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Shad-roe Croquettes

Shad roe croquettes are small, fried cakes made from mashed shad roe, cream, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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-roe Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roe

  1. Wash the shad roes and place them in a saucepan with salted boiling water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat, take off the fine skin, and mash the shad roes.

Make the custard base

  1. Bring the cream to a boil. In a separate pan, rub the butter and flour together over low heat without browning.

  2. Gradually stir in the boiling cream and boil for 3 minutes until very thick.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the 2 egg yolks while still boiling.

  4. Add the mashed shad roes, lemon juice, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne. Mix well and spread on a dish to cool.

Shape, coat and fry

  1. Once cool, flour your hands and form the mixture into croquettes about 1 x 2 inches.

  2. Dip each croquette in egg whites, then coat with bread crumbs. Let them stand in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

  3. Fry the croquettes in boiling lard until golden brown. Drain on folded paper.

Serve

  1. Serve on a fancy-cut paper or folded napkin, garnished with parsley and lemon.

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

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

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

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 roes
Provide the main flavour and a soft, flaky body that forms the croquette filling.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the cream into a firm base that holds the mixture together.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, making the thickened base smooth and tender.
Egg yolks
Stir into the hot base to enrich it and help it set firm when cooled.
Egg whites
Act as a binding coat so bread crumbs adhere evenly before frying.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust when the croquettes are fried.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before shaping. A warm, loose mixture will not hold its shape and can crack or slump. Cooling lets the thickened base firm up so the croquettes keep their form through coating and frying.

“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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