean and prepare the carp.

Cook and serve

In a pot, combine the wine and blood, stirring well.
Add the carp to the pot and cook until tender.
Serve the carp with the sauce poured over it.
Garnish with toasted bread, lemon slices, and barberries.

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.

Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Wine + breadtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together956 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Blood: Thickens the sauce and gives it a rich, dark body.
Port or claret wine: Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the cooking liquid.
Carp: The main protein, cooked gently in the wine until tender.