Skip to main content
Main

Sturgeon a LA Husse

A salted and stewed sturgeon served with a sauce of beef gravy and red wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Husse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the sturgeon and soak it in salt water for several hours.

  2. Remove the sturgeon from the salt water an hour before cooking and rub it with vinegar.

  3. Place the sturgeon in a fish kettle.

Cook

  1. Cover it with boiling water, add salt, onions, and sweet herbs.

  2. Stew the sturgeon in wine or ale until the bones separate easily.

Brown and serve

  1. Remove the sturgeon, take off the skin, flour it, and brown it before the fire, basting with butter.

  2. Serve with a rich sauce made from beef gravy and red wine, seasoned with spices, and garnish with pickles.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + red winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together575 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Beef + red winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + winetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,493 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
The main fish; its firm flesh holds together through long, gentle stewing.
Butter
Fat that carries heat to the surface, helping the floured fish brown and stay moist.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth to the sauce, balancing the richness of the beef gravy.
Beef gravy
Forms the body of the sauce, adding savoury depth and a glossy texture.
Onions
Release sweetness and aroma into the poaching liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stewing until the bones separate easily. Stewing too briefly leaves the fish tough and the bones attached, while overcooking breaks the flesh apart. Gentle simmering in wine or ale tenderises the connective tissue and loosens the bones gradually, so the fish stays intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, vinegar, butter, wine, beef, red wine):

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, vinegar, butter, wine, beef, red wine. 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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipesBeef BrothBeef Broth67 recipes