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Potted Shad

A preserved fish dish made by seasoning shad, packing in a jar, baking, and then marinating in vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Shad

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cut the shad through the back, then wash and dry it.

  2. Cut the shad into small pieces and season with salt, pepper, allspice, cloves, and mace.

Pack and bake

  1. Pack the seasoned shad tightly in a stone jar.

  2. Seal the jar with a paste crust over the top.

  3. Cover and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for two hours.

Finish

  1. After baking, remove the crust and cover the shad with vinegar.

  2. Let it sit and be eaten the next day.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and flaky when slowly baked.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and draws out moisture, helping preserve it.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the potted fish.

The step that matters

Packing and sealing the jar. Packing the seasoned shad tightly and sealing it with a paste crust keeps air out and the fish moist during baking, which protects texture and helps it keep well afterward.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, allspice, clove, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, allspice, clove, vinegar. 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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