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Baked Shad

Baked Shad is a whole fish stuffed with bread crumbs, ham or bacon, spices, and baked with port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Baked Shad

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the stuffing

  1. Make a stuffing by mixing bread crumbs, minced ham or bacon, marjoram, red pepper, and mace or cloves.

  2. Moisten the stuffing with the beaten egg yolk.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the inside of the fish with the mixture, reserving some to rub on the outside.

  2. Rub the fish all over with the remaining egg yolk.

  3. Place the fish in a deep pan, tail to mouth.

  4. Add a little water and pour in the port wine.

  5. Add the butter rolled in flour to the pan.

  6. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 2 hours or until done.

Serve

  1. Serve with the gravy poured around it and garnish with lemon slices.

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. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Marjoram + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together767 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shad
Provides the main body of the dish, cooked through by baking in the pan.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and bind with the egg yolk to form the stuffing's texture.
Ham or bacon
Adds savory, salty fat flavor to the stuffing.
Egg yolk
Binds the stuffing and gives the fish a rich, golden surface when baked.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the pan liquid that forms the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the gravy, and the flour helps it thicken.

The step that matters

Baking the stuffed fish. Shad is bony and delicate, so it can dry out or flake unevenly if overbaked. Checking for doneness at the end of the time keeps the flesh moist while ensuring it is cooked through.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, ham, marjoram, pepper, egg, port wine, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, marjoram, pepper, egg, port wine, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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