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Shad Roes

Cooked shad roe prepared with onion, parsley, and a sauce of Worcestershire, ketchup, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Shad Roes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roes

  1. Clean the fish and wash the roes.

  2. Place the roes in a saucepan with the onion and parsley, cover with boiling water, and add salt.

  3. Cook for 15 minutes, then let them cool in the liquid.

  4. Remove the roes, wipe them dry, roll in beaten egg and cracker dust.

Fry and make the sauce

  1. Fry in butter until light brown.

  2. Transfer to a hot dish, strain the cooking liquid into the frying pan.

  3. Stir in Worcestershire sauce and ketchup, and heat to a boil.

  4. Thicken with a brown roux, add sherry, and pour over the roes.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Roe + saucetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Roe + ketchuptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad roes
The main protein, which becomes tender and delicate when gently poached.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker dust to the roes so the coating holds during frying.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns in the butter.
Butter
Fries the coated roes to light brown and adds rich flavor.
Brown roux (in the method)
Thickens the pan liquid into a smooth sauce.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the roes in the liquid. Roes are delicate and overcooking makes them firm and dry. Letting them cool in the cooking liquid keeps them moist and tender before coating and frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (roe, parsley, egg, butter, sauce, ketchup, sherry):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, parsley, egg, butter, sauce, ketchup, sherry. 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.

More shad roe recipes

Croquettes 18Salad 11Sauce 7Omelet 3Omelette 3 See all 17 →

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