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Stewed Sturgeon

Stewed sturgeon slices coated in flour, broiled, simmered in broth, thickened with butter, flavored with Harvey's sauce and wine, garnished with capers and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,222 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Dip the sturgeon slices in vinegar and dry them well.

  2. Coat the slices in flour and broil them.

Stew and finish

  1. Place the broiled slices in a stewpan with broth and let them stew gently until tender.

  2. Thicken the gravy with butter or cream, then add Harvey's sauce and wine.

  3. Serve with capers sprinkled on top and garnish with lemon slices.

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. Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sauce + caperstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Firm fish that holds its shape while stewing and becomes tender in the broth.
Flour
Coats the slices so they brown under the broiler and help thicken the gravy.
Butter or cream
Adds richness and body to the gravy when used for thickening.
Wine
Adds acidity and depth to the finished gravy.
Harvey's sauce
Adds savory, tangy flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy with butter or cream, then add Harvey's sauce and wine.. Adding dairy or fat to a hot, acidic liquid can cause it to separate or curdle, so the gravy should be thickened and smoothed before the wine is stirred in.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, vinegar, flour, butter, sauce, wine, capers):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Plumfits less well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, vinegar, flour, butter, sauce, wine, capers. 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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