The Swedish, French, American cook book

Shad should be eaten only when very fresh. If it is not cooked very soon after it is caught, it loses its delicious flavor. In pre¬ paring shad, it is best to remove all the bones before cooking it. Boned Shad ( Alose desossee ) Scale and clean; well split from the front; take out the main bone, then the small ones (of which there are hundreds not easy to find). Loosen the bones by sticking the finger down to the skin, parting it in strips from head to tail; then pick out bones one by one until they are all out. Then put the shad together. Planked Shad ( Alose cuite sur la planche ) Wash, clean, and bone [see recipe: Boned Shad]; double after boning; sprinkle it first with pepper and salt; rub it over with some good melted butter; leave in the oven on the plank for about fifteen minutes until fish is nearly done. [The old-fashioned way is to plank it in front of the open fire, but where we have no open fire, we have to do it inside the oven.] In the meantime, have ready some nice mashed potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, string beans, asparagus tips, different kinds of vegetables (cooked separately) all cut small in macedoine style. Put the potatoes in a pastry bag which holds a fancy tube; wave the potatoes all around; make a heavy border around the board; then make sections with the potatoes from the fish to the potato border; put in oven until potatoes begin to get golden brown. When ready to serve, fill each section with vegetables, arranging them according to colors; put the board on a nice platter that holds a napkin; garnish with parsley and send to the table very hot. Serve with tomato cucumber salad. Boiled Shad ( Alose bouillie ) a la Bregitta Select very nice fresh shad; scale and wash well; cut in large pieces, one piece for each person; put it in a pan of cold water with some salt, whole black peppers, and bay leaves; simmer for about fifteen minutes, slowly. When ready to serve, take the fish up carefully; arrange on a platter; sprinkle with chopped parsley; garnish around with lemon (placed on slices of tomato) and parsley, and serve with an egg sauce a la Bregitta. Fried Shad ( Alose frite ) a la Tartare Wash, clean, and bone a shad [see recipe: Boned Shad]; cut in individual pieces the shape of a diamond; sprinkle with pepper and salt, dip in egg and bread crumbs; fry in very hot fat. Arrange one piece resting on top of the other on a paper doily or napkin. Garnish with parsley. Serve with tartare sauce that is filled in small tomatoes placed on top of a thin slice of lemon. Stuffed Shad with Crab (Alose farcie de Crabe ) a la Hammond Scale and clean shad well; split from the side, cut a space away lengthwise about one inch in width to leave a space for the filling; remove the bones [see recipe: Boned Shad]. Put on a pan with sherry, pepper, salt; fill fish with crab meat. Cook in oven, with some sherry and fish broth made from the bones, from fifteen to twenty minutes, well covered. When done, glaze crab meat with tomato glaze, sprinkle with parsley, decorate with a strip of cream sauce all around the filling. Put on a platter; garnish with crab claws (with lemon in between each claw). Serve with hollandaise or bearnaise sauce for dinner.