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Baked Shad No II

A whole shad baked with a breadcrumb and ham mixture, seasoned with marjoram, pepper, salt, mace, and served with a wine butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Shad No II

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fish

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Leave the head on the shad and do not split the fish.

  3. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, minced ham or bacon, marjoram, pepper, salt, mace or cloves, and moisten with the raw egg.

  4. Dress, wash, and dry the fish, then stuff the inside with the mixture, reserving some to rub over the outside.

  5. Rub the outside of the fish with the yolk of the raw egg.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fish in a deep pan, securing its tail in its mouth.

  2. Pour a little water into the bottom of the pan, add the port wine or claret, and the butter.

  3. Baste the fish and bake for 45 minutes, or 2 hours for a larger fish.

  4. Serve with the gravy poured over it and garnish with lemon.

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. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Marjoram + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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, carrying the stuffing and cooking to a moist, flaky texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the egg to form a stuffing that holds together while baking.
Raw egg
Binds the stuffing and, as yolk brushed on the skin, helps the outside brown during baking.
Ham or bacon
Adds savoury fat and salty flavour that seasons the stuffing and melts into it as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the pan liquid, enriching the gravy and aiding browning.
Port wine or claret
Adds acidity and fruity depth to the pan liquid, forming the base of the gravy.

The step that matters

Baste the fish and bake for the correct time. Shad is bony and delicate, so basting keeps the surface moist while the pan liquid forms gravy. Baking time depends on fish size, and overcooking dries the flesh.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, marjoram, pepper, egg, butter, flour. 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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