Why it works: Pepper and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 85,593 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Broiled Shad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrape, split, wash, and dry the shad on a cloth.
Season with salt and pepper.
Grease the gridiron well and heat it.
Broil and serve
Lay the shad on the gridiron with the inside downward.
Broil for about 15 minutes or until well browned, then turn it over.
Butter well and serve hot.
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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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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, with firm flesh that holds together under the broiler.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the finished fish and helps the surface brown.
The step that matters
Grease the gridiron well and heat it. A hot, oiled grid keeps the delicate fish from sticking and tearing when you turn it, and it starts browning the surface quickly.
“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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