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Matelotte, with Crayfish

Sturgeon boiled with herbs, vinegar, and crayfish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Matelotte, with Crayfish

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the fish

  1. Cut the skin off the sturgeon carefully and tie it with string.

  2. Boil the fish with parsley, thyme, bay leaf, vinegar, cloves, salt, mace, carrot, and onion.

  3. Simmer gently for about 2 hours until done.

  4. Check doneness by running a straw through the flesh; if it goes through easily, remove the fish.

  5. Let the fish drain.

Serve

  1. Serve with sauce in a tureen or garnish with quenelles, whiting, and crayfish.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 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
Forms the main body of the stew, becoming tender and flaky as it poaches gently.
Vinegar
Adds a light acidity that brightens the poaching liquid and balances the rich fish.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the poaching liquid.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for about 2 hours. A hard boil toughens and breaks up the delicate fish proteins, leaving it dry and ragged. A gentle simmer cooks the flesh evenly and keeps it moist and intact.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, parsley, thyme, vinegar, clove, carrot, onion. 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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