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Shad Roe (Drop into boiling water)
Drop into boiling water and cook gently for twenty minutes; then take from the fire and drain; butter a tin plate and lay the drained roe upon it; dredge well with salt and pepper, and spread soft butter over it; then dredge thickly with flour; cook in the oven for one-half hour, basting frequently with salt, pepper, flour, butter and water.
A two-stage treatment — poach, then bake under a flour-and-butter crust — written for cooks who bought shad roe by the pair in spring. The timings are the part that needs the most attention.
- Prick the membrane firstShad roe comes in a pair of lobes inside a thin sac that traps steam and bursts, scattering eggs through the pot. Pierce each lobe in several places with a needle or the tip of a knife before it goes into the water, and keep the poaching liquid at a bare shiver rather than a rolling boil.
- Twenty minutes plus thirty is far too longRoe is done when it is firm and opaque throughout, which takes about 5 to 7 minutes of gentle poaching for an average pair. The full fifty minutes here dries the eggs into something chalky and grainy. If you want the baked finish, poach 5 minutes and bake 10 to 12.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is given, and the recipe does not name an oven. A moderate heat, in the region of 350F, suits basting at this length; the figure is a modern inference, not the book's instruction.
- "Dredge"Here it means to sprinkle or dust from the hand or a shaker, not to coat by rolling in a dish of flour. Salt, pepper, then soft butter, then a dusting of flour thick enough to brown.
- The basting liquidSalt, pepper, flour, butter and water whisked together is a thin uncooked gravy. Melt the butter, stir in the flour off the heat, then thin with hot water so it does not go lumpy on the plate; a squeeze of lemon at the end is traditional with shad.
- Tin plateA shallow tinned-steel pie plate. Any small metal baking dish or ovenproof skillet that holds the roe in one layer works; glass and ceramic conduct heat less readily and will give less browning.
- Acidulate the waterSome cooks add a spoonful of vinegar or lemon juice and a little salt to the poaching water. It firms the eggs and takes the edge off the muddy note shad roe can carry.
- Yield and the sandwich contextYield -- One pair of roe serves two as a course.
- SourcingAmerican shad stocks have declined sharply and several Atlantic river fisheries are closed or restricted. Roe appears only for a few weeks in spring, and outside that window it is likely to be frozen if available at all.
Shad is an anadromous herring that runs up the rivers of the Atlantic seaboard in spring, and for two centuries the run was one of the fixed events of the American calendar — Delaware, Hudson, Susquehanna and Connecticut shad were hauled in by the wagonload from March into May. The roe, taken from the females, was generally prized above the flesh and priced accordingly. American shad were carried to California rivers in the 1870s and established themselves on the Pacific coast; on their native side, dams and overfishing had already begun the decline that keeps the roe scarce today.