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To Pickle Sturgeon

A preserved sturgeon cured in a brine of water, beer, salt, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the sturgeon into desired sizes and wash it well.

  2. Tie the pieces with string.

Make the brine

  1. In a pot, combine water, beer, coarse sea salt, common salt, ginger, black pepper, cloves, and Jamaica pepper.

  2. Boil the mixture until the fish can be easily separated from the bone.

  3. Remove the sturgeon and let it cool.

Pickle and store

  1. The next day, add strong ale vinegar and a little salt to the pot.

  2. Tie it down with strong paper and store for use.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beer + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Beer + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Strong ale vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavour and helps preserve the fish.
Beer
Adds malty depth and body to the cooking liquid.
Ginger
Adds warm, aromatic spice to the fish.
Cloves
Adds strong aromatic spice that flavours the fish.

The step that matters

Boil until the fish separates from the bone. Hard, rolling boiling breaks up delicate fish flesh and toughens it. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer lets the fish cook evenly and stay in intact pieces.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beer, pepper, clove, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beer, pepper, clove, vinegar. 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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