Sturgeon, Roast
INGREDIENTS for dish for 4 persons. Veal stuffing, buttered paper, the tail-end of a sturgeon.
AVERAGE COST, 1s. to 1s. 6d. per lb.
Cleanse the fish, bone and skin it; make a nice veal stuffing (see Forcemeats), and fill with it the part where the bones came from; roll it in buttered paper, bind it up firmly with tape, like a fillet of veal, and roast it in a Dutch oven before a clear fire. Serve with good brown gravy, or plain melted butter.
TIME. About 1 hour.
SEASONABLE from August to March.
Note.- Sturgeon may be plainly boiled, and served with Dutch sauce. The fish is very firm , and requires long boiling.
A boned, stuffed and tied fish roll treated exactly like a fillet of veal, which tells you most of what you need to know about sturgeon's texture. The two things that need translating are the equipment and the sourcing.
- Sourcing the fishWild sturgeon are protected across most of their range and all species are CITES-listed; the Thames and Baltic fisheries Beeton knew are gone. What is sold legally today is farmed, usually Siberian or white sturgeon, and it comes as loin or steaks rather than a whole tail-end.
- A Dutch oven is not a Dutch ovenIn 1861 this means a reflector oven: an open-fronted metal box set on the hearth facing the fire, the fish hung or spitted inside it. The book gives no temperatures; if you are adapting to a modern oven, a moderately hot oven or a rotisserie is the nearest thing.
- Buttered paper and tapeParchment brushed with butter and butcher's twine. The paper is there to stop the exposed flesh drying while the stuffing sets; the tape holds the roll cylindrical so it cooks evenly.
- Veal stuffingBeeton's forcemeat for veal is broadly breadcrumbs, suet, minced ham or bacon, lemon peel, parsley and sweet herbs, seasoning, and egg to bind. Any bread-and-herb forcemeat will do the same job.
- An hour is too longAn hour may be too long -- Sturgeon is lean and dense and turns dry well before it falls apart. But because the centre of this roll is an egg-bound meat forcemeat, the middle must reach a safe stuffing temperature (74C/165F), not a rare-fish one. Cook the stuffing separately if you want the fish less done, and check with a thermometer rather than the clock.