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Cutlets of Sturgeon

Sturgeon cutlets topped with a bacon, onion, and parsley mixture, baked and served with a wine‑roux sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cutlets of Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bacon, onion, and parsley together until finely mixed.

  2. Skin the sturgeon and trim the cutlets to the same size and shape.

Cook the cutlets

  1. Brush the cutlets with oil and cover the top with the chopped mixture.

  2. Cover the cutlets with buttered paper and bake in a tin until done.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, boil the fish trimmings in water to make stock.

  2. Add ½ cup white wine and a little roux to the stock, thickening it to the consistency of cream.

  3. Serve the cutlets with the sauce.

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 + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Onion + white winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,535 recipes

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

  4. Fish + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together370 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sturgeon + fishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 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
Forms the main body of the dish and cooks to a firm, flaky texture.
Bacon
Adds fat that bastes the fish and carries savoury flavour into the cutlets.
Onion
Contributes aromatic flavour and a little moisture as it softens under the cover.
Parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma that brightens the rich fish and bacon.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce, balancing its richness.
Roux
Thickens the stock into a creamy sauce through starch gelatinisation.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with roux. Roux must be cooked into the simmering stock and given time to bind; added too cold or too fast it can clump, and undercooked flour leaves a raw taste and weak thickening.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, onion, sauce, fish, white wine):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, onion, sauce, fish, white 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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