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Cutlets of Sturgeon Grillee

Thin slices of sturgeon coated in egg, breadcrumbs, and butter, grilled and served with espagnole sauce and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cutlets of Sturgeon Grillee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cutlets

  1. Cut a 4-inch slice from the side of the sturgeon into thin slices.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg with pepper and salt, then toss the sturgeon slices in the mixture.

  3. Coat the slices in bread crumbs and lay them on paper.

  4. Dip the slices in melted butter and coat them in bread crumbs again.

Grill and serve

  1. Grill the slices over a wood fire until they are a fine brown, similar to veal cutlets.

  2. Arrange the cutlets in a circle on a dish and pour strong espagnole sauce in the center.

  3. Add a bit of butter and the juice of half a lemon to the sauce.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Provides the main protein, which is cooked into firm, tender cutlets.
Egg
Binds the seasoning and helps bread crumbs adhere to the fish slices.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during grilling and protects the fish.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb coating brown and crisp.
Strong espagnole sauce
Adds a rich, savory brown sauce that complements the grilled fish.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and sauce.

The step that matters

Grill until fine brown. The crumb coating browns through Maillard reactions, which need dry surfaces and steady heat. Too little heat leaves the coating pale and soggy, while too much can scorch it before the thin fish cooks through.

“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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