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Sturgeon a LA Russe

A stewed sturgeon served with a sauce of beef gravy and red wine, garnished with pickles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the sturgeon and soak it in salt water for several hours.

  2. Remove it from the water an hour before cooking and rub it with vinegar.

Cook

  1. Place the sturgeon in a fish kettle, cover with boiling water, add bay salt, onions, and sweet herbs.

  2. Stew until the bones separate easily, then remove the fish and skin it.

Brown and serve

  1. Flour the fish and brown it before the fire, basting with butter.

  2. Serve with a rich sauce made from beef gravy and red wine, seasoned with spices, and garnish with pickles.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Beef + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  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
Is the main fish, cooked gently until tender and then browned for flavour and colour.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and savour to the poaching liquid.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the fish.
Butter
Carries heat and adds richness, helping the flour-dusted fish brown.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stew until the bones separate easily. Stewing must be gentle and stopped at the right point. Overcooking breaks the fish into flakes that lose their firm texture, while undercooking leaves the flesh and bones tight and hard to remove.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, vinegar, wine, butter, beef, red wine):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, vinegar, wine, butter, beef, red wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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