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Sturgeon Steaks

Broiled sturgeon slices seasoned with salt, cayenne, and optional breadcrumb mixture, served hot with lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Sturgeon Steaks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the sturgeon and cut it into ½ inch thick slices.

  2. Rub the slices well with coarse sea salt.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the slices over a clear fire of bright coals.

  2. Butter the cooked sturgeon, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, and serve hot garnished with lemon slices.

Alternative method

  1. For an alternative, mix bread crumbs, sweet herbs, black pepper, and salt for seasoning.

  2. Dip the sturgeon slices in the beaten egg yolk, then cover with the seasoning.

  3. Wrap the slices in well-buttered white paper and broil over a clear fire.

  4. Serve with or without the paper.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sturgeon
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through over the fire to a firm, flaky texture.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cooked fish, and in the alternative keeps the paper from sticking.
Beaten egg yolk
Acts as a binder so the bread crumb seasoning adheres to the fish slices.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the sturgeon slices.

The step that matters

Broil over a clear fire. Sturgeon is lean and dries out quickly, so the slices need steady, even heat and careful watching to cook through without becoming tough or 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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