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Planked Shad

A shad fillet is laid on a wooden board, cooked over fire, basted with butter and walnut catsup, served with pickled walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and walnut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,832 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Planked Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the board

  1. Prepare a thick oak board with wooden pegs.

  2. Spread the shad open on the board and secure it with the pegs.

Cook and baste

  1. Place the board before a clear fire, resting one end in a shallow pan with a little salt and water to baste the fish.

  2. When almost cooked, baste the fish with melted butter and a little walnut catsup.

Serve

  1. Serve on the board or add walnut catsup to the gravy and pour it over the fish.

  2. Serve with pickled walnuts.

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. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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, cooking and flaking as the centerpiece.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the fish brown and stay moist while basting.
Walnut catsup
Contributes a dark, savory, tangy flavor when brushed on and added to the gravy.

The step that matters

Basting near the fire. Fish held close to a clear fire can dry or scorch quickly. Basting with the salted water in the pan and later with butter keeps the surface moist and helps it cook evenly.

“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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