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Sturgeon a LA Sainte-Menehould

A sturgeon dish stewed in a sauce of pepper, coarse sea salt, bay leaf, bacon, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,433 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sturgeon a LA Sainte-Menehould

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine pepper, coarse sea salt, bay leaf, bits of bacon, and white wine to make a sauce.

  2. Add the pieces of sturgeon to the sauce.

Stew and serve

  1. Cover the pan and let the sturgeon stew slowly until cooked through.

  2. Skim the sauce and serve.

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. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  2. Sturgeon + white winetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Sturgeon + peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together199 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Firm, meaty flesh that becomes tender and flaky as it cooks in the sauce.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory, smoky flavor that seasons the sauce and the fish.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, savory sauce.

The step that matters

Stew slowly until cooked through. Gentle, covered simmering keeps the sturgeon moist and holds the pieces together. Boiling hard toughens the proteins and breaks the fish apart. Cook only until it flakes, since overcooked fish turns dry.

“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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