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To Stew Sturgeon

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,784 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Stew Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine gravy, salt, black pepper, sweet herbs, onions, horseradish, and vinegar.

  2. Bring to a boil for a few minutes, then let it cool slightly.

  3. Add the fish and gradually bring to a boil again.

  4. Stew gently until the fish begins to break apart, then remove from heat and keep warm.

  5. Strain the gravy and thicken it with butter.

  6. Stir in the port or sherry, nutmeg, and lemon juice, and simmer until thickened.

  7. Pour the sauce over the fish before serving.

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. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,646 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, corn, pepper, onion, vinegar, butter, sherry):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, corn, pepper, onion, vinegar, butter, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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