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Planked Shad and Potato Roses

Planked shad seasoned with salt and pepper, coated with buttered bread crumbs, topped with potato roses, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Planked Shad and Potato Roses

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Place the prepared shad on a thick hardwood board and secure it with tacks.

  2. Season the fish with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then cover with buttered bread crumbs.

Pipe and bake

  1. Using a pastry bag, pipe hot mashed potatoes around the fish in the shape of roses.

  2. Brush the potato roses with the slightly beaten egg yolk.

  3. Cook in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 25 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.

  1. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Bread + potatotop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 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

Shad
Is the main fish, baked whole and held flat on the board.
Hot mashed potatoes
Form the piped roses and hold their shape while baking.
Buttered bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden crust over the fish.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps the potato roses brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Pipe the potatoes while hot. Mashed potatoes stiffen as they cool, so piping them hot keeps them soft enough to pipe smoothly and hold their rose shape.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, bread, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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