Skip to main content
Main

Soused Sturgeon

Sturgeon cured in salt, spices, and vinegar, then boiled and left to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soused Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the sturgeon into large pieces.

  2. Place the fish in an iron pot and cover with water.

Cook and set

  1. Add salt, white pepper, clove, allspice, mace, and the tied sage.

  2. Boil until the fish is nearly done.

  3. Add cold vinegar and let it sit for 24 hours to jelly.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  3. Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together731 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, becoming firm and flaky when cooked.
Cold vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps the liquid set into a jelly.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and liquid, drawing flavour through the cooking broth.

The step that matters

Boil until the fish is nearly done. Overcooking breaks the fish into dry, crumbling pieces, while stopping early leaves it raw inside. Cooking gently until nearly done keeps the flesh moist and intact for setting.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, fish, clove, allspice, mace, sage, vinegar):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, fish, clove, allspice, mace, sage, 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.

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes