Skip to main content
Main

Sturgeon a LA Russe

A braised sturgeon served with a glaze of lobster-coral, rich Genoise sauce, and garnished with fillets, gherkins, olives, and seafood.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fish

  1. Braise the sturgeon in wine, mirepoix, or vinegar and water.

  2. Once cooked, remove the skin and trim the sturgeon.

Glaze and garnish

  1. Mask it with stiff glaze mixed with pounded lobster-coral.

  2. Garnish with small fillets of gurnets and green gherkins sautéed in butter.

  3. Place turned olives at each end and pour rich Genoise sauce around it.

  4. Finish with lobster butter, cayenne, lemon juice, parsley, capers, crayfish tails, and anchovy quenelles.

  5. Garnish the inner edge with fried smelts.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  5. Sturgeon + saucetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together93 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Is the main fish, cooked gently by braising so it stays moist and tender.
Stiff glaze
Coats the fish with a set layer that gives it a glossy, finished surface.
Lobster butter
Adds rich fat and a concentrated shellfish aroma to the finishing sauce.
Crayfish tails
Add tender, delicate shellfish texture and a sweet, mild flavour to the dish.
Rich genoise sauce
Adds moisture and a smooth, rich body around the fish.

The step that matters

Braise the sturgeon gently. Sturgeon is a firm, lean fish that dries out and toughens if it boils or cooks too hard. Gentle, moist heat keeps the flesh tender and moist until it is ready to glaze.

“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

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipesLobster BallsLobster Balls7 recipes