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To Roast Sturgeon

A roasted sturgeon served with gravy, anchovy sauce, citrus, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Roast Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the sturgeon by placing it on a large spit.

  2. Tie it securely and baste constantly with butter.

  3. Serve with a good gravy, anchovy sauce, a squeeze of Seville orange or lemon, and a glass of sherry.

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

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

  3. Pepper + orangetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Is the main protein, cooked whole on the spit to set its flesh through roasting.
Butter
Basting fat that adds moisture and promotes browning on the surface as it cooks.
Seville orange or lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty flavour of the fish when squeezed over.

The step that matters

Baste constantly with butter. Fish is lean and dries out quickly over direct heat. Frequent basting coats the surface in fat, which keeps the flesh moist and helps the skin brown evenly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

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