To the roots of Czech cuisine: What does black carp taste like, and how long has fish been fried in breadcrumbs?
Freshwater fish is part of Czech cuisine, and Czech fish farming has a tradition that would be a shame to lose, as well as its traditional recipes. Irena Korbelářová, a historian from the Silesian University in Opava, is well versed in them. We asked her what role fish held in the diet of our ancestors.
Fish and fasting
Fish has always been a symbol of Christians. And it was the Catholic Church that influenced culinary history when it introduced fasting. Until the 15th century, people fasted 180 to 190 days a year which is no small feat! While in the countryside people ate modestly all the time, the middle and upper classes had to give up the meat they normally ate, and they gave it up in exchange for the flesh of fish and other aquatic animals such as crayfish, mussels, but also beavers and otters. Restriction awakens creativity, and so Czech fish cuisine gradually developed.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is also Lent. Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová (before the mid-19th century) would probably have cooked pike with wine sauce, roasted ling, blue carp, black fish with sauerkraut and lithic dumplings (made of bread rolls, eggs, cream and flour) and stuffed snails, Anuše Kejřová again (at the beginning of the 20th century) prescribed blackened fish with Viennese dumplings, fried fish with fresh horseradish and beetroot juice, and for dessert a drawn strudel. Even the plethora of recipes for sweet, floury dishes we've inherited through fasting.
Carpe à la Bohème
The treasure of Czech cuisine is considered to be blackened carp. The oldest surviving recipe can be found in a 16th century cookbook by the cook Marx Rumpolt of Mohůč, who writes about carp stewed in fish blood with vinegar and water, lemons, saffron, pepper, cinnamon and cloves. The sauce was thickened with bread and seasoned with beer.
Abroad, the blackened carp became famous as a native Czech dish, with different variations recorded under the name carpe à la Bohème or carp in Czech sauce. It was also widely served with Polish sauce (omáčka po polsku), made of an onion base, raisins and wine.
In the 20th century, blood was removed from recipes and almonds or walnuts and grated gingerbread began to be added to black sauces. The author Marie Janků-Sandtner used currant or rosehip marmalade, which she eventually replaced with plum jam. In the countryside, this was the way to prepare more common fish, such as bream or perch.
Guts count!
Fish were processed from head to tail! In addition to blood for sauces, our ancestors could also handle offal. The most common way to cook this was in a cream sauce, or fish soup, where the fish head and various spices were added to the broth. Scales didn't go to waste either. Carp scales were used, for example, to make a thick sour sauce or jelly.
In noble kitchens, carp roe, milt or carp tongues were also added to soup, as well as pike meat and almonds. Pike livers were baked, and are still used today for foie gras, liver dumplings or ragout, much like carp hearts.
Soup as a cultural affair
Fish soup has a long history. In the Middle Ages, simple bouillabaisse ("bujabéza") took hold in Czech households – a thickened soup made from boiled, inferior fish. Because of the number of bones, it was called "spit".
Rettigová introduced a soup made from tench, made in the manner of beef broth, and a carp version of soup made with fresh sausage, while an earlier 19th century cookbook by Václav Pacovský included among its recipes pure white fish soup. The carp meat was boiled with onions and root vegetables, strained and served as a clear broth alongside fried toast.
In the 1920s, the golden age of Czech cuisine, Janků-Sandtnerová offered a version of fish soup similar to the current one. The basis was a broth of carp head, onions and root vegetables, into which, after straining, carp meat, butter roux and carp innards were stirred. The finished soup was to be eaten with sliced fried bread and vegetables from the broth, or with boiled cauliflower.
Fried premiere
In dazs gone by, fish was mostly boiled or baked. The first recipe for fried carp or other fish in breadcrumbs was published in 1805 in a book by the cook and restaurateur Anna Maria Neudecker. The fish was salted, coated in flour and and dipped briefly in water. The fillets were then coated in breadcrumbs, fried in lard and sprinkled with green parsley before being brought to the table.
From the mid-19th century onwards, fish fillets were fried quite routinely and soon became the classic triple wrap made with egg. It was published in recipes by Rettigová, who recommended side dishes such as cabbage, mustard or horseradish sauce. Potato salad appeared alongside carp from the 20th century onwards.
A Prague legend
Fish soup, fried carp and fish bowls were sold on Christmas Eve by fishmonger and restaurateur Jindřich Vaňha. Since the 1930s, he ran a fish shop, buffet and restaurant on Wenceslas Square in Prague, and did everything he could to make Czechs eat more freshwater (but also sea) fish. His cookbook Rybí kuchyně (Fish Cuisine) helped him spread the word, and contains some 3,000 recipes. Vaňha originally wrote them for the employees in the factories, which grew in number, and he also helped to raise public awareness that carp is not just a fried fish fillet.
Loach and herring
In Prague's fish restaurants, guests ordered fried whitebait. In the past, it was baked loach, nowadays gudgeon is often used. Salted herring was also prepared in various ways, which in the Middle Ages and modern times was one of the only fish available to people from the lower classes. Herring were first imported from German countries, the North Sea or the Baltic. Alongside dried cod (shtockfish), they could be bought on Charles Square in Prague, where a large fish market was once held.
An opportunity for change
Around 20,000 tonnes of fish are caught in the Czech Republic every year – 10,000 tonnes are exported, and the rest wait for a Czech buyer. On average, the Czech consumer consumes only about 1.4 kg of freshwater fish per year. However, historical records show that freshwater fish has never been eaten as much as it might seem. Perhaps it is time for a change. Experts say it would only benefit the domestic landscape and a society looking for a way to to farm, cook and eat sustainably.
This is not the only thing that was discussed at our "To the Roots" event.. The seminar focuses on ingredients that are typical for Czech cuisine, and form the culinary and cultural heritage of Central Europe. This time, the chefs went to the Faculty of Fisheries and Water Conservation in Vodňany and to the Trout Mills, listened to a lecture by historian Irena Korbelářová and Lukáš Kalous from ČZU and cooked tasting dinner as a result of the two-day discussion and proof that freshwater fish deserves a place on menus.
Guests tasted trout gravlax with marinated apple, elderflower dressing and candied tangerine peel, carp velouté with carp dumplings, meat and milk in tempura, as well as pike perch ceviche with roasted peppers, tomato water and fermented jalapeños. The next course was grass carp with celery risotto, with celeriac sauce and a crumble of parsley and walnuts.
Old flavours were revived by a combination of fish, mushrooms and cabbage – the chefs prepared grilled zander with a sauce made from riesling, roasted cabbage and sauerkraut with bacon. At the end of the meal, there was catfish poached in garlic butter accompanied by lentils with root vegetables and a marjoram foam of cream, milk, marjoram and smoked fish bones. And the knowledge that the better the tradition tastes, the better it will be preserved for future generations.
Source: lecture by Prof. Irena Korbelářová, PhDr.
