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Scolloped Sturgeon

Boiled sturgeon mixed with mayonnaise, celery, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt, then breaded and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Scolloped Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Once the sturgeon is cold, pick it into pieces and wash to remove excess water.

  2. Remove all fat from the sturgeon and cut it into steak pieces.

  3. Beat the eggs and moisten the fish pieces well with them.

  4. Roll the pieces in stale bread crumbs and season with pepper.

Make the dressing

  1. Prepare a mayonnaise dressing with celery, cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat melted lard in a vessel until boiling hot, then add the fish pieces.

  2. Cover with a lid and turn the fish over as they brown, removing the lid when nearly done.

  3. Serve the sturgeon on white lettuce leaves.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Celery + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,110 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sturgeon + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together94 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Forms the main body of the dish, with flaky texture once cooked.
Eggs
Bind the fish and help the bread crumbs adhere to the pieces.
Stale bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the fish while frying.
Melted lard
Conducts heat for frying and promotes browning of the coating.
Mayonnaise dressing
Adds moisture and richness to accompany the fish.

The step that matters

Turning the fish as it browns. Frying in hot lard browns the crumb coating quickly, so uneven turning can scorch some pieces while others stay pale. Turning regularly gives an even golden crust, and removing the lid near the end lets the coating crisp rather than steam.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, pepper, bread, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, pepper, bread, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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