Skip to main content
Main

Esturgeon En Fricandeau

A stew of sturgeon cooked with carrot, onion, bouquet garni, bay leaf, cloves, bacon rinds, stock, and wine or vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Esturgeon En Fricandeau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the sturgeon and lard it with small pieces of fat.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the carrot, onion, bouquet garni, bay leaf, cloves, bacon rinds, salt, and pepper.

  3. Place the sturgeon on top of the mixture and add the stock.

Cook

  1. Heat over a brisk fire until reduced to a glaze, then turn the fish and add more stock and the wine or vinegar.

  2. Once it boils, cover with a round piece of paper and simmer.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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, becoming tender as it simmers gently.
Stock
Provides liquid that reduces to a glaze and then gently braises the fish.
White wine or french vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps balance the rich braising liquid.
Bacon rinds
Add savoury fat and salty depth to the braising liquid.

The step that matters

Reducing to a glaze over a brisk fire. If the liquid reduces too far or scorches, the glaze turns bitter and sticks to the pan. Watch closely and turn the fish so it browns evenly without burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, carrot, clove, pepper, white wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, carrot, clove, pepper, white wine. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes