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Sturgeon, Baked

A baked sturgeon seasoned with salt, pepper, herbs, lemon, wine, and butter, served with its own gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Sturgeon, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Clean the sturgeon thoroughly, skin it, and remove the insides.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  3. Place the fish in a large baking dish.

Season and bake

  1. Sprinkle the fish with salt, pepper, and minced herbs.

  2. Moisten the fish with lemon juice and white wine.

  3. Dot the fish with small pieces of butter.

  4. Bake in the oven, basting frequently, until browned.

  5. Serve with its own 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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  5. Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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, cooking to a flaky texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the fish brown and stay moist as it bakes.
White wine
Provides moisture and acidity, building the liquid that becomes the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the rich butter.

The step that matters

Basting frequently while baking. Regular basting spoons the buttery wine liquid over the fish's surface, keeping it moist and promoting even browning, since lean fish can dry out in dry oven heat.

“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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