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Shad, Broiled
No. 1.--Scale a shad, cut off its head, empty and wash the fish carefully, split it open down the sides of the backbone, and, if liked, divide each fillet into pieces two or three inches wide. Wipe these with a soft cloth, dip them in oil, and broil them gently until done enough. Remember to lay the inner part of the flesh to the fire first, and when that side is done turn it upon the other. Work a tea-spoonful of salt and a tea-spoonful of pepper into four ounces of butter with the point of a sharp knife. Lay the paste on a hot dish, and turn the broiled fish two or three times in it. Put the dish-cover over the shad, and keep in a hot place till wanted. No. 2.--Clean, empty, and dry a fish weighing about two pounds, and score it across the back. Sprinkle a little pepper and salt over it, pour upon it as much oil as will cover it, and let it lie until it is well soaked. Broil it over a clear steady fire, and when one side is done turn it upon the other. Drain it, serve on a hot dish, and send oil and vinegar, or caper sauce, sorrel sauce, or maitre d'hotel butter, to table with it. Time, half an hour to soak the fish, and about eighteen minutes to broil each side. Cost, variable.
Two methods for the same fish: the first fillets and broils it, then dresses it in seasoned butter; the second broils it whole after an oil soak. The critical difference from modern practice is time.
- Ignore the eighteen minutesA 2 lb shad broiled eighteen minutes per side will be dry and chalky. Under a hot broiler or over coals, fillets need roughly 4-6 minutes on the cut side and 2-3 minutes skin-side; a whole scored fish of that weight, 8-10 minutes a side. Cook to about 135-140F at the thickest point, or until the flesh just parts along the flakes.
- "Broil" means over or under direct heatIn this book broiling is a gridiron over a clear fire, i.e. grilling. A very hot overhead broiler or a charcoal grill both work; a covered pan does not, because the fish steams instead of browning.
- The bones are the real problemShad has rows of floating intramuscular bones that no amount of care in splitting will remove. Either buy fillets already boned by a fishmonger who knows how, or accept the whole-fish method and eat carefully. This is why shad was traditionally planked or long-baked in some kitchens rather than quick-grilled.
- Flesh side to the fire firstThis instruction is sound and worth keeping. The cut surface sets and colours while the fillet is still firm; turning onto the skin afterwards lets the skin crisp without the flesh sticking to the bars.
- The seasoned butter is over-saltedA teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper in 4 oz (1 stick) of butter is aggressive by modern taste, particularly with table salt rather than coarse. Half that, plus lemon juice and parsley, gives you essentially the maître d'hôtel butter offered as an alternative in No. 2.
- The oil soakHalf an hour in oil with pepper and salt is a light marinade and a bulwark against sticking. Drain it well before it hits the fire or the drips will flare.
- Sorrel sauceThe classic European partner to oily river fish: sorrel cooked down in butter to a purée, its acidity cutting the fat. If you cannot find sorrel, caper sauce or the plain oil and vinegar are the book's own substitutes.
- Yield and sourcingA 2 lb shad serves two, generously; No. 1 scales to whatever fish you have. American shad stocks are much reduced and some Atlantic fisheries are closed or restricted, so check what is legal and available where you are. Bluefish, mackerel or herring take the same treatment.
Shad is a large anadromous herring that runs up rivers to spawn in spring, and the spring shad run was one of the great seasonal food events on both sides of the Atlantic. The American species carries the scientific name Alosa sapidissima — "most savoury" — and its arrival in the Delaware, Hudson and Connecticut rivers fed cities for weeks; the European allis and twaite shad, which is what a British reader of Cassell's would more likely have met, ran up the Severn and the Loire and was prized in French cookery, which is why sorrel sauce and maître d'hôtel butter appear here as the expected accompaniments. Both fish are oily enough to broil well and bony enough to have generated a small folklore of workarounds, from the long slow bake said to dissolve the bones to the American practice of nailing the split fish to an oak plank before the fire. Cassell's, compiled for a late-Victorian household with a coal range and a gridiron, treats shad as an ordinary market fish with a variable price — a reminder of how abundant a fish now carefully managed once was.