No. 1132

German Carp with Sauerkraut

Carpe Miroir a la Choucroute

Select a German carp of medium size, cleanse it well, wipe dry, tie down the head and lay the fish in a deep and narrow baking pan covered with fragments of fat pork, roots and sliced onions bay leaf, branches of parsley and basil. Moisten with half broth (No. 194a) and half white wine, seasoning with salt, cloves and whole peppers; cover over with a heavy sheet of buttered paper, then let it boil and finish cooking it in a moderate oven, basting frequently. When done, dress the fish on a thick layer of cooked sauerkraut (No. 2819), and surround with small, round, one inch in diameter lobster croquettes breaded and fried (No. 880). Strain and skim the fat from the gravy, thicken it with a few pieces of kneaded butter (No. 579), pass it again through a tammy and serve it in a separate sauce-boat.

← No. 1131 Carp Fried, Garnished with Parsley Eels, Pike, Carp & Sturgeon No. 1133 Carp Stuffed a la Champenoise-Salmon →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a straightforward oven braise: the fish poaches in wine and broth under paper, then sits on a bed of already-cooked sauerkraut with the strained cooking liquid thickened into a sauce. Most of the work is in the cross-references, which have to be filled in.

"Miroir" is the fish, not the techniqueCarpe miroir is the mirror carp, the variety with a few large scattered scales rather than full scaling, long the standard table carp in Germany and central Europe. Any farmed common or mirror carp of 3 to 4 lb works; nothing about the dish depends on the name.
Oven temperature"Moderate oven" in period usage is usually taken as somewhere around 350 to 375F. Bring the pan to a boil on the stovetop first, as directed, then transfer it covered with buttered parchment.
Timing, which the original omitsA 3 to 4 lb carp in a narrow pan takes roughly 30 to 40 minutes at 350F, or about 10 minutes per inch measured at the thickest part. It is done at 135 to 140F at the backbone; carp held longer turns dry and cottony, and the point of the paper and the frequent basting is to keep that from happening.
"Roots"In Ranhofer's usage this means the aromatic root vegetables of a mirepoix: carrot, parsnip, celery root, sometimes a leek. Slice them thin so they give up flavor in the braising time available.
Kneaded butterNo. 579 is beurre manié: butter kneaded cold with flour to a paste, whisked into the simmering strained gravy in small pieces. Add it off a hard boil and let the sauce cook a minute or two so it loses the raw flour taste.
TammyA tammy was a worsted cloth through which sauce was wrung to make it perfectly smooth. A fine chinois, or a fine sieve lined with damp muslin, does the same job.
The sauerkrautIt must be cooked separately and well drained before the fish goes on it. Raw or wet kraut will thin the plate with brine and flatten the wine sauce; braise it with fat pork or butter and a little of the same white wine until soft.
The lobster croquettesAn expensive garnish that adds nothing structural. Skip them, or substitute small fried fish quenelles; the dish is complete as carp, kraut and sauce.
Bones and mudCarp carries fine intramuscular bones through the upper fillet, so serve it in generous pieces rather than trying to portion cleanly. Pond-raised fish can taste muddy; soaking a few hours in salted or lightly acidulated water before cooking is the usual remedy.
YieldA medium carp of this size serves four to six as a main course.

A Little History

Carp with sauerkraut is a dish of the German and Austro-Bohemian kitchen rather than the French one, and Ranhofer, who cooked at Delmonico's in New York from the 1860s, has given it a French title and a French sauce while keeping the German bones of it intact. Carp was a great Christmas and Lenten fish of central Europe, farmed in monastery and estate ponds since the Middle Ages in part because it could be kept alive and sold in winter, and pairing it with sauerkraut made a meal out of two things a household might have on hand in January. Its appearance in The Epicurean (1894) alongside pike, eel and sturgeon reflects a period when freshwater fish still held a serious place on American restaurant menus. The lobster croquettes and the tammy-strained sauce are the mark of a restaurant kitchen dressing a peasant pairing for the dining room.