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Sturgeon a LA Beaufort

A braised sturgeon shaped like an S, covered with quenelle force‑meat, bacon, and garnished with truffles, lobster, and mackerel roes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Beaufort

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Draw, skin, and truss the sturgeon in the shape of an 'S'.

  2. Braise it in mirepoix moistened with sherry and brandy until cooked.

  3. Drain the fish and cool it in the larder.

Decorate

  1. Cover the sturgeon with quenelle force-meat, restoring the head shape with force-meat mixed with lobster coral.

  2. Shape the eyes, mouth, and gills with black truffles.

  3. Place fillets of soles crosswise along the back, leaving 1-inch spaces filled with crayfish tails.

  4. Cover the fish with thin layers of bacon and place it in a braiser with some mirepoix.

Cook and serve

  1. About an hour before serving, cook it in a slow oven (300°F) or over a low fire with embers on the lid.

  2. Simmer gently without boiling, then remove from the braise and discard the bacon.

  3. Transfer the sturgeon to a serving dish and sauce it with rich Matelotte sauce and some braising liquid.

  4. Garnish with soft roes of mackerel and quenelles of lobster.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sturgeon + whitingtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 dish and carries the flavour of the braise.
Quenelle force-meat of whitings
Forms a smooth, tender coating that shapes the fish and holds the decoration.
Fillets of soles
Lie across the back to add delicate, flaky texture and a contrast to the firm sturgeon.
Thin layers of fat bacon
Add fat and savoury flavour that bastes the fish and keeps it moist during braising.
Matelotte sauce
Adds richness and moisture to the finished fish when spooned over it.

The step that matters

Slow, gentle braise without boiling. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the delicate fish tender and intact, because hard boiling toughens proteins and breaks the fish apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, carrot, celery, sherry, brandy, meat, whiting):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, carrot, celery, sherry, brandy, meat, whiting. 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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