Alose au Four

Name: Alose au Four (Shad cooked slowly in the oven)
Yield: Serves Four
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: breadcrumbs previously soaked in milk and then squeezed, a quantity equal to half the volume of roe/milt; breadcrumbs previously soaked in milk and then squeezed, a quantity equal to half the volume of roe/milt; parsley and chives, chopped, 3 tbs; parsley and chives, chopped, 3 tbs; dry cider, ¼ litre (½ pint); butter, 90–100 g (3 or 4 oz); slices of lemon for garnish; sprigs of parsley; breadcrumbs previously soaked in milk and then squeezed, a quantity equal to half the volume of roe/milt; a shad, 1 kg (2 lb), uncleaned weight

Shad cooked slowly in the oven

Preparation info

Serves
Four

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

North Atlantic Seafood

By Alan Davidson

Published 1980

About

The long, slow cooking of this dish results in the dissolution of the tiresome small bones which abound in shad. The recipe belongs to the region of the Seine, although nowadays no shad spawn in the Seine itself. It is necessary to choose a shad with plenty of roe or milt, which makes this a dish for the spring or early summer.

Ingredients

a shad, 1 kg (2 lb), uncleaned weight
breadcrumbs previously soaked in milk and then squeezed, a quan

Method

The shad is to be scaled, gutted and washed. Take out the gills and trim off the fins. Mash up the roe or milt with a fork and mix in the chopped herbs and prepared breadcrumbs. The result should be a fairly thick paste, which you insert as a stuffing in the gut cavity and gill cavities of the fish.

Butter an oven dish, place the fish in it, season it again and sprinkle any surplus stuf