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Sturgeon, with Piquant-sauce

A preserved sturgeon filleted with bacon and anchovies, simmered in a vinegar and broth sauce with pickled gherkins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sturgeon and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

Sturgeon, with Piquant-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Trim the skin and bony parts from the sturgeon.

  2. Interlard the flesh with bacon and anchovies.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt, oil, and vinegar and let it pickle for a few hours.

  4. Truss the sturgeon neatly.

Braise

  1. Place it in a stewpan with bacon trimmings and sliced vegetables at the bottom.

  2. Moisten with equal parts vinegar and broth until covered.

  3. Bring to a boil and skim the liquid.

  4. Cover the pot and cook gently over moderate heat with live embers on the lid.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the stock and skim off the fat.

  2. Boil the stock and thicken it with a little Toux’.

  3. Keep it boiling for 15 minutes.

  4. Skim the fat again and strain through a tammy.

  5. Add the diced pickled gherkins.

Serve

  1. Remove the string from the sturgeon.

  2. Place it on a dish.

  3. Cover with the 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. Sturgeon + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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, whose firm flesh holds its shape during long gentle cooking.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the lean fish as it melts and bastes the flesh.
Anchovies
Contribute deep savoury flavour that enriches the fish and the finished sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that firms the fish during pickling and sharpens the piquant sauce.
Broth
Provides the liquid base for gentle braising and the body of the sauce.
Pickled gherkins
Add sharp acidity and crunch that give the sauce its piquant character.

The step that matters

Keep the braise gently simmering. Boiling vigorously toughens and breaks up delicate fish protein, so the liquid should only tremble while the sturgeon cooks under its lid.

“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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