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 Roes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Parboil the shad roes.
Chill them in ice water.
Wipe them dry.
Roll in beaten egg and salted cracker crumbs.
Fry
Fry in deep fat, heated gradually to boiling point before adding the roes.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shad roes
- Main ingredient; parboiling and chilling firm them so they hold together when fried.
- Beaten egg
- Binds the cracker crumbs to the roe so the coating stays on during frying.
- Salted cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the roe in hot fat.
The step that matters
Heating the fat gradually to boiling point before adding the roes. Fat that is not hot enough lets the coating absorb oil and turn greasy, while the coating can burn before the roe cooks if the fat is too hot. Bringing the fat up gradually to a steady boil helps the coating brown evenly as the roe cooks 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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