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Scalloped Shad Roes

Baked shad roe with butter, egg yolk, anchovy paste, parsley, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Scalloped Shad Roes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the roe

  1. Boil the roes in salted water, then cool them in cold water for 5 minutes.

  2. Wipe the roes dry.

  3. Break the roes into a granulated heap using the back of a silver spoon.

Make the filling

  1. Pound the hard-boiled egg yolks into a powder and beat them into the drawn butter.

  2. Add parsley and seasonings, then mix in the roes gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Strew the bottom of a buttered dish with bread crumbs.

  2. Add the mixture and spread evenly.

  3. Cover with fine bread crumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Cover and bake at 400°F (200°C) until bubbling hot, then uncover to brown on the top.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Roe + anchovytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad roe
Forms the main body of the dish, giving a delicate, flaky texture when broken and mixed.
Drawn butter
Adds richness and moisture, binding the filling together and keeping it tender in the oven.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Thicken the filling and add a smooth, rich body when pounded into the butter.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden top and a dry crust that protects the filling as it bakes.
Anchovy paste or essence
Adds a savoury, salty depth that enhances the flavour of the roe.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and roe flavours.

The step that matters

Bake only until bubbling hot, then brown. Shad roe is delicate and overcooks easily, turning dry and grainy. Baking covered heats it gently, and uncovering only at the end browns the crumbs without drying the filling.

“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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