No. 1254

Shad, Irish Style, Garnished with Shad Roe Croquettes

Alose a l'Irlandaise Garnie de Croquettes d'Œufs d'Alose

Split a medium sized shad through the entire length of the back; take out the spinal bone, then season the fish with salt; coat it over with sweet oil and broil it to a fine color, having it at the same time well cooked, then dress it on a hot dish. Garnish around with potato balls five-eighths of an inch in diameter, cooked in salted water, well drained, and covered with a green ravigote sauce (No. 531), sending a sauce-boat of the same to the table. Around the potatoes lay croquettes made of shad's roe, round and flat, the same as below, and serve the whole very hot.

Shad's Roe Croquettes.—Boil a shad's roe in a little mushroom broth, then skin it. Fry in melted butter a little chopped shallot, add to it the roe, some bechamel cream, salt and prepared red pepper (No. 168), reduce and stir in a piece of fresh butter; when this preparation is cold make it into one and a quarter inch croquette balls, flattening them down to half an inch in thickness; dip them in beaten eggs, then in bread-crumbs and fry to a fine golden color, then drain, wipe and dress around the potatoes.

← No. 1253 Shad, Brussels Style Shad, Herring & Mackerel No. 1255 Planked Shad, Ravigote Butter →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a Delmonico's brigade with stock pots and numbered sauces already at hand. Stripped down, this is broiled split shad with buttered potato balls, a green herb sauce, and croquettes of the roe.

Sourcing the fishAmerican shad is no longer a market staple: the ocean-intercept fishery has been closed since the mid-2000s and river fisheries are limited, so shad and shad roe appear only briefly in spring where harvest is still permitted. Ask the fishmonger to bone the fish; the recipe gives no weight, but a whole shad of the sort meant here would be a few pounds, enough for two or three.
Sweet oilSweet oil is plain olive oil, used here purely as a broiling medium rather than for flavor. A mild oil is closer to the intent than a peppery extra-virgin one.
Boning is not deboningRemoving the spinal bone leaves shad's notorious lattice of floating intercostal bones untouched. Either buy it professionally boned or accept that diners will be picking bones; long slow cooking, the other traditional answer, is incompatible with broiling.
The broiler"Broil to a fine color, having it at the same time well cooked" means high direct heat and a split side that browns while cooking through; a few minutes a side is usually enough. Shad is oily and forgiving, but it will still dry out if pushed well past the point where the flesh just flakes.
The roe is the hingePoach the roe barely below a simmer and prick the membrane first, or the sacs burst and the eggs seize into grit. Ranhofer's mushroom broth is simply the strained liquor from cooking mushrooms; light fish stock or salted water with a few mushroom stems does the same job.
Bechamel cream and No. 168"Bechamel cream" is a thick bechamel finished with cream, stiff enough to bind. "Prepared red pepper" refers to Ranhofer's own preparation at No. 168; a pinch of cayenne is the practical substitute. The mixture must be reduced until it holds a mound on the spoon, then chilled solid before shaping, or the croquettes will burst in the fat.
Green ravigoteSauce No. 531 is the book's green ravigote, a herb-green sauce sharpened with vinegar. Any well-herbed green sauce of that kind serves the same purpose against the oily fish.
Sizes and fryingPotato balls at five-eighths of an inch are scooped with a small parisienne cutter, about 1.5-1.6 cm. The croquettes are shaped at about 1 1/4 inches and pressed to half an inch, so they need only a short fry to reach the "fine golden color" the recipe asks for.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and shad occupies a whole run of numbered recipes because it was the great spring event of the Hudson and Delaware rivers, with the runs arriving in early spring and the roe often prized above the fish itself. In the French kitchen vocabulary Ranhofer worked in, a l'irlandaise generally signals potatoes, and that is exactly what appears here, boiled into small balls and dressed with a green herb sauce. The dish is a good example of the period's habit of building a single plate out of two preparations of the same animal, flesh broiled plain and roe enriched into croquettes. Shad's later decline, from a fish once so abundant it was cheap, to one hedged about with closures and moratoria, is not visible in these pages at all.