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Salad

Shad-Roe-and-Cucumber Salad

A salad of shad roe, cucumber, onion, bay leaf, and French dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,050 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Shad-Roe-and-Cucumber Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the roe

  1. Cook the shad roe with half an onion and a bay leaf in salted, acidulated water for 20 minutes.

  2. Let the water gently bubble to avoid breaking the membrane around the eggs.

  3. Cool the roe in the water.

  4. Drain and slice the roe when cold.

Assemble the salad

  1. Cut any broken slices into cubes.

  2. Marinate the cubes with French dressing.

  3. Arrange dressed cucumber slices along the sides of the salad, overlapping them.

  4. Place whole slices of roe on top, overlapping.

  5. Garnish with chillies.

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. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

  2. Roe + cucumbertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Roe of a shad
Provides the rich, delicate main protein, which firms when gently poached and gives the salad its body.
French dressing
Supplies acidity and oil that flavour the roe cubes and add moisture to the salad.
Dressed cucumber
Adds cool, crisp texture and moisture that contrast with the soft, rich roe.

The step that matters

Let the water gently bubble. Vigorous boiling can break the delicate membrane around the roe eggs, so they should be poached at a gentle simmer to keep the roe intact.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against roe, cucumber. 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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