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Baked Shad

Baked shad stuffed with bread crumbs, butter, and seasonings, served with a gravy of anchovy sauce, lemon, and browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Baked Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shad

  1. Clean, wash, and wipe the shad.

  2. Stuff the shad with a mixture of bread crumbs, butter, salt, and pepper, wet with milk, and sew it up carefully.

Bake

  1. Place the shad in a dripping pan and pour hot water over it.

  2. Bake for one hour, covered, basting with butter and water occasionally.

  3. Transfer the shad to a hot dish.

  4. Keep the shad warm.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine the gravy with anchovy sauce, lemon juice, browned flour mixed with cold water, and pepper.

  2. Boil the gravy well.

  3. Serve the gravy in a boat.

  4. Garnish the fish with sliced lemon.

  5. Serve with cress salad.

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. Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Bread + anchovytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,260 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).

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, cooked whole so the stuffing and moist heat keep it tender.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and butter in the stuffing, giving it a soft, moist body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and basting keeps the surface from drying out.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Anchovy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth to the gravy.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances the fish.

The step that matters

Boil the gravy well. Browned flour needs to be fully boiled to thicken properly and lose its raw starchy taste. Stirring in the cold-water mixture before boiling prevents lumps.

“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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