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Shad-roe Salad

A salad of boiled shad roes mixed with mayonnaise or mustard dressing and served with lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,356 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shad-roe Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the roe

  1. Wash the shad roes and place them in a saucepan with salt and boiling water to cover.

  2. Boil gently for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the roes and drain.

  4. Set aside to cool.

  5. Cut the roes into dice.

Prepare the plate and dressing

  1. Rub the bottom and sides of a plate with the cut side of an onion.

  2. Refrigerate the mayonnaise until needed.

  3. Crisp the lettuce as desired.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the shad roes in a salad bowl.

  2. Cover with dressing.

  3. Arrange the lettuce in a circle around it.

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. Mustard + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,356 recipes

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

  2. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Roe + oniontop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together136 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Roe + mustardtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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 protein, with a firm, flaky texture once poached and diced.
Mayonnaise or mustard dressing
Adds moisture and richness, binding the diced roe together with fat and acidity.
Lettuce
Provides a crisp, fresh base and contrasting texture around the roe.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 20 minutes. Boiling vigorously can break up the delicate roe and make it tough or ragged. A gentle simmer cooks the roe evenly while keeping its texture intact.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (roe, mustard, lettuce):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, mustard, lettuce. 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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