Name: Sturgeon a LA Dauphine
Ingredients: 1 prime cut of sturgeon (about 8 lbs); quenelle force-meat of whiting; chopped fine herbs; thin layers of bacon; string; wine mirepoix; stiffly-reduced Allemande sauce; bread crumbs; clarified butter

Why it works: Whiting and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 236 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Pare off the skin of the sturgeon.
Garnish the inside with quenelle force-meat mixed with chopped fine herbs.
Wrap the sturgeon in thin layers of bacon and secure with string.
Braize the sturgeon in wine mirepoix until done.
Drain and cool the sturgeon in the larder.
Remove the bacon and cover the sturgeon with Allemande sauce.
Once the sauce has cooled, bread-crumb the sturgeon.
Drizzle clarified butter over the breadcrumbs and place in a deep baking dish.

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.

Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together236 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sturgeon + whitingtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sturgeon + saucetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,645 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).