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Baked Sturgeon

A whole sturgeon stuffed with bread crumbs, thyme, marjoram, pepper, salt, and butter, baked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Baked Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Immerse the sturgeon in hot water for 1 to 2 hours to remove oil.

  2. Cut off the gristle.

Stuff and bake

  1. Make incisions in the fish and fill with stuffing made of bread crumbs, thyme, marjoram, pepper, salt, and butter.

  2. Spread the dressing over the fish.

  3. Place the sturgeon in a pan with ½ pint of water and bake at 300°F (150°C) for nearly 1 hour.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Bread + marjoramtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,008 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

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, cooked gently until it flakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices in the stuffing, keeping the fish moist and tender.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches the stuffing and helps the surface brown lightly.

The step that matters

Soaking the sturgeon in hot water. Soaking helps draw out the oily flavour of the fish. Water that is too cool or too short a soak may leave the fish tasting richer than intended.

Swap the marjoram

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramthe original
  3. Sagefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, bread, thyme, pepper, 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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