Why it works: Roe and egg work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 243 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Shad Au Gratin
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Clean, wash, and wipe the shad; remove the head, tail, and fins, then cut into eight pieces.
Season the pieces with salt and pepper.
Dip each piece into the beaten egg, then coat with cracker crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot oil or lard until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
For the roe, parboil it, cool, then dip in egg and cracker crumbs, and fry in the same manner as the fish.
Serve the fried shad and roe on a hot, flat dish.
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.
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Roe + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together243 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Roe + peppertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together360 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg
- Binds the cracker crumbs to the fish so the coating stays on during frying.
- Cracker crumbs
- Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns in the hot fat.
- Shad
- Provides the main fish flesh that is cooked and served.
- Roe
- Adds a richer, softer texture alongside the crisp fish coating.
The step that matters
Frying in hot oil or lard. The fat must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly. If it is too cool, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy before the fish is cooked through.
“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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