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Shad Roe

A dish of boiled shad roe coated in milk, egg, and cracker crumbs, then fried in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Shad Roe

Ingredients

Directions

Poach

  1. Cover the roe with boiling salted water and add vinegar.

  2. Boil gently for 8 to 10 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and drop into cold water to cool slightly.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the roe in a mixture of milk and egg.

  2. Coat the roe in cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry in butter, seasoning with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve with fish sauce or lemon wedges.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together243 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  4. Roe + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together442 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Roe
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming firm and mild when gently poached.
Egg
Binds the milk mixture so the cracker crumbs adhere to the roe as a coating.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust when fried in butter.
Butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the crust.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 8 to 10 minutes. Boiling vigorously can break up the delicate roe and toughen its texture. A gentle simmer cooks it through while keeping the membranes intact and the interior tender.

“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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