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Baked Carp

A whole carp baked with a breadcrumb coating, stock, herbs, and anchovies, served with a gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 Carp

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. Clean the carp and stuff it as you would for soles. Sew it up.

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

  3. Baste with oiled butter and place in a deep baking dish.

Bake

  1. Add stock, sliced onions, bay leaves, herbs, port wine, and anchovies.

  2. Cover the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once done, pour the liquid into a saucepan and keep the fish warm.

  2. Heat the liquid with butter, mustard, a pinch of cayenne, and soy sauce.

  3. Serve the fish garnished with lemon, parsley, and horseradish, with gravy on the side.

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, staying moist as it bakes covered in liquid.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the fish to help the breadcrumbs stick and encourage golden browning.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating on the outside of the fish.
Anchovies
Melt into the cooking liquid, adding savoury depth to the sauce.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the cooking liquid and the gravy.
Onion
Softens and sweetens in the cooking liquid, flavouring the gravy.

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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