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To Dress Sturgeon

Breaded sturgeon fillets served with melted butter, anchovy sauce, and lemon pickle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

To Dress Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the sturgeon into slices.

  2. Rub the egg over the fish slices.

  3. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, and salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Fold the slices in paper and broil gently.

  2. Serve with melted butter, anchovy sauce, and lemon pickle.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sturgeon + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon fillets
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked as slices.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the fish so the coating holds during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp coating that helps brown the outside of the fish.
Melted butter
Adds richness and moisture to the finished fish.

The step that matters

Fold the slices in paper and broil gently. Gentle heat and the paper wrapping help the fish cook through without drying out, while the coating crisps. Too much heat can dry the fish or scorch the crumbs before the interior is done.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, egg, bread, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce):

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, egg, bread, pepper, butter, anchovy, sauce. 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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