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Entree of Slices of Sturgeon

Thin slices of sturgeon are seasoned, coated with egg and breadcrumbs, fried in lard, and served with a sauce of cullis, Madeira wine, and capers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Entree of Slices of Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the sturgeon into very thin slices.

  2. In a stew pan over medium heat, combine the sturgeon slices with parsley, thyme, shallots, butter, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and lemon juice.

  3. Cook until three-quarters done, then transfer the slices to a dish to cool.

Assemble and fry

  1. Place each slice between some light forcemeat, then brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  2. Fry gently in boiling lard until the forcemeat and fish are cooked through.

Serve

  1. Drain excess oil and serve with a sauce made from cullis, Madeira wine, and chopped capers.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 and cooks to a firm, flaky texture.
Egg
Beaten egg brushed on helps bind the coating and promotes golden browning when fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust during frying.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and moisture into the fish.
Capers
Add a sharp, acidic bite to the finished sauce.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook until three-quarters done before assembling. The fish cooks again during frying, so overcooking it at the first stage leaves it dry and tough. Stopping early keeps the slices moist and tender once they are fried through.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, parsley, thyme, shallot, butter, pepper, lemon. 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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