Name: Sturgeon Cutlets
Ingredients: Sturgeon slices (½ inch thick); Coarse sea salt; Butter; Cayenne pepper; 1 beaten egg; Bread crumbs

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove the skin from the sturgeon and cut slices from the tail piece, each ½ inch thick.
Rub the slices with coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

Broil the slices over a hot fire.
For a variation, dip the slices in beaten egg and coat with bread crumbs.
Wrap the breaded slices in buttered paper and broil over a clear fire.
Serve without the papers.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together237 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 cutlets, providing the firm, meaty texture that holds up to broiling.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the slices brown lightly under heat.
Beaten egg: Binds the bread crumbs to the fish in the optional variation.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden coating in the optional variation.

“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.