Fried Shad

Ingredients

• the fish
• wheat flour
• a tablespoonful of salt
• a pound of lard

Method

1. 1

   Scale and clean the fish, split it open, and cut into pieces.

2. 2

   Rinse, dry, dip in flour, and fry in salted lard until cooked through and brown.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's companion (1883), page 77. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

a tablespoonful of salt and a gill of vinegar; put in the fish and boil according to' its weight. Serve with plain boiled potatoes and drawn butter, parsley, or egg sauce. Garnish with sprigs of parsley. Lay a folded napkin on the dish under the fish. Fried Codfish Steaks. — Cut the fish in steaks of adoyt HOUSEHOLD. 117 one inch thickness; or it may be split as for broiling; dip each piece in wheat flour or rolled cracker, or Indian meal; have some lard, (which is salted in proportion, a tablespoonful of salt to a pound,) let it become boiling hot in a frying pan; lay in the steaks; let them fry gently, without stirring them, until one side is a fine brown, then turn each steak carefully with a broad knife; when both sides are done, serve hot, with sprigs of parsley over it. Baked Cod. — Clean a good sized fish, weighing four or five pounds; wash it and dry it well in a cloth; rub it inside and out with a mixture of pepper and salt; cut a slice from a loaf of bread, spread it thickly with butter; moisten it with hot water, and fill the body of the fish; tie a thread around it to keep the dressing in, then put bits of butter, the size of a hickory nut, all over the surface; dredge flour over it until it looks white; then lay a trivet on some muffin rings in a dripping-pan, and lay the fish on; put in a pint of water to baste with, then put it in a hot oven, and baste frequently; in one hour it will be done. Take it up on a hot dish, add a gill of vinegar to the gravy, or a lemon cut in very thin slices; dredge in a little flour; let it boil up once; stir it well; add a very little hot water if necessary, then strain into a gravy-boat, lay the slice over the fish, and serve. Haddock. — These are chosen and dressed the same as cod. Shad. — These are in season from the last of March until May; they are chosen by the same rules as other fish. These fish may be fried, baked, boiled or salted. Fried Shad. — Scale the fish, and cut off the head, then split it open down the back, at the side of the backbone; take out the entrails; keep the roe or eggs to be fried with the fish; then cut it in two from head to tail, and cut each side in pieces two or three inches wide; rinse them in cold water, wipe them dry, and dip each in wheat flour, and fry in salted lard; when the inside, which must always be cooked first (of any fish), is done a fine brown, turn the other; the fat must be boiling hot when the fish is put in, and then fried gently, that it may not be too dark colored. Broiled Shad. — Cut the fish the same as for frying, or 118 HOUSEHOLD. merely split it in two; lay it on a gridiron over a bright steady fire of coals; let it broil gently; put the inside to the fire first that it may be done through; have ready a steak dish with nearly a quarter of a pound of sweet butter, and a tejispoonful of salt and pepper each, worked into it; when both sides of the fish are done, lay it on the dish, turn it several times in the but- ter, cover it with a tin cover, and set the dish where it will keep hot, until ready to serve. Baked Shad. — Scale the shad clean, cut off the head, and split the fish half way down the back; scrape the inside per- fectly clean; make a stuffing thus: Cut two slices of a baker's loaf of wheat bread, spread each thickly with butter; sprinkle with pepper and salt, and a little pounded sage if liked; mois- ten it with hot water; fill the belly with this; wind a cord around it to keep in the stuffing, dredge the outside well with flour; stick bits of butter, the size of a hickory nut, all over outside; mix a teaspoonful each of salt and pepper together, and sprinkle it all over the whole surface; then lay the fish on a trivet or muffin rings in a dripping pan; put in a pint of water to baste with, and keep the gravy from burning; if this all wastes before the fish is done, add more hot water; bake for one hour in a quick oven; baste frequently. When done, take the fish on a steak dish; if there is not enough gravy in the pan (there should be at least half a pint), add more hot water; dredge in a heaping teaspoonful of flour, then put to it a bit of butter, and, if liked, a lemon sliced thin, and the seeds taken out. Stir it smooth with a spoon, and pour it through a gravy- strainer into a gravy-boat; lay the slices of lemon over the fish, and serve with mashed potatoes. To Fry Black Fish. — Scale the fish, and scrape the in- side clean to the backbone; wash in water, with a little vine- gar; wipe it dry with a clean towel; then dip it in wheat flour, or rolled crackers. Have in a thick-bottomed frying pan plenty of lard salted (a large tablespoonful of salt to a pound of lard

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.