No. 1131

Carp Fried, Garnished with Parsley

Carpe Frite Garnie de Persil

Scale one or several carps; cut off the gills and remove the entrails, then split them in two lengthwise through the belly without separating the parts; take out the spinal bone and the one found in the head. (Soak the milts for a few minutes in milk, drain, salt, roll in flour and fry.) Fry the carp until it becomes firm and of a fine golden color, then drain and range it on a folded napkin, lay on top a bunch of fried parsley and surround with the fried milts and lemons cut in four.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a fish cook who can bone a carp through the belly and a range with a deep kettle of fat always ready. The technique is sound; most of what needs translating is equipment, sourcing and the fried parsley.

Boning is the hingeSplitting the fish along the belly without cutting it in two, then lifting out the backbone, is what lets the carp lie flat, cook evenly and eat cleanly. Carp also carries a row of Y-shaped intermuscular bones that this does not remove; scoring the flesh crosswise at narrow intervals before frying breaks them up, which is standard practice with the fish.
MiltsThe milt is the soft roe — the sperm sac of a male fish, sold fresh only in season and generally easiest to find through Asian, Eastern European and Jewish fishmongers. If you cannot get it, the dish loses a garnish and nothing else. The milk soak tempers the flavor before flouring.
Frying temperatureRanhofer's kitchen judged fat by eye and smoke. For a split carp, 350-360F gives you the firm flesh and golden color he asks for without the outside darkening before the center sets; a 2-3 lb fish takes roughly 7-10 minutes depending on thickness.
Fried parsleyCurly parsley, washed and then dried thoroughly, dropped into the same fat for a few seconds until it stops hissing and turns brilliant green. Wet parsley in hot fat erupts violently, so this is worth doing properly rather than quickly.
Muddy flavorFarmed and pond-raised carp can taste of its water. The traditional remedy is to keep the fish in clean water a day or two before killing; failing that, the dark lateral strip of flesh just under the skin carries most of the off-flavor and can be trimmed away.
The folded napkinNineteenth-century service put fried fish on a napkin laid over the platter to absorb fat and keep the crust from steaming. A wire rack under the fish while it rests does the same work; the napkin is presentation.
YieldOne 2-3 lb carp serves two to three. Ranhofer's "one or several" is a banquet cook's instruction — scale the fish count to the table, not the recipe.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York across two spells, from roughly 1862 to 1876 and again from 1879 to 1896, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working repertory set down in French-titled numbered entries. Carp sits in this section alongside eel, pike and sturgeon that were still ordinary commercial food in America in the 1890s, before pond carp fell out of fashion and became better known as a nuisance species than a dinner. Carp was in any case a staple of the classical French repertory in which Ranhofer worked. The garnish of fried parsley and quartered lemon around a fish on a folded napkin is standard friture service of the period, and much the same plate would have served whether it held carp, smelts or whitebait.