Skip to main content
Main

Croquettes of Shad Roe

A dish of shad roe formed into croquettes, coated with cracker dust, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Croquettes of Shad Roe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roe

  1. Scald the shad roe in boiling salted water with vinegar for 15 minutes.

  2. Transfer the roe to ice-cold water to stiffen and blanch.

  3. Break apart the roe gently with the back of a spoon until it resembles tiny grains.

Make the custard

  1. Combine hot milk, roux, salt, and pepper in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the mixture for 3 minutes.

  3. Add the roe to the mixture.

  4. Cook for 2 more minutes after boiling.

  5. Remove the mixture from heat.

  6. Gradually mix the mixture with beaten eggs, adding seasoning, lemon juice, and anchovy paste.

  7. Place the mixture in a pan over boiling water.

  8. Stir the mixture for 3-4 minutes.

  9. Pour the mixture onto a broad dish.

  10. Let the mixture cool until stiff.

Shape and fry

  1. Mold the cooled mixture into croquettes.

  2. Roll the croquettes in egg and cracker dust.

  3. Refrigerate the croquettes for at least 1 hour.

  4. Fry the croquettes in deep cottolene until golden brown.

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 + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad roe (in the method)
Provides the main flavor and the grainy, firm texture of the croquettes.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set when heated, holding the croquettes together.
White roux
Thickens the hot milk so the mixture holds its shape when cooled.
Hot milk
Forms the creamy base that carries the roe and thickens with the roux.
Cracker dust
Forms a crisp, golden coating during frying.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture until stiff before shaping. The egg-enriched mixture must be fully set and chilled so it holds its shape; shaping it warm causes croquettes to slump and break apart in the fat.

“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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes