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Planked Shad

A shad fillet cooked on a wooden plank over a fire, basted with saltwater and butter, served with walnut catsup and pickled walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,832 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Planked Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the board

  1. Prepare a thick oak board with wooden pegs.

  2. Open and spread the shad, then lay it on the board and secure it with the pegs.

Cook

  1. Place the board before a clear fire, resting one end in a shallow iron pan with a little salt and water.

  2. Baste the fish with the saltwater as it cooks.

  3. When almost cooked, baste with butter.

Serve

  1. Serve with walnut catsup poured over the fish and garnish with pickled walnuts.

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 + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Spread + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl acetate (pineapple, fruity).

  3. Spread + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together236 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole on the board until flaky.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the fish brown lightly when basted near the end.
Walnut catsup
Adds a savoury, tangy flavour that complements the fish when poured over it at serving.

The step that matters

Basting with saltwater as the fish cooks. Basting keeps the surface moist while heat is applied from the fire, so the flesh does not dry out before it is cooked through. The salt in the pan adds seasoning as the liquid reduces and coats the fish.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spread, butter):

  1. Hazelnutfits about as well
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against spread, butter. 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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