Name: Sturgeon Cutlet
Ingredients: sturgeon, cut into steak pieces; eggs, yolks only; stale bread crumbs; coarse sea salt; black pepper; melted lard

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sturgeon Cutlet

Ingredients

Directions

Remove all the fat from the sturgeon and cut it into steak pieces.
Beat the yolks of the eggs to moisten the fish pieces well, then dip the pieces into the beaten egg.
Roll the egg-coated fish in stale bread crumbs and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Heat melted lard in a vessel until boiling hot but not burnt.
Carefully lay the fish pieces in the hot lard and cover with a lid.
Turn the fish over as they brown and remove the lid when they are nearly done.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sturgeon + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together94 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sturgeon + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together100 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sturgeon + peppertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together199 recipes

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