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Roasted Pike or Sturgeon

A whole pike or sturgeon stuffed with capers, anchovies, herbs, breadcrumbs, butter, and egg, then roasted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Roasted Pike or Sturgeon

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix capers, anchovies, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, lemon peel, pepper, salt, breadcrumbs, butter, and egg.

Stuff and shape

  1. Stuff the fish with the mixture and sew it up.

  2. Turn the fish around and fasten the head with the tail.

Bake and serve

  1. Brush the fish with egg and coat it with breadcrumbs.

  2. Bake or roast gently until cooked through and golden brown.

  3. Serve with a sauce made of cullis, fresh butter, cayenne, anchovy essence, 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Capers + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,550 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Pike or sturgeon
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to a moist, flaky texture.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust on the outside of the fish as they brown in the oven.
Egg
Binds the stuffing together and helps the breadcrumb coating adhere.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the stuffing and helps the crust brown.
Anchovies
Add a savoury depth to the stuffing that blends into the fish.

The step that matters

Bake or roast gently until cooked through. Fish is cooked when its flesh turns opaque and flakes easily. Gentle heat cooks the thick body evenly, while overcooking dries the flesh and toughens it.

Swap the capers

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, lemon, pepper, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, parsley, thyme, nutmeg, lemon, pepper, butter. 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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