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To Roast Sturgeon

A sturgeon roasted after steeping in butter, flour, salt, pepper, herbs, onion, cloves, water, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Roast Sturgeon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter and flour mixture over medium heat in a stew-pan.

  2. Add salt, pepper, parsley, onion, sweet herbs, cloves, water, and vinegar.

  3. Stir until lukewarm.

  4. Remove from heat.

Roast and serve

  1. Add the sturgeon to steep in the mixture.

  2. Roast the sturgeon in the oven.

  3. Serve with your choice of vegetable 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
The main protein, which becomes firm and flaky as it cooks.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the liquid and gives it body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the mixture.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma as it softens in the liquid.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before adding the sturgeon. If the mixture is still very hot when the fish goes in, the delicate flesh can overcook and toughen before roasting. Letting it cool to lukewarm allows the fish to steep gently and keep its moisture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, parsley, clove, vinegar, sturgeon):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, parsley, clove, vinegar, sturgeon. 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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