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Sturgeon Cutlets

Thin slices of sturgeon coated in parsley, lemon rind, and bread crumbs, then fried and served with piquante or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Cut the sturgeon into thin slices and flatten them with a heavy knife.

  2. Trim the slices into shape.

Coat the cutlets

  1. Mix the parsley and lemon rind with the bread crumbs, then season with salt and pepper.

  2. Brush the fish slices with beaten egg, then coat them with the seasoned bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot fat until lightly browned on both sides, about 10 minutes.

  2. Drain excess fat and serve with piquante or tomato 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 cutlet, cooking to a firm, flaky texture when fried.
Egg
Binds the bread crumb coating to the fish so it stays on during frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aroma and a hint of acidity to the seasoned crumb coating.

The step that matters

Frying in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the crumb coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping quickly. Sufficient heat sets the coating before the thin fish dries out.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, parsley, lemon, egg, bread, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, parsley, lemon, egg, bread, pepper. 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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