Why it works: Fish and meat work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Sturgeons Baked or Fried
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the sturgeon for 15 minutes to remove the oily taste.
Cut the sturgeon into slices nearly 1 inch thick.
Fry the slices in the leftover fat from cooking pork until brown.
Remove the fish and stir in a little flour, pepper, coarse sea salt, catsup, butter, and wine if desired.
Return the mixture to the pot and stew for a few minutes.
Make force-meat balls from some reserved fish, fry them, and use as a garnish.
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.
-
Fish + meattop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together479 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Sturgeon + fishtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Fried Fish120 recipes
Fish Croquettes81 recipes
Scalloped Cod69 recipes
Broiled Fish68 recipes