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Broiled Shad

Broiled shad seasoned with salt, sugar, cayenne, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Broiled Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scale, wash, and score the shad.

  2. Mix together the salt and sugar, then rub this mixture over the fish and let it sit for 2 hours.

  3. Wash the fish again, dry it with a towel, and season with cayenne pepper and salt.

  4. Heat the grill and butter the bars.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fish gradually, turning it when one side is well browned.

  2. Once done, place the fish on a dish, baste with butter, and serve hot.

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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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 (in the method)
Is the main fish that is cured, seasoned, and broiled until browned and flaky.
Sugar
Adds mild sweetness and helps browning on the fish surface during broiling.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture from the fish and seasons it during the two-hour rest.

The step that matters

Broil the fish gradually, turning it when one side is well browned. Broiling too fast can scorch the surface before the thick flesh cooks through. Gentle heat and turning only after good browning let the fish cook evenly and keep it moist.

“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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