Name: Fillets of Sturgeon a LA Turque
Ingredients: 1 handful of rice, well picked and blanched; 1 cup consomme; 1 tablespoon fat; 1 small piece of lean ham; 1 small bit of consomme glaze; slices of roasted sturgeon; good béchamel sauce

Why it works: Sturgeon and sauce work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 93 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fillets of Sturgeon a LA Turque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

Stew the rice in consommé with fat and ham until well done.

Assemble and serve

Mix in the consommé glaze and place it in the center of the dish.
Smooth it over with a knife and layer the slices of roasted sturgeon on top.
Pour hot béchamel sauce over the sturgeon before serving.

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.

Sturgeon + saucetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together93 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Rice + hamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together477 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Rice + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,396 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + sturgeontop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Forms the base bed, softening into a tender layer that holds the fish.
Consommé: Cooks the rice and adds savory moisture and flavour throughout.
Béchamel sauce: Adds a rich, creamy coating that moistens the sturgeon.
Sturgeon: Provides the main fish layer, whose firm flesh holds its shape on top of the rice.

The step that matters

Stewing the rice until well done. Rice needs enough liquid and time to fully soften; undercooked grains stay firm and grainy, spoiling the base texture that supports the fish.

“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.

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Steamed Rice48 recipes

Rice Griddle Cakes28 recipes

Rice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes

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Fillets of Sturgeon a LA Turque