Fish, feasts and fasting
Carp for the table is a niche market in the UK, writes Dr Martin Jaffa, but it has a long history
The article in the last issue of Fish Farmer about a carp at Christmas brought back a lot of memories for me because I was involved in a major carp farming venture in the 1980s. The business was initially established by a Latvian refugee. Having made some money working in the motor trade, he decided to grow carp for the ex-Latvian community in West Yorkshire so they could follow their Eastern European traditions and eat the fish at Christmas and New Year.
Willy Michaels set up Newhay Fisheries near Selby and his success attracted the attention of Warburtons bakery because of the potential of feeding their waste to the fish. I have written before about how this venture eventually failed due to the miners’ strikes of the 1980s, so I won’t repeat it again.
The article mentioned that carp has never really become a staple in the UK but that is not actually true. Although not a species native to England, carp was once a fish of major importance, especially to wealthy landowners and eventually to the church. Freshwater fish were important to the Catholic religion. There were many fast days, as well as every Friday, where the eating of red meat was banned but the consumption of cold-blooded fish flesh was allowed.
Fish were caught from rivers and held in stewponds (from the French word estui – meaning to store) until they were required and then could be easily caught for the table. These ponds are now mainly associated with monasteries and other large religious communities but contrary to popular belief they never stocked carp except for a short period before the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.
Morrisons carp
The distribution of carp had expanded across Europe from their native Danube and Aral Sea with the spread of Christianity. At some point in history, monks in central Europe noticed that carp held in these ponds were breeding and so began a rudimentary form of farming.
The fish made good eating and could reproduce, so carp developed a reputation for enhancing fishponds.
Word spread and it seems that carp were brought to England, wrapped in wet moss (they are extremely hardy) and stocked in the fishponds belonging to a wealthy landowner in the mid-1400s. The first recorded stocking in England was by the Duke of Norfolk in 1463.
Fishponds were already something of a status symbol and the addition of this fish was perceived as elevating this status to the highest possible level.
Carp spread slowly through England but by the early seventeenth century, they had become well-established and had heralded a change from storing fish to farming them.
In 1605, John Taverner wrote the first book in English on farming fish, titled Certaine Experiments concerning Fish and Fruites. Taverner argued that carp should be given pride of place in any fishpond.
Carp was popular in England at that time but it was the onset of the Industrial Revolution that brought an end to carp farming and the consumption of freshwater fish in general. This was because sea fish became more available and could be transported quickly from the coast into the heart of rural England.
Carp street decoration, Prague
A fish for the season
Carp farming in England, as in Europe, is in its basic form extremely seasonal, which is why a tradition of eating the fish at Christmas and New Year developed in Eastern Europe. Unlike modern salmon farming, carp farming has more in common with traditional agriculture. This is because it is the pond bottom that is farmed to produce a protein source on which the fish then feed. Ponds can be emptied of water and the pond bottom cultivated and fertilised with animal manure that is left to rot until spring when the pond is filled with water. Once full, the water supply is diverted away and the static water in the pond allowed to warm. The combination of warmth and nutrients promotes a rich bloom of zooplankton, at which point the young fish are introduced to feed off this nutritious natural feed.
Of course, the pond can only support so many fish so higher stocking densities require supplementary feeding. Even with extra food, growth is still seasonal, with harvests occurring at the end of the year. This is why carp is associated with Christmas and New Year in the landlocked and Catholic Eastern Europe. British consumers, with the availability of fresh sea fish, never followed this tradition.
While many refugees from Eastern Europe arrived in the UK after the Second World War and a second wave of immigrants arrived with the opening of the EU, demand for carp has never been huge and much of the demand can be met with imported fish, mainly from France.
Morrisons were selling French carp at £14.99/kg for Christmas. The potential to develop carp farming to meet this demand is, therefore, minimal. This does not mean that there isn’t a market for these fish in the UK. There is a demand from the Chinese community and it is a market without competition as they want the fish live – and it is impossible to import carp live.
Back in the 1980s, Newhay Fisheries could not keep up with demand from even just one Chinese wholesaler. Supplying this market requires a different approach to the type of production currently underway. This is further complicated because, as the article in Fish Farmer points out, for small-scale carp farmers, there is a much more lucrative market to be had to supply large fish for restocking.
Finally, one of the producers quoted in the last issue says that carp is a “bland” fish to eat. My experience is that, when prepared properly, it is a meaty fish with a taste similar to veal. Unlike veal, however, it is quite bony, which is more of an issue than the taste.
