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Shad, with Sorrel

A stewed shad flavored with lemon, parsley roots, onion, white wine, mushroom liquor, and sorrel, finished with white roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Shad, with Sorrel

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and scale the shad.

  2. Marinate the shad in oil, lemon, parsley roots, and onion for as long as possible.

Cook

  1. Place the shad in a buttered stewpan with white wine, mushroom liquor, and a bouquet.

  2. Mince the sorrel finely and add it to the stewpan with the fish, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover the stewpan and cook on low heat for at least 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Arrange the shad on a dish.

  2. Add white roux to the juice and thicken the sauce.

  3. Pour the sauce over the fish when serving.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + sorreltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Shad
Is the main protein, cooked gently until it becomes tender and flakes easily.
Sorrel
Its acidity adds a sharp, lemony flavour that balances the rich fish and sauce.
White roux
Flour and fat thicken the cooking juices into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture to the cooking liquid, lending flavour to the sauce.
Mushroom liquor
Contributes savoury, earthy flavour to the cooking juices that form the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook on low heat for at least 2 hours. Gentle, covered heat lets the fish cook through slowly and stay moist while the bones and connective tissue soften. Rapid boiling would toughen the flesh and break it apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, parsley, white wine, mushroom, sorrel, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, parsley, white wine, mushroom, sorrel, 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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