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Broiled Shad

Broiled shad is a fish prepared by grilling with butter, salt, pepper, parsley, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon 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 ↓

Broiled Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Wipe the cleaned shad with a clean cloth.

  2. Place the shad between the bars of a double-wire gridiron, buttered to prevent sticking, with the inside facing the fire.

  3. If the fish contains roe, soak it in cold salted water and cook it separately.

Broil and season

  1. As the fish browns, moisten it with a little butter seasoned with salt and pepper.

  2. Cook the shad thoroughly on both sides.

  3. Mix together the parsley, butter, salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

  4. Spread the mixture over the cooked fish or season with butter, salt, and pepper.

  5. Garnish with parsley or lemon if available.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 to a flaky, tender texture when broiled through.
Butter
Keeps the fish moist over the heat and carries seasoning, while helping it brown.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and balances the fish.

The step that matters

Cook the shad thoroughly on both sides. Shad is a bony, oily fish that dries out quickly over direct heat. Cooking it fully through without overcooking keeps the flesh moist while ensuring it is safely done.

“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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