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Baked Shad

A baked fish dish with bread crumb filling and butter, seasoned with onion, marjoram, salt, pepper, and cooked in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fish

  1. Remove the scales and entrails from the shad, leaving the tail and head intact.

  2. Wash the fish thoroughly and wipe it dry.

Stuff and dredge

  1. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, butter, onion, marjoram, salt, and pepper to make the dressing.

  2. Fill the cavity of the fish with the dressing.

  3. Place the fish in a well-greased pan.

  4. Dredge the fish thickly with flour, salt, and pepper.

Bake

  1. Pour the hot water into the bottom of the pan.

  2. Add more hot water if it cooks away.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes per pound.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + marjoramtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
Provides the main fish body that is baked whole and stuffed.
Bread crumbs
Absorb butter and juices in the stuffing, giving it body and a soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps the fish brown.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory flavor to the stuffing as it softens.
Flour
Dries the fish surface and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Adding hot water to the pan. Hot water in the pan creates steam and keeps the fish moist while it bakes. If the water cooks away, the fish can dry out and the bottom can scorch, so adding more as the record advises protects the texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, marjoram, pepper, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, marjoram, pepper, flour. 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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