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Sturgeon a LA Russe

A braised sturgeon served with a glaze of lobster-coral, garnished with fillets of gurnets, gherkins, olives, and various seafood.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the sturgeon

  1. Braise the sturgeon in wine mirepoix or vinegar and water until cooked.

  2. Remove the skin and trim the sturgeon.

Glaze and garnish

  1. Mask the sturgeon with stiff glaze mixed with pounded lobster-coral.

  2. Garnish with small fillets of gurnets and green gherkins, shaped like half-moons and sautéed in butter.

  3. Place turned olives at each end.

Sauce and serve

  1. Pour rich Genoise sauce around the sturgeon, finishing with lobster butter, cayenne, lemon juice, chopped parsley, capers, turned olives, crayfish tails, and quenelles of anchovies.

  2. Garnish the inner edge of the dish with fried smelts.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lobster + saucetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Olive + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,649 recipes

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

  4. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 by braising so it stays moist and tender.
Stiff glaze
Forms a set coating over the fish that holds the garnish and adds sheen.
Butter
Adds richness and gives the gherkins and gurnet fillets golden browning when sautéed.
Rich genoise sauce
Provides a rich, savoury liquid base that surrounds and flavours the fish.
Lobster butter
Adds richness and a concentrated shellfish aroma to the finished sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances the butter.

The step that matters

Braise the sturgeon until cooked. Sturgeon is lean and dries out or toughens if overcooked, so it should be braised gently just until it flakes, keeping it moist in its cooking liquid.

“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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