Why it works: Roe and onion work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 136 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Shad-roe Salad
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the roe
Wash the shad roes and place them in a saucepan.
Cover with boiling water and add salt.
Simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Slice and assemble
Once cool, remove the skin and cut into thin slices.
Place the onion slice in the center of a salad dish.
Arrange the salad leaves around the onion.
Heap the shad roe slices in the center and pour mayonnaise over them.
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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Roe + oniontop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together136 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shad roes
- Form the main protein, setting into a firm yet tender texture when poached.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds fat and richness, moistening the slices and giving a creamy coating.
The step that matters
Simmer gently for 20 minutes. A gentle simmer cooks the delicate roe evenly while keeping it tender and intact. Boiling hard can toughen the proteins and break the roe apart.
“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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