Shad roe season

[Wilfrid]

Looks like shad roe season is here (or just around the corner).  I love this stuff, and try to cook and eat it several times during the too brief period of availability.

My usual recipes come from - of all places - Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe cookbook.  Wolfe was fond of shad roe, and liked it richly casseroled with plenty of cream.  From memory, my favorite approach is to separate the pair of roe very carefully indeed, turn them in a little hot olive oil to start them changing colour, then add some chopped onion, a little crushed garlic, and the best aromatic herbs I have to hand - fresh parsley or chervil, chives, whatever - then some cream for the roe to poach in.  Done in about fifteen minutes as I recall (maybe you should pre-cook the onions a little).  I think Stout also has a version with the roe wrapped in ham or bacon.  Lift them from the pan and plate them carefully - they're delicate.

Over to everyone else...

[A Balic]

Wilfrid - I ate some smoked fish roe, on brown bread and butter, last saturday. The fish species was unknown (maybe cod or grey mullet). The crackle-pop sensation was good, as was the flavour, rather like a mild smoked salmon. My plan is to get some fresh roes and to make some bottarga for pasta sauces etc. Are the shad roes fish eggs (hard roe) or milt/semen (soft roe)?

[Wilfrid]

Without wishing to get into semen, I would say hard roe.  They come as zillions of miniscule little eggs, encased in a thin membrane.

[Peter B Wolf]

While chefing in Mass, (Shad run in the Connecticut), May was the season for it. We had it on the menu as: 1. Broiled Shad, 2. Shad stuffed with Roe, and 3. Roe only. Our fishmonger provided fully boned shad filet (and they do have a lot of bones, tiny ones), plus the roe as mentioned. Roe came as "pairs", approx. a total of 7 to 9 ounces. The broiled shad was served very simply with a bit of lemon juice and butter on it. The stuffed one was done by chopping briefly the roe with lemon juice Worchestershire sauce and parsley, filled in the boneless shad filet, and broiled. And the roe was wrapped into two slices of bacon, broiled and served on toast with Beurre maitre d'Hotel.

A friend of mine provided me with a totally different recipe to eat shad. I like to share it with you all:

Go to the Connecticut river bank, hang your line and sinker on a secured pole. Build a good fire, with birchwood only. When the shad bites, take him off the hook, bone him immediately (this you should have learned last year). Now get a clean one and a half inch thick birch plank, the length of the filleted fish, nail the creature to the board, lean onto a couple of sticks in the ground near the fire, face fleshy side toward fire and broil for at least 12 to 14 minutes. When done, throw the fish away and eat the board. In case of splinters, a Tokay Aszu softens the gullet.

[Pat Goldberg]

I usually serve shad and shad roe together.  The shad get broiled.  The shad roe gets cooked slowly in butter, ala James Beard.  Both are then served with steamed new potatoes or fingerlings and a sauce made with mayonnaise, a bit of Nance's (only Nance's) mustard, a drop or two of Maggi, dill, parlsey and onion to taste.

[Wilfrid]

I just checked to make sure we weren't too early for the season.  Gramercy Fish have shad roe available now.  Yum.

[Jinmyo]

I've never had shad roe but love roe of all kinds. I'll look for it.

Adam, you're going to make your own bottarga? How will you do it?

[A Balic]

Take roe, cover in salt, wrap in paper towel. Remove paper when soaked in liquid, replace salt and paper. Continue until no more liquid is apparent (days). The roe should be pretty firm by this stage and dark. You can conpress it with a board to firm it up some more and to give it a rectangular cross-section. You can freeze it or pack it into salt. Very nice grated on pasta.

[Jinmyo]

Wow. That simple. Okay, thanks.

[Wilfrid]

Very nice grated on pasta.

Nice technique, Adam, and I must try it.  Two other ways to enjoy the result:  in Barcelona, they shave botarga over pa amb tomaquet, toasted country bread rubbed with the best fresh tomato.  I have also seen it used - sparingly - to spark up a salad; use some shaved parmesan too.

