To Cure Shad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Clean the shad and place them in layers with the backs down and insides up.
Sprinkle each fish generously with ground salt and let them stand for 24 hours to draw out the blood.
Wipe the fish dry with clean napkins.
Cure
In a clean tub, layer the fish again with the backs down.
For 100 shad, mix ½ pound of saltpetre and 2 pounds of brown sugar.
Strew plenty of rock salt over the fish along with the saltpetre and sugar.
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
What each ingredient does
- Shad
- The main fish, whose flesh is firmed and preserved by the salt cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the flesh's colour and slows bacterial growth during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the sharpness of the salt in the cure.
- Rock salt
- Draws moisture out of the fish and preserves it through the cure.
The step that matters
Standing the fish in salt for 24 hours. Salt draws out blood and moisture from the flesh. Cutting this rest short leaves blood in the fish, which can spoil faster and taste harsher.
“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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