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Scollops of Sturgeon, with Fine-herbs

Sturgeon fish cut into scallops, marinated with herbs and spices, then fried with truffles, mushrooms, and shallots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Scollops of Sturgeon, with Fine-herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Place the sturgeon in an earthen pan.

  2. Strew sliced carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaf, and thyme over the fish.

  3. Season with mignonette pepper, coarse sea salt, lemon juice, and salad oil.

  4. Let it marinate for 1-2 days, turning the fish occasionally.

Cut and fry

  1. When ready to cook, drain the sturgeon on a cloth to absorb moisture.

  2. Cut the fish into heart-shaped or oval scallops, about ¼ inch thick.

  3. In a sauté pan, heat clarified butter and add the scallops, truffles, mushrooms, parsley, and shallots.

  4. Season with cayenne and grated nutmeg, then fry until cooked.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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, cooked into firm scallops after marinating.
Lemon juice
Acidity in the marinade that brightens the fish and helps firm its surface.
Truffles
Adds a rich, earthy aroma that defines the dish's flavour.
Mushrooms
Adds moisture and savoury, earthy flavour as they cook in the butter.
Clarified butter
Fat for frying that browns the scallops and carries flavour without burning as easily.

The step that matters

Drain the sturgeon before frying. Surface moisture from the marinade keeps the fish from searing, so it steams and turns pale and soft. Drying it on a cloth lets the scallops brown properly in the hot butter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, carrot, parsley, thyme, pepper, lemon, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, carrot, parsley, thyme, pepper, lemon, butter. 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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