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Shad Roe Croquettes

A savory croquette made with shad roe, cream, eggs, flour, and seasonings, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Roe and egg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 238 recipes mention both. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the roe

  1. Put the shad roes in a pan of salted boiling water, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove the skins and mash the roes.

Make the custard

  1. Bring the cream to a boil, then mix the butter and flour together over the fire, but do not brown.

  2. Add the cream and stir until it becomes a thick custard.

  3. Add the yolks of the eggs, lemon juice, parsley, nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and spread the mixture to cool on a dish.

Shape and coat

  1. Roll the cooled mixture into forms.

  2. With well-floured hands, dip the forms in the whites of the eggs and sifted bread crumbs, then leave for two hours before frying.

By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Roe + eggtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together238 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,062 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shad roe
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them their rich flavour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a stable custard that holds the mixture together.
Butter
Enriches the custard and adds richness and flavour to the mixture.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard as it cools, and whites help the coating adhere.
Cream (in the method)
Forms the liquid base that is thickened into a custard.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard. The butter and flour must be cooked without browning so the flour thickens smoothly. Browning changes the flavour and the starch cannot thicken properly, leaving a loose mixture that will not hold its shape when rolled and fried.

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, lemon, butter, parsley, roe, egg, pepper):

  1. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Dillabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Marjoramabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, lemon, butter, parsley, roe, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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