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To Stew Carp

A stewed carp dish flavored with vinegar, spices, Madeira wine, and finished with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

To Stew Carp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scale and clean the carp, reserving the liver and roe.

  2. Combine the carp with vinegar, mace, cloves, salt, Jamaica pepper, onions, parsley, basil, thyme, and marjoram in a deep pan.

  3. Let the mixture soak for 1 hour.

Stew and finish

  1. Transfer the carp and the marinated mixture to a stew pan, adding the chopped liver, Madeira, and veal stock.

  2. Stew for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the fish.

  3. Remove the fish and keep warm over a pan of hot water.

  4. Strain the cooking liquid and add the beaten egg yolks, cream, flour, and butter. Stir constantly.

  5. Just before serving, squeeze in the lemon juice.

  6. Boil or fry the roe separately.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 until tender in the stewing liquid.
Egg yolks
Thicken the strained sauce and give it a rich, smooth body when stirred in.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy finish and a rounder, richer mouthfeel to the sauce.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and a sweet, fortified flavour to the stewing liquid.
Vinegar
Acidity in the marinade that helps flavour and firm the carp before stewing.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and cream to the strained liquid. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so if the liquid is too hot or not stirred constantly the yolks can scramble and the sauce turns grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, pepper, onion, parsley, basil, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, pepper, onion, parsley, basil, thyme. 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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