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 ↓
To Broil Shad
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Split and wash the shad, then dry it with a cloth.
Season the shad with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Grease a grill well and heat it.
Cook and serve
Place the shad skin side down on the grill to retain the juices.
When done, butter the shad and serve.
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, supplying the flesh that is cooked and served.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth finish to the cooked fish.
The step that matters
Place the shad skin side down on the grill. Fish flesh is delicate and sticks easily to hot metal. Starting skin side down, with the grill well greased and hot, helps the skin crisp and hold the fillet together, so it can be turned and kept moist.
“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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