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Sturgeon Cutlets

Sturgeon cutlets fried in hot fat and served with piquant or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,013 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sturgeon Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the sturgeon into slices ¼ inch thick.

  2. Wash and dry the slices with a cloth.

Coat and fry

  1. Flour the slices, then dip them in beaten egg and seasoned bread-crumbs.

  2. Fry in hot fat at 400°F (200°C) until browned on both sides, about 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Drain and serve with piquant or tomato sauce.

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. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sturgeon + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together94 recipes

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

  5. Sturgeon + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together100 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Forms the body of the cutlet, cooking to a firm, flaky texture when fried.
Flour
Dry coating that helps the egg wash adhere and promotes even browning.
Egg
Binds the bread-crumb coating to the fish so it stays on during frying.
Seasoned bread-crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried in hot fat.

The step that matters

Drying the slices before coating. Surface moisture keeps flour and egg from sticking evenly and turns the crumb coating soggy, so pat the slices dry first.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, flour, egg, bread):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, flour, egg, bread. 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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