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Carp Pie

A baked carp stuffed with a forcemeat of eel, herbs, lemon peel, oysters, anchovy, egg yolks, bread crumbs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Carp Pie

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, draw, and wipe the carp.

  2. Make a forcemeat by mixing the minced eel, herbs, lemon peel, pepper, nutmeg, salt, chopped oysters, anchovy, egg yolks, and bread crumbs.

  3. Add ¼ cup of cream to the mixture and combine well.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the carp with the forcemeat and sew it up.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Anchovy + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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 pie and cooks into the flaky, tender filling.
Minced eel
Adds richness and fat to the forcemeat, keeping it moist as it cooks.
Egg yolks
Bind the forcemeat and help it set firm when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the forcemeat body so it holds its shape.
Oysters
Add briny savoriness and moisture to the forcemeat.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the forcemeat texture.

The step that matters

Baking until cooked through. The stuffing is made of eel, oysters, and egg yolks, which can turn rubbery or dry if overcooked. Baking until just cooked through, and checking the thickest part of the carp, keeps the filling tender and safe to eat.

“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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