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 ↓
Baked Shad
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, salt, pepper, butter, parsley, and egg yolk.
Stuff the shad with the mixture and sew it up or tie it with string.
Bake and serve
Place the stuffed shad in a baking dish, pour a little water and some butter over it.
Bake for 1 to 1¼ hours, until cooked through.
Garnish with sliced lemon before serving.
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.
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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 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
- Is the main protein that is stuffed and baked through.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and bind the stuffing so it holds together in the fish.
- Egg yolk
- Binds the stuffing ingredients together and adds richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the stuffing and helps moisten the fish as it bakes.
The step that matters
Bake until cooked through. Shad is a bony, delicate fish, and baking it too long dries out the flesh, while too short a time leaves it undercooked. Checking for the flesh to be opaque and flaky at the end of the stated time helps avoid both problems.
“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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