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Carp, Stewed

A fish stew made with carp, mushrooms, onions, stock, and a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Carp, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the fish in vinegar and water.

  2. Cut the fish into thick slices.

  3. Slice the onions.

  4. Fry the onions until brown in hot butter or fat.

Make the stew

  1. Add the stock, mushrooms, herbs, nutmeg, salt, and pepper to the pan and warm the mixture.

  2. Add the fish and simmer gently for about 30 to 40 minutes.

  3. Remove the fish and keep it warm.

Thicken and serve

  1. Knead the flour and remaining butter or fat into a smooth paste.

  2. Add the paste to the stewpan and simmer, stirring until the sauce is smooth.

  3. Place the fish on a hot dish and strain the sauce over it.

  4. Garnish with heated mushrooms, fried roe, and toast.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,907 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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, becoming tender and flaky as it simmers gently.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce when kneaded with butter and simmered.
Butter or good fat
Carries flavor and gives the onions browning and richness; part is reserved to bind the sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the flavor of the herbs and aromatics.
Onions
Browned in fat first, adding deep savory sweetness and color to the sauce.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the sauce, and are reheated as a garnish.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with the flour paste. Kneading flour with fat into a smooth paste before adding it prevents lumps, because flour dispersed without pre-coating clumps when it hits hot liquid. Simmering then lets the starch swell and thicken the sauce evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, mushroom, butter, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, mushroom, butter, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, pepper. 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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