Baked Carp

Clean a carp and place it in a bowl of salted cold water and vinegar to let it disgorge. Remove, drain and dry it, stuff with well-seasoned forcemeat, sew up the belly, brush it with egg, dredge breadcrumbs over and put on a few small lumps of butter here and there. Place the fish in a deep earthenware dish with two onions cut in slices and a few sweet herbs, pour over one breakfast cupful each of sweet wine and stock, mixing it with one teaspoonful of anchovy sauce or essence, put the dish in a moderate oven and bake for an hour. Dress the carp carefully on a dish and keep it hot, then strain the liquor into a saucepan, add a lump of butter rolled in flour to thicken and stir continually over the fire until it is done; then mix in half a teaspoonful of sugar, the juice of a lemon and a seasoning of salt and pepper. Pour this into a sauceboat and serve.

Baked Carp, - Mariniere

Take a carp weighing from ten to twelve pounds, scale, draw it, and cut a little off the fins and fill the inside with forcemeat. Remove a little of the skin from the back, leaving the flesh exposed, and lard this with fat bacon; then truss the head; place the fish on a drainer in a long fishkettle, season it and fill the kettle to about half the height of the fish with court bouillon and white wine in the proportion of one quart of the former to one-half pint of the latter. Place the kettle on the fire and let the liquid boil for five minutes; then remove the carp and put it in a moderate oven to bake for about an hour and a half, basting it often. When done, take it out, drain, and pour its stock through a sieve, putting the fish back into the kettle again to keep hot. Prepare a little brown sauce with the stock, and when clarified and strained, put it into a flat stewpan with a handful of mushroom trimmings; pour in a wineglassful of white wine and reduce; then pass it through a sieve, adding a quarter of a pound of good butter. Place the carp on an oval dish and garnish it on both sides with a bunch of quenelles of whitings, one of mushrooms and one of blanched olives; glaze the larding with a paste-brush and pour a little sauce over the other parts of the fish and a little at the bottom of the dish. Put the soft roes into the balance of the sauce and serve in a sauceboat.

Boiled Carp

Clean and wash one or two carp, place them in a saucepan, pour over sufficient rich beef gravy to cover, and add a bunch of sweet herbs, an onion, four cloves, and salt to the taste. Place the saucepan on a moderate fire and cook gently for an hour or until the fish is done. Pour into a saucepan a pint of strong beef gravy, with two wineglassfuls of white wine; allow this to get hot, and add the strained juice of half a lemon. Place the carp on a dish, pour over the hot lemon-flavored liquor and serve promptly.

Pickled Carp

After cleaning a carp make as small an opening as possible, tie up the head, put the fish in a fish kettle, pour over boiling vinegar, and after a few minutes add a tumblerful of red wine, and a seasoning of two carrots and three onions cut into slices, and a small quantity each of sage, thyme, laurel leaves, parsley, cloves and garlic, and then set the kettle on the fire and allow it to simmer gently for an hour. Let the fish remain in this until it is quite cold, when it will be ready to serve.

Stewed Carp

Take a large carp, cut out the gills, but do not remove the tongue; then make as small an opening in the under edge as possible in order to open it, and wash it out thoroughly. Boil one-half pint of vinegar, and when it is boiling pour it over the fish that the scales may drop off easily. Wrap the carp in a cloth and stew it in a court bouillon. When done drain it and serve with capers and anchovy sauce, or without sauce after soup.