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Broiled Shad and Caper Sauce

A whole shad seasoned, marinated, and broiled, served with caper sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Broiled Shad and Caper Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scale, disembowel, and wash the shad carefully.

  2. Cut across the back twice or thrice.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, then let it marinate in oil for 30 minutes.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the shad on both sides over a clear fire.

  2. Serve with caper 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 + saucetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Pepper and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
Is the main fish that is cooked and served as the centerpiece of the dish.
Oil
Coats the fish during marinating, helping keep its surface moist while broiling.
Caper sauce
Adds a tangy, briny flavor that contrasts with the rich broiled fish.

The step that matters

Broil on both sides over a clear fire. Fish is delicate and can dry out or stick if the heat is uneven or too fierce. A clear, steady fire cooks the flesh through evenly while the oiled surface browns, and turning it gives both sides even cooking.

“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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