Name: Sturgeon Cutlet
Ingredients: Sturgeon fish; Eggs; Stale bread crumbs; Coarse sea salt; Lard; Black pepper

Why it works: Fish and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,668 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. 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.
Dip the fish pieces into the beaten egg.
Roll the egg-coated fish in stale bread crumbs and season with black pepper.
Heat lard in a vessel until boiling hot, but not burnt.
Carefully place the fish pieces in the hot lard and cover with a lid.
Turn the fish over as they brown and remove the lid when 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.

Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sturgeon + fishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26 recipes

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