No. 1251

Shad a la Creole

Alose a la Creole

Raise the fillets from a shad, remove the skin, and cut the fish into half inch thick slices; pare them half heart-shape (each one should weigh four ounces after being pared). Cook them in a mirepoix stock with white wine (No. 419), and when done drain off the stock to reduce it with veloute sauce (No. 416). Dress the fillets of shad in a circle, and fill in the empty space with rice a la creole, and surround the fish with fried shad milts or broiled shad roe.

To Prepare Creole Rice.—Have half a pound of washed rice for every shad; set it in a saucepan, moisten with twice as much water, adding two ounces of butter; let boil, and then finish cooking in the oven for twenty minutes; stir into it a little saffron, butter, and lemon juice.

← No. 1250 Shad Broiled, Ravigote Butter Shad, Herring & Mackerel No. 1252 Shad a la Evers Garnished with Shad Roe Shel →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with stockpots already going, so the two cross-references do most of the work. Sort those out first and the dish is straightforward poached fish with a saffron rice pilaf.

Mirepoix stock with white wineNo. 419 is a vegetable-and-ham aromatic base; in a home kitchen, a shallow poaching liquid of dry white wine, fish stock or water, diced carrot, onion, celery, a little diced ham or bacon, thyme and bay does the same job. Barely simmer the slices in it, 4-6 minutes for half-inch pieces, then strain the liquid for the sauce.
VeloutéNo. 416 is a blond roux thinned with veal or fish stock. Make it as a fish velouté: equal weights butter and flour cooked to pale gold, whisked with fish stock, simmered until it coats a spoon. Reducing the poaching liquid into it is the whole sauce.
Do not let the fish boilShad is soft and very oily; a rolling simmer breaks the half-heart shapes apart and the point of paring them is lost. Keep the liquid at a bare shiver and lift the pieces out with a slotted spatula.
Shad, and what to use insteadAmerican shad is seasonal and, because of stock declines, closed to fishing in a number of Atlantic states; you may find it only in spring, if at all. Firm, oily fillets of mackerel, bluefish or hybrid striped bass take the same treatment, though nothing else has quite shad's texture.
Milts and roeMilt is the male fish's sperm sac, roe the egg sacs; Ranhofer calls for both, and shad roe in particular was a familiar item in period fish markets. Today both are specialty items available for a few weeks in spring. Roe is fragile and cooks in minutes over moderate heat until just firm and pink-grey through. If neither is available, the dish stands without the garnish.
The rice, in practical amountsHalf a pound of rice per shad is about 1 1/4 cups, with 2 1/2 cups water and 4 tablespoons butter. Bring to a boil covered, then finish in the oven for twenty minutes; the recipe gives no temperature, and a moderate oven of about 350F works. Let it stand off heat before forking in the saffron, more butter and lemon.
SaffronSteep a good pinch of threads in a spoonful of hot water or a little of the poaching stock, then stir the liquid through the cooked rice so the colour goes even. Dry threads stirred in at the end give streaks and little flavour.
YieldA shad yields roughly four to six four-ounce medallions once skinned and pared, more from a large fish; figure three or four servings with the rice ring and the roe garnish.

A Little History

This is from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the numbered cross-references are the book's signature: every dish assumes the sauces and stocks catalogued elsewhere. Shad ran up the Hudson, Delaware and Chesapeake in vast spring shoals through the nineteenth century and was cheap, seasonal city food, which is why The Epicurean gathers it into a section on shad, herring and mackerel and why shad roe became a New York spring fixture. "A la creole" here means chiefly the saffron rice served alongside rather than any Louisiana seasoning; in the French kitchen vocabulary of the period the term generally signalled rice, and often saffron or tomato with it. The abundance did not last: shad landings collapsed over the following century, and the fish Ranhofer treated as an everyday spring staple is now a scarce one.