Why it works: Butter and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Broiled Shad
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Split the shad on the back.
Remove the roe and spine.
Preheat the grill.
Grease the grill.
Cook and serve
Broil the shad for 30 minutes.
Transfer the shad to a platter.
Place it in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 5 minutes.
Spread butter over the shad.
Serve hot with lemon slices.
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.
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shad
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to firm, flaky flesh over heat.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and keeps the surface of the fish moist after cooking.
The step that matters
Broil the shad for 30 minutes. Fish flesh is delicate and can dry out quickly under sustained heat. Watching the timing and checking that the flesh flakes easily helps keep the shad moist while it cooks through.
“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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