Why it works: Olive and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,716 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Shad Roe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wipe the shad roe with a cloth until dry.
Rub olive oil or melted butter over the roe.
Cook
Boil the roe in salted water for five minutes until well browned.
Cut the roe open.
Dip the roe in flour.
Fry the roe in hot pork fat.
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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Olive + porktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,716 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Roe + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together177 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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Olive + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,871 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Roe + porktop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Roe + olivetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together71 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shad roe
- Is the main food, cooked whole and then opened, giving the dish its body.
- Olive oil or melted butter
- Coats the roe with fat, helping it brown evenly and keeping the surface from drying.
- Flour
- Forms a thin coating that crisps and browns in the hot fat.
- Pork fat
- Frying medium that adds richness and browns the outside of the roe.
The step that matters
Fry the roe in hot pork fat. Hot fat sets the flour coating quickly into a crisp, browned crust, while a cool pan lets the coating absorb fat and turn greasy. Drying the roe first helps the coating stick and crisp.
“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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