Name: Shad, Baked
Ingredients: 4 lbs shad, dressed; 2 lbs bread, crumbled; 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon black pepper; 1 tablespoon dried thyme; 1 pint tomatoes

Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shad, Baked

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Split the shad in half and cut crosswise into 6 pieces on one side and 5 pieces on the other.

Bake

In a pan, combine the crumbled bread, coarse sea salt, black pepper, dried thyme, and tomatoes.
Place the shad on top of the dressing in the pan.
Bake for 30 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.

Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shad: Forms the main protein of the dish, cooking through in the oven to become flaky and moist.
Bread: Soaks up juices and cooking liquid, forming a moist, tender dressing beneath the fish.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that blend with the bread and help keep the dish juicy as it bakes.