Vyprážaný kapor

The story

Carp, baked or fried, is the main dish of the Slovak Christmas Eve. Vyprážaný kapor is part of a wider Central European phenomenon that links Slovakia with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary — each country celebrates Christmas with the same fish, but prepares it in its own way. Unlike the Czech tradition of keeping a live fish in the bathtub, Slovak families more often buy their carp already prepared from a fishmonger or a store shortly before Christmas Eve, although the older village custom of keeping the fish alive in a barrel or tub is still known in rural areas today. The fish is served with potato salad, and its trimmings and head often become the stock for a soup served earlier that evening. The method of preparation varies by region — baked in the oven with potatoes in some parts, breaded and fried in others. For Slovak families in the diaspora, where fresh carp is harder to find, another kind of white fish often takes its place without any loss of the fish's symbolic role as the “meat” of a Christmas Eve dinner that in Catholic homes is otherwise meatless.