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Sturgeon Stewed with Madeira Wine

A stew of sturgeon cooked with Madeira wine, butter, lemon juice, and optional mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Sturgeon Stewed with Madeira Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the sturgeon

  1. Set a piece of sturgeon to stew, using half consomme and half Madeira wine.

  2. Let it stew gently until done, then carefully remove it and place it on a dish.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the cooking liquid through a silk sieve into a stewpan and skim off all the fat.

  2. Heat the strained liquid until it boils.

  3. Add nearly the same quantity of sauce tournée.

  4. Stir and let it boil gently until reduced to a moderate thickness.

  5. Mix in the fresh butter and lemon juice, combining well.

  6. Pour the sauce over the sturgeon on the dish.

  7. Add mushrooms if desired.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Madeira wine + mushroomtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together176 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 gently in the stewing liquid until done.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic depth and sweetness to the stewing liquid and the finished sauce.
Fresh butter
Enriches the sauce, adding richness and a smooth, glossy texture when stirred in.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and wine sauce.

The step that matters

Reducing the sauce to a moderate thickness. Boiling gently concentrates the liquid and thickens it through evaporation and the starch in the sauce tournée. Reducing too little leaves the sauce thin, while boiling too hard can scorch it or break the sauce once butter is added.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sturgeon, madeira wine, butter, mushroom):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Applefits about as well
  3. Plumfits less well
  4. Orangefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sturgeon, madeira wine, butter, mushroom. 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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