Skip to main content
Main

Sturgeon Baked or Roast

A baked sturgeon tail‑end stuffed with fish forcemeat and basted in butter, served with brown gravy or fish sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Fish and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,488 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sturgeon Baked or Roast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Wash and skin the tail-end of the sturgeon.

  2. Split it down the inner side and carefully remove the backbone.

  3. Fill the cavity with fish forcemeat.

  4. Replace the fish in its original form.

  5. Tie a buttered paper over the cut side.

Bake and serve

  1. Preheat a baking dish with hot butter or fat.

  2. Place the fish in the dish.

  3. Baste well.

  4. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 1½ hours, basting frequently.

  5. Serve with brown gravy or a suitable fish 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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sturgeon + fishtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Sturgeon + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together237 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Fish + vealtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Sturgeon + vealtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon tail-end
Provides the main body of flesh that is cooked and served as the dish.
Fish forcemeat
Fills the cavity, adding moisture and a tender, richer texture to the fish.
Butter or fat
Basting fat that keeps the surface moist and promotes gentle browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Basting frequently during baking. Sturgeon is lean, so without regular basting the surface can dry out before the interior is cooked through. Fat spooned over the fish keeps it moist and helps the exterior brown evenly.

“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

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipesBroiled FishBroiled Fish68 recipes