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Shad Roe, Seville
Cut into very fine one-inch julienne strips a small, very red carrot, one medium, white onion and one green pepper; place in a large frying pan with half ounce butter, place the roes on top of vegetables, season with a teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper. Cover the roes with a plate, and let sweat beside a brisk fire for ten minutes. Moisten with a half gill white wine, half gill demi-glace and half gill tomato sauce adding a saltspoon Spanish saffron. Cover again with the plate and set in the oven for thirty-five minutes. Remove, take up the roes with a skimmer, dress on a hot dish, add six finely minced canned mushrooms and six cooked shrimps cut in small pieces to the sauce, lightly mix, boil for four minutes; add half ounce good butter in small bits, lightly mix again, pour the sauce over the roes and serve.
A Delmonico-style braise built on a sweated vegetable base, with saffron and demi-glace doing the work. Two things need adjusting: the measurements are pre-standard, and the oven time will destroy the roe.
- Time in the ovenThirty-five minutes turns shad roe grainy and dry. A pair of roes braised at a gentle simmer is done in 15 to 20 minutes, when the center is opaque and firm but still yielding; take it out then and let the sauce carry on without it.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is 4 fl oz, so half a gill is 1/4 cup: a quarter cup each of white wine, demi-glace and tomato sauce. A saltspoon is 1/4 teaspoon, meaning 1/2 teaspoon white pepper and 1/4 teaspoon saffron, which is generous for saffron.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given, as is usual in books of this period. Use 325-350F, enough to hold the covered pan at a bare simmer rather than a boil.
- The plate on topThe inverted plate is a weight and a lid in one, keeping the roes in contact with the liquid and trapping steam. A tight lid plus a round of parchment pressed on the surface does the same thing.
- Prick the membraneShad roe sacs burst if heated fast. Prick each lobe two or three times with a needle before it goes into the pan and keep the liquid below a boil throughout.
- Demi-glaceClassically espagnole sauce reduced with brown stock, not a substitute for gravy. Concentrated commercial demi-glace works if you dilute it to sauce strength first, or use 1/4 cup of well-reduced veal or beef stock.
- Canned mushroomsThese were a standard 1900s pantry staple with a soft, slightly briny character. Sauteed fresh cremini give better flavor; add them cooked, since the sauce only boils four minutes.
- SourcingAmerican shad fisheries are closed or tightly restricted along much of the Atlantic coast, and roe appears only for a few weeks in spring. Buy it fresh, in intact pairs, and cook it the day you get it.
- YieldThe recipe does not say how many roes are meant; a pair would serve two as a main course, or four as a first course. The finishing butter should be swirled in off the heat so the sauce does not break.
Alexander Filippini spent decades in the Delmonico's kitchens before compiling The International Cook Book, and the naming convention here is pure turn-of-the-century restaurant French: a dish labeled for a Spanish city signals saffron, sweet pepper and tomato rather than any specific Andalusian original. Shad roe itself is thoroughly American, a brief spring luxury on the Hudson, the Delaware and the Chesapeake when the fish ran upriver to spawn; nineteenth-century city markets sold the paired sacs by the set and hotel menus treated them as a seasonal event. Dressing them in a saffron-tinted demi-glace with shrimp and mushrooms is the standard move of the period, taking a local, cheap, intensely seasonal ingredient and giving it a continental surname so it could be priced accordingly.