Name: Sturgeon, Imperial Mode
Ingredients: 1 sturgeon (2.5 feet long); 1 bottle Hock wine; 1 bottle Madeira wine; 2 ladlefuls fish stock or consomme; buttered paper; mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery)

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, Imperial Mode

Ingredients

Directions

Choose a fresh sturgeon with lively eyes and firm, yellow flesh.
Clean and wash the sturgeon, then cut off some flesh from the belly to lay it level.
Tie the sturgeon up and place it in a kettle with mirepoix, Hock, Madeira, and fish stock.
Cover with buttered paper and cook as directed for Saumon a l'Imperiale.
Serve with specified sauces.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sturgeon + fishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Fish + oniontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,924 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, wine, madeira wine, fish, carrot, celery):

Shallotfits better
Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, wine, madeira wine, fish, carrot, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.