Name: Fried Roes of Cod or Shad
Ingredients: 2 or 3 roes of cod or shad; 1 pint boiling water; 1 tablespoon vinegar; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 raw egg, well beaten; ½ cup fine bread crumbs; 3 tablespoons sweet lard or dripping

Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fried Roes of Cod or Shad

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Wash the roes and dry them with a soft, clean cloth.
In a pot, combine boiling water with vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Poach and cool

Boil the roes in this mixture for 10 minutes, then plunge them into very cold, slightly salted water.
Wipe the roes dry again after 2 minutes in cold water.

Coat and fry

Roll the roes in the beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry in hot fat until golden brown.

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.

Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together243 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Roe + breadtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together123 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cod or shad roes: Provide the main body, with a delicate texture that sets when boiled and firms when fried.
Raw egg: Acts as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the roes.
Fine bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
Sweet lard or dripping: Conducts heat for frying and browns the crumb coating, adding richness.

The step that matters

Wiping the roes dry before coating. Surface moisture keeps the egg and bread crumbs from sticking evenly and can make the coating soggy or cause spattering in the hot fat, so the roes must be fully dried first.

“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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Fried Roes of Cod or Shad