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Sturgeon, Baked

Baked sturgeon seasoned with parsley, pepper, sea salt, white wine, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sturgeon, Baked

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Skin and cleanse the sturgeon, removing the insides.

  2. Place the fish in a large baking dish.

  3. Sprinkle chopped parsley, pepper, and coarse sea salt over the fish.

  4. Moisten with ½ cup of white wine and dot with small pieces of butter.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven, basting frequently.

  2. When browned, serve the sturgeon on a hot dish with its sauce poured around it.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Parsley + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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, cooking through as the flesh firms and turns opaque.
White wine
Adds moisture and acidity, helping create the sauce that bastes the fish as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, promoting browning and a moist surface as it melts over the fish.

The step that matters

Basting frequently while baking. Sturgeon is lean and can dry out in the oven. Spooning the wine and butter sauce over the fish keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, pepper, white wine, 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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