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Sturgeon, Roast

Roasted sturgeon stuffed with suet, bacon, butter, herbs, parsley, spices, bread crumbs, and egg, served with melted butter or brown gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Sturgeon, Roast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the bones from the sturgeon and fill the cavity with veal stuffing.

  2. For the stuffing, mix suet, bacon, butter, herbs, parsley, salt, nutmeg, cayenne, and bread crumbs.

  3. Add the egg and mix until smooth.

  4. Roll the stuffing in buttered paper and secure it with tape.

Roast and serve

  1. Roast the sturgeon in a Dutch oven over a clear fire for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve with melted butter or rich brown gravy.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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 holds the stuffing while it roasts.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the stuffing body so it holds together.
Egg
Binds the stuffing so it sets into a cohesive mass when heated.
Suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich during roasting.
Bacon
Contributes fat and savory flavor to the stuffing as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and moisture in the stuffing and the finishing sauce.

The step that matters

Roasting the sturgeon for about 1 hour. Sturgeon is a lean fish that dries out and toughens quickly when overcooked. Its protein firms as it heats, so checking doneness near the stated time helps keep it moist.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, butter, nutmeg, bread, egg. 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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