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Sturgeon a LA Dauphine

A whole sturgeon stuffed with whiting quenelles, wrapped in bacon, braised in wine mirepoix, coated with Allemande sauce, breaded, and finished with clarified butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Pare off the skin of the sturgeon.

  2. Garnish the inside with quenelle force-meat mixed with chopped fine herbs.

  3. Wrap the sturgeon in thin layers of bacon and secure with string.

Braise and cool

  1. Braise the sturgeon in wine mirepoix until done.

  2. Drain and cool the sturgeon in the larder.

Coat and dish

  1. Remove the bacon and cover the sturgeon with a coating of stiffly-reduced Allemande sauce.

  2. Once the sauce has cooled, bread-crumb the sturgeon.

  3. Drizzle a little clarified butter over it 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.

  1. Whiting + saucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together236 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sturgeon + whitingtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

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

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 and carries the stuffing and coating.
Quenelle force-meat of whiting
Adds moisture and a tender, delicate texture to the inside of the fish.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor, and bastes the sturgeon as it cooks.
Allemande sauce
Forms a rich, creamy coating that gives the fish a smooth finish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp surface that helps the dish brown in the baking dish.
Clarified butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb coating brown evenly.

The step that matters

Let the sauce cool before bread-crumbing. Allemande sauce must cool and firm up before crumbs are applied. If it is still warm, it stays runny, so the crumbs slide off or soak in and the coating becomes greasy instead of crisp.

“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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