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Sturgeon Boiled

A boiled sturgeon served with gravy after dredging and frying the slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 32,460 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sturgeon Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the sturgeon in salt water for 4 hours.

  2. Remove the sturgeon from the salt water.

  3. Bathe the sturgeon with diluted pyroligneous acid.

  4. Let the sturgeon drain for 1 hour.

Boil

  1. Place the sturgeon in boiling water and cover the boiling water.

  2. Add the onions and sweet herbs to the boiling water.

  3. Boil until the fish is tender and the bones separate easily.

  4. Remove the sturgeon from the heat.

  5. Remove the bones and skin from the sturgeon.

Brown and serve

  1. Cut the fish into slices.

  2. Dredge the slices in flour.

  3. Brown the slices over a fire.

  4. Serve with gravy.

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 + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sturgeon + flourtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sturgeon + oniontop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together90 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

Sturgeon
Is the main fish whose firm flesh holds together through soaking and boiling.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and firms its flesh during the salt-water soak.
Flour
Forms a dry coating on the slices that helps them brown evenly over the fire.
Onions
Add aroma and sweetness to the boiling water, flavouring the fish as it cooks.

The step that matters

Boil until the fish is tender and the bones separate easily. Boiling too hard or too long can break the delicate flesh apart, while stopping too early leaves the fish firm and the bones attached. Gentle simmering under a cover cooks the fish evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, flour. 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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