[Holly Moore]

A shad off subject, but there are various shad festivals along the Delaware River come shad running season (mid-spring as I remember).  The shad themselves are nailed to oak planks and propped up around the rim of a fire.  Can't remember what happened with the roe.  

The festivals are good, community fun.  I know there's one in Bethlehem PA and recall there are others too.

[Wilfrid]

I think the Nero Wolfe cookbook has a planked shad recipe.

[Wilfrid]

Dived into the shad roe last night, poached in white wine and cream with onions, garlic and parsley.  Also, for the first time I think, I cooked shad itself.  Wonderful fish: firm-fleshed and slightly tan in colour - it looked lightly smoked, but wasn't of course.  Very fresh as far as I could tell, I simply seasoned it and fried it.

Plated the roe (very carefully), laid a strip of shad across it, strained the sauce around them and garnished with a few diced carrots.  Drank the Louis Latour Grand Ardeche chardonnay, which I think is a decent drop for $10.99.  Only difficult thing about all this was not breaking the roe membrane.  Top dinner.

Oh yes, a wedge of soumaintrain to follow with some crusty pain d'Avignon.  Anyone hungry?

[bigbear]

This is what I was taught, right or wrong. Shad, a very bony member of the herring family, is only worthy if taken from the Connecticut River. Have the local fisherman, who caught it, bone it. You'll never learn how to do it. Barring being able to "plank" it at an open fire on the banks of the river, get home as fast as possible with your filets and roe sacks. The filets are broiled, flesh side up, with pats of butter. The roe pairs are gently sauted in bacon fat in a cast iron skillet. Serve the filets and roe sacks, garnished with crisp bacon slices, lemon wedges and fresh parsley. Accompany with boiled, parsley potatoes and asparagus.

[Peter B Wolf]

And I thought I mentioned all this "planking" in my comments a bit earlier!?

[Peter B Wolf]

And I thought I mentioned all this "planking" in my comments a bit earlier!?

[bigbear]

Yes, you did.

[bigbear]

Yes, you did.

[Jinmyo]

Wilfrid and Big Bear, both sound like delicious meals.

[Mebutter]

I live in Haddam, just 1/2 mile or so from the Connecticut River. Folks around here think the lower Connecticut River Valley as the place for shad and shad roe. In my town, there's even a "Shad Shack" with such erratic hours that I miss it more often than not.

One thing I've always found interesting is many of the fishmongers who bone and sell shad can't stand to eat it. Too many fish in too many hours, I guess.

The shad don't seem to start running around here until mid-May. So I'm curious as to where the shad and shad roe some of you are enjoying (the recipes sound great) are coming from. And how do they compare with the Connecticut River shad?

[Wilfrid]

A good question, and I was surprised the season had started already.  I will try to ask my supplier (Gramercy Fish) if I get a chance.

[Mebutter]

Wilfred,

Thank you very much for offering to do that. With all the warm weather i'm wondering if the run will be earlier this year than usual.

[bigbear]

Mebutter...

The shad season doesn't start on the Connecticut River in full until May. Any fish coming to market now must be coming from spawning runs on rivers farther south.

My grandparents lived in Higganum and bought their shad from a fisherman who had a shack south of there. He had a beard and smoked a pipe. My mother can't remember his name, but she does remember that, during WWII, my grandfather used to bring him tobacco. It seems the fisherman's brand was scarce locally and my grandfather travelled as part of his job. I remember them still getting their shad from him even after they moved to Meriden in 1949. A "side" used to cost 75 cents, even years later.

In fact, the picture in my profile was taken in Higganum, at the intersection of Killingworth Rd. and High St. The newfie in the photo used to swim across the reservoir to visit my grandmother's cocker spaniel, Lady. Ah, memories.....

[Kim WB]

My usual recipes come from - of all places - Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe cookbook.  Wolfe was fond of shad roe, and liked it richly casseroled with plenty of cream.  

This is a very cool book, I learned about it on egullet, and ordered it on Amazon...this fictional orchid grower seemed to like MANY things casserolled and with cream!!

[tommy]

what is shad roe? what does it taste like? is it served in any NYC restaurants?