The classic for Christmas - carp a suitable fasting meal

Christmas classic: Carp is often used on festive days

Although carp is avoided by some fish lovers because of its reputation for being very fat, fish is often served on the feast days. This has to do with the Christian tradition, because Christmas Eve should be celebrated with a fasting meal.

Carp is considered fat

Many consumers avoid carp, as it has the reputation of being particularly fat. While it actually contains more fat than many other fish, it still performs poorly compared to most meats. It also provides significant amounts of minerals such as phosphorus and iron, B vitamins and vitamin A. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) recommends eating fish twice a week. Tasty carp recipes can be found on the internet. Especially at Christmas carp in Germany comes to the table.

At Christmas, carp is on the table in many families. This goes back to the Christian tradition of celebrating Advent as Lent. (Image: vectorfusionart / fotolia.com)

The classic for Christmas

In many parts of the world, carp enjoys great popularity on festive days. This goes back to the Christian tradition of celebrating Advent as Lent, reports the Federal Center for Nutrition (BZfE).

The Christmas Eve as the highlight of the Advent and eve of the Christmas Day should therefore be celebrated with a special fasting meal.

After a slight decline in recent years, per capita consumption in this country has risen again in 2016 (112 grams per capita), according to BZfE.

The carp joins the popularity scale of the freshwater fish behind the trout, Pangasius / catfish and the zander in fourth place.

Taste is described very differently

The descriptions of the taste range from straw, bland or modest to nutty. That's because of his habitat, the experts explain:

The carp prefers standing or slowly flowing waters with sand and mud bottom and rich plant growth.

During the summer months, the fish also tends to strongly to a musty taste by the intake of certain algae species.

Mainly mirror carp on offer

The fish have the best quality in autumn and winter. The breeding carps remain after fishing for a while in a flow tank at the fishmonger before it goes on sale; this improves the taste decisively.

Carp are almost exclusively fresh, whole or served as fillets.

As a food fish especially mirror carp are offered. They have few, irregularly distributed and larger "mirror sheds". One copy weighs one to two kilograms.

Roasted or cooked

For frying - popular is the breaded variant, traditionally eaten in the south - the skin must be scaled. That works well with a spoon.

For carp blue - the cooked variety - the skin and the mucus layer must remain intact. When adding vinegar, the acid reacts with the mucus and then the skin turns blue.

The freshness of the fish can be seen in dark red gills and the caudal fin, which curls in the preparation of a freshly slaughtered carp. (Ad)