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Carp, Stewed

A stew of carp simmered with claret, mushrooms, onions, and herbs, finished with a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 sliced onions until brown in 2 oz. of hot butter.

Stew the fish

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

  2. Warm the mixture.

  3. Add the fish to the pan.

  4. Simmer gently for 30 to 40 minutes.

  5. Remove the fish and keep it warm.

Make the sauce and serve

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

  2. Add the paste to the stewpan.

  3. Simmer and stir until the sauce is smooth.

  4. Place the fish on a hot dish.

  5. Strain the sauce over the fish.

  6. 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

Flour and butter paste
Thickens the stock and claret into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Claret
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the sauce.
Button mushrooms
Contribute savoury flavour and moisture to the stew and sauce.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and savoury depth into the base.
Carp
The main fish, cooked gently in the stew until it becomes tender.

The step that matters

Simmer gently. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the delicate fish tender and intact, so the slices do not break apart or turn tough.

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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