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Planked Shad and Potato Roses

Broiled shad topped with buttered crumbs and potato roses, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Planked Shad and Potato Roses

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Prepare the shad for broiling and place it on a thick hardwood board.

  2. Secure the shad with a few tacks.

  3. Season the shad with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  4. Cover the shad with buttered crumbs.

Bake and serve

  1. Using a pastry bag, shape hot mashed potatoes into rose forms around the fish.

  2. Brush the potatoes with the slightly beaten egg yolk.

  3. Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes.

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. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
Provides the main flesh that the potatoes and crumbs surround and cook.
Hot mashed potatoes
Form a soft, fluffy border that holds moisture around the fish.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and promotes browning on the potato roses in the oven.
Buttered crumbs
Add fat and a crisp, golden surface during baking.

The step that matters

Brush the potatoes with the egg yolk. The yolk must be applied evenly and only slightly beaten so it coats the potato roses without pooling. The proteins and fats in the yolk set and brown in the oven, giving an even golden finish.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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