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Baked Shad, Stuffed with Oysters

A whole shad baked after being stuffed with a mixture of oysters, breadcrumbs, butter, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Baked Shad, Stuffed with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Clean the shad and remove the insides.

Make the stuffing

  1. In a skillet, melt butter and sauté onion until soft.

  2. Add chopped oysters, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper; mix well.

  3. Stuff the shad with the oyster mixture.

Bake

  1. Place the stuffed shad in a baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 and carries the stuffing while it bakes.
Oysters
Add briny, savoury flavour and moisture to the stuffing.
Breadcrumbs
Soak up moisture and butter, giving the stuffing a soft, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the onion soften and the stuffing taste rounded.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth when sautéed until soft.

The step that matters

Stuff the shad with the oyster mixture. Stuffing is packed into the cavity, so it can bake unevenly or stay raw in the centre if the mixture is too dense or the fish is not fully filled and cooked through. Keep the filling moist but not wet, and bake until the fish flakes easily.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, butter, parsley, pepper. 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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