Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Shad Roe Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the roe
Cook the roe in boiling salted water with lemon juice for 20 minutes.
Drain and cut into fine pieces.
Make the filling
Mix with the heavy white sauce and add the egg, cooking for 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
When cold, mold into croquettes and coat with breadcrumbs.
Serve
Serve with Hollandaise or cucumber sauce.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Pepper + saucetop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,303 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,598 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Pepper + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together50,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Shad roe (in the method)
- Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them their rich, delicate flavour.
- Heavy white sauce
- Binds the chopped roe into a cohesive mixture that holds its shape when cold.
- Egg
- Sets when heated, helping the filling firm up and hold together as croquettes.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp outer coating that browns when fried and protects the soft filling.
The step that matters
Mold the croquettes only when cold. A warm filling is soft and sticky, so it will slump and tear when shaped. Cooling firms the white sauce and egg mixture so the croquettes hold their form before coating.
“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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