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To Dress Fresh Sturgeon

A dish of fresh sturgeon slices coated with egg, breadcrumbs, herbs, and seasoned, served with a butter, anchovy, and soy sauce dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Dress Fresh Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut slices of fresh sturgeon.

  2. Rub egg over the slices.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Fold the slices in paper and broil gently.

  2. For the sauce, mix butter, anchovy sauce, and soy 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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sturgeon + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh sturgeon
Forms the main body of the dish and is the protein that is cooked.
Egg
Binds the coating so the bread crumbs and seasonings stick to the fish.
Bread crumbs
Form a light coating that helps shield the fish and adds a crisp, browned surface.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth body to the sauce.
Anchovy sauce
Contributes a salty, savoury depth to the sauce.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury depth and colour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fold the slices in paper and broil gently. Broiling at high direct heat can dry out or scorch lean fish quickly. Gentle heat, with the fish wrapped in paper, helps keep the slices moist while they cook through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, egg, bread, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, egg, bread, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce. 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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