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Broiled Shad with Sorrel

Broiled shad served with boiled sorrel garnish and parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sorrel and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 234 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Broiled Shad with Sorrel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Scale and draw the shad, cut off the fins, and wipe it clean.

  2. Make incisions on both sides of the fish.

  3. Place the shad in a deep dish, baste with oil, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Let it marinate for 1 hour.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the fish over a clear fire, turning and basting frequently with the oil.

  2. Boil the sorrel for garnish.

  3. Make a border of sorrel on a hot dish.

  4. Place the shad in the center of the dish.

  5. Pour a little parsley sauce over the shad.

  6. Serve with extra sauce on the side.

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. Sorrel + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sorreltop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together419 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Roe + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sorrel + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together158 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad with soft roe
Forms the main body of the dish, with the soft roe adding richness and a tender texture when cooked.
Oil
Basting oil keeps the fish moist and helps it brown under the broiler.

The step that matters

Broil the fish over a clear fire, turning and basting frequently. Frequent basting with oil keeps the surface from drying out while the flesh cooks through, and turning exposes both sides evenly to heat. A clear, steady fire avoids scorching the outside before the center is done.

Swap the sorrel

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Sorrelthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, pepper, parsley, sauce. 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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