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Sturgeon Steaks

Sturgeon steaks are fried and served with butter, parsley, and fried parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sturgeon Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the sturgeon into steaks as you would for cutlets.

  2. Dredge the steaks in flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Fry the steaks until nicely cooked.

  2. Serve immediately to prevent them from getting cold.

  3. Pour melted butter over the steaks and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

  4. Garnish with fried parsley.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Sturgeon + parsleytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together137 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon steaks
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a firm, flaky texture.
Flour
Forms a thin dry coat that helps the steaks brown when fried.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky finish when poured over the cooked steaks.

The step that matters

Fry the steaks until nicely cooked. Fish is done quickly and overcooks easily, becoming dry and tough. Frying until just cooked through keeps the flesh moist. Flour coating helps the surface brown evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, flour, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, flour, butter. 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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