No. 1252

Shad a la Evers Garnished with Shad Roe Shells

Alose a la Evers, Garnie de Coquilles d'Œuf d'Alose

Split a shad through the back, remove the middle bone; fry in butter very finely hashed onions, shallots, and fresh mushrooms; add to this some bread-crumbs after soaking and pressing them, also chopped parsley, butter, and egg-yolks, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Fill the inside of the shad with this preparation, lay it on a buttered pan, pouring over a little white wine and veloute sauce (No. 415); besprinkle with bread-crumbs, parmesan, and butter, then set it into the oven so that the fish cooks well and browns nicely. When done squeeze over the juice of a lemon, and dredge with chopped parsley. Cover the tops of the shells in the oven, and serve them on napkins the same time as the shad.

For the garnishing use shells of shad's roe, prepared by wrapping the roes in strong buttered paper, and cooking them in a slow oven; remove the paper and adhering skins, and use them to fill well some cleaned scollop shells. Fry a little bread-raspings in butter with the addition of chopped up mushrooms and onions; moisten with a little white wine, add some bechamel (No. 409), and pour this over the filled shells; bestrew the top with bread-crumbs and grated parmesan, besprinkle over a little butter, color them and serve on a dish over a folded napkin.

← No. 1251 Shad a la Creole Shad, Herring & Mackerel No. 1253 Shad, Brussels Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer wrote for a professional brigade with stock sauces already made, so the two cross-references do most of the work. Read those first and the rest falls into place.

The two saucesVelouté (No. 415) is a white roux thinned with veal or fish stock; béchamel (No. 409) is the same roux with milk. About a cup of each is enough for one large shad and four filled shells. A fish velouté made with the shad's own trimmings is the better choice here.
Oven temperaturesThe recipe specifies no heat for the stuffed fish; a hot oven, in the region of 400-425F, will color the crumb and parmesan crust in the time the flesh takes to set. The "slow oven" called for the paper-wrapped roe is usually reckoned at somewhere around 300F.
The roe is the hingeShad roe sacs burst and spit if driven hard. Wrapping in buttered paper and holding at 300F is a gentle steam that firms them through without splitting; count on 20-25 minutes for a pair, then peel away the paper and the membrane while still warm, when it lifts cleanly.
Boning through the backCutting along the spine and lifting out the backbone leaves a pocket for the stuffing. Shad carries several rows of floating intramuscular bones that no amount of filleting removes; long baking softens them somewhat, but warn the table.
Bread-raspingsDried crust grated to a coarse powder. Toasted stale bread pulsed in a processor, or panko browned in butter, gives the same effect. The soaked-and-pressed crumbs in the stuffing are the opposite: fresh crumb moistened with milk or stock and squeezed.
Egg-yolks in the stuffingNo number is given. Two yolks bind enough stuffing for a three-pound fish; more turns the filling dense as it sets.
Scallop shellsReal shells scrubbed and buttered, or small gratin dishes. Four shells suit one fish. "Color them" means a minute or two under the broiler, not further cooking.
Sourcing shadAmerican shad runs are much reduced and several Atlantic river fisheries are closed or restricted, so both fish and roe are seasonal and regional, appearing in spring. Check what is legal and available where you are before planning the dish.
YieldOne shad of 3-4 lb serves four as a main course, with one filled shell each.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and dishes carrying a surname — à la Evers here — are generally taken to commemorate a customer, a colleague or an occasion rather than a place or a technique; the identities behind most of them went unrecorded, and this one is no exception. The fish itself needed no introduction to his readers. American shad, Alosa sapidissima — the species name means "most delicious" — ran up the Hudson, the Delaware and the Connecticut every spring in numbers that made it a cheap, wildly abundant market fish, and its roe was prized enough to be sold separately and treated, as it is here, almost as a second dish. Serving the roe in scallop shells on a folded napkin is pure Delmonico's: the shell is a portion-control device and a piece of theater at once, letting a gratin arrive at the table in its own vessel. The bones were the standing complaint then as now; the recipe opens by splitting the fish through the back and taking out the middle bone before the stuffing goes anywhere near it.