Skip to main content
Main

Spiced Shad

A whole shad is salted, boiled, spiced with allspice and cayenne, then finished with vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Salt and rest

  1. Split the shad and rub it with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let it stand for 3 to 4 hours.

Boil and season

  1. Place the shad in a pot and cover it with boiling water.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt for every quart of water.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes.

  4. Drain the shad.

  5. Sprinkle the shad with 2 tablespoons of allspice and 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

  6. Cover the shad with cold vinegar.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
The fish itself, whose delicate flesh takes on the salt, spice and vinegar flavors.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the fish and draws out moisture during the rest, firming the flesh.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavor to the fish's surface.
Cayenne pepper
Adds sharp heat that flavors the fish.
Cold vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor of the fish.

The step that matters

Boil for 20 minutes. Fish flesh turns dry and falls apart when overcooked. Time the 20 minutes from when the water is boiling, and watch that the shad does not boil too hard, since vigorous boiling breaks up delicate flesh.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes