Name: Sturgeon a LA Dauphine
Ingredients: 1 prime cut of sturgeon (about 8 lbs); thin layers of bacon; string; wine mirepoix; stiffly-reduced Allemande sauce; bread crumbs; clarified butter

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Pare off the skin of the sturgeon.
Garnish the inside with quenelle force-meat of whiting mixed with chopped fine herbs.
Wrap the sturgeon in bacon and secure with string.
Braize the sturgeon in wine mirepoix until done.
Drain and cool the sturgeon in the larder.
Remove the bacon and cover the sturgeon with Allemande sauce.
Once the sauce has cooled, bread-crumb the sturgeon.
Drizzle clarified butter over the bread crumbs.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sturgeon + saucetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together237 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Brown Bread461 recipes

White Bread80 recipes

Bread Omelette60 recipes

Oatmeal Bread51 recipes

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Sturgeon a LA Dauphine