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Broiled Shad

Broiled Shad is a whole fish grilled and finished with butter, pepper, sea salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the roes from the shad and clean it thoroughly.

  2. Cut the shad into straight halves and dry it.

Cook

  1. Place the shad halves, with the roes, on a well-greased grill over moderate heat.

  2. Cover the grill to ensure even cooking while browning, and turn the shad only once.

  3. Once cooked, transfer to a warm dish and spread butter on top.

  4. Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt, then place in the oven for a moment.

  5. Garnish with fresh parsley before 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + parsleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together865 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. 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 through and browning on the grill.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, coating the fish as it sits on the warm dish.

The step that matters

Turning the shad only once. Fish flakes apart when handled repeatedly, and each flip lets heat and juices escape. A single turn over a covered grill keeps the halves intact and browned on both sides.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, parsley):

  1. Chickpeafits about as well
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Beansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parsley. 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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