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To Pickle Shad

A method of pickling shad fish in salt and vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle Shad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Clean and cut open the shad.

  2. Salt the fish and let it stand for three to four days.

  3. Cut the fish into pieces four inches wide.

Cook and pickle

  1. Place the pieces in a pot with cold water and boil until cooked through but not falling off the bone.

  2. Allow the fish to cool, then place in a jar.

  3. Pour boiling hot vinegar over the fish, adding allspice, cloves, and black pepper boiled in the vinegar to cover the fish.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shad
The fish is the main ingredient; cooking firms its flesh so it holds together in the pickle.
Vinegar
Its acidity preserves the fish and gives the pickled flavor.
Coarse sea salt
Salting draws out moisture and firms the flesh before cooking.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavor to the vinegar that soaks into the fish.

The step that matters

Boil only until cooked through but not falling off the bone. As fish heats, its proteins set and firm up, then break down further with prolonged heat. Stopping when the flesh is just cooked keeps the pieces intact and firm rather than mushy and falling apart.

“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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