Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Planked Fish
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fire
Build a pile of cord wood about 3 ft. high, 4 ft. wide, and 8 to 20 ft. long.
Allow the wood to burn down to a bed of coals.
Cook the fish
Fasten the cleaned shad to the oak planks using nails.
Set the planks edgewise before the fire.
Baste the shad continuously with a mixture of butter, baking grease, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper while cooking.
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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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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
- Shad
- Is the fish cooked on the plank, providing the main flesh and flavor of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds fat and moisture to the basting mixture, helping keep the fish from drying out.
- Worcestershire sauce
- Adds savory, tangy flavor to the basting mixture that the fish absorbs as it cooks.
The step that matters
Baste the shad continuously while cooking. Continuous basting keeps the surface moist as heat rises, so the fish stays juicy rather than drying out before the flesh 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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