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Sturgeon a LA Romulus

Sturgeon cooked whole in a kettle with a strained vegetable essence, consommé, and Champagne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Romulus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Carefully remove the skin from the sturgeon without touching the flesh.

  2. Sprinkle salt over and under the fish, then let it sit for 1 hour.

  3. Wash and wipe the fish, then tie it up and place it in a kettle.

Make the essence

  1. In a pan, sweat the carrots, onions, mushrooms, parsley, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, basil, cloves, mace, pepper, and salt in olive oil over low heat.

  2. Add the consommé and simmer for 1.5 hours, then strain the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the strained essence over the fish, season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and lemon slices.

  2. Add the Champagne, cover the kettle, and cook over high heat until boiling.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Firm, meaty flesh that holds its shape during gentle cooking in liquid.
Onions
Sweetness and savoury depth built up as they sweat slowly in oil.
Consommé
Savoury liquid base that becomes the flavourful essence around the fish.
Champagne
Adds acidity and bright aroma to the cooking liquid.
Olive oil
Carries the fat-soluble aromatics from the herbs and spices into the essence.

The step that matters

Adding the Champagne and bringing the kettle to a boil. Fish proteins toughen and flake apart when the liquid boils hard, so the fish is best kept at a gentle heat once the liquid is hot and not left to boil vigorously.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, carrot, onion, mushroom, parsley, garlic, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, carrot, onion, mushroom, parsley, garlic, thyme. 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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