Skip to main content
Main

Shad Roasted on a Board

A whole shad is roasted on a heated oak board, seasoned with sea salt and served with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Shad Roasted on a Board

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the board

  1. Heat the oak board in front of the fire until very hot, almost charred.

  2. Season the shad with coarse sea salt.

  3. Fasten the shad to the hot board with small nails, skin side down.

Roast

  1. Place the board before the fire with the head of the shad down.

  2. Turn the board with the tail down as soon as juices begin to run.

  3. Turn frequently to retain the juices.

Serve

  1. Butter the shad.

  2. Serve the shad hot on the board.

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
Forms the main body of the dish; its flesh cooks through and turns flaky over the fire.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the cooked fish at serving.

The step that matters

Turn the board as soon as juices begin to run. Juices collecting on the surface signal that the fish is moving toward doneness, and turning it keeps them from pooling and drying out the flesh unevenly while it roasts.

“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.

You might also like