Shad roe New with photos

Re:Shad roe (ChrisOC)

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:58:36 GMT

Glad I didn't buy the $12.99 shad. Ms OC and I went to the Lobster House in Cape May for lunch yesterday. They had buy 1 get 1 free seafood combination for $12. While we were there I checked the fish market. Shad =$7.95 lb. Shad roe =&7.95 a set. Had it for dinner last night. Spring is here!

Re:Shad roe (Phishmonger)

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:31:53 GMT

Go to the Windsor Shad Derby site to view the calendar of events, etc. Sorry, forgot to mention that in the last post.

Re:Shad roe (Phishmonger)

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:29:32 GMT

When I owned my fish market (in CT), I could sell all the shad and shad roe that my suppliers could deliver. I'd simply call a few loyal customers, put out the sign by the road, and the caravan would begin. Some people would be repelled by the sight of the roe in the fish case, but I relished that. Alas, the market is no longer in existence, and I must travel to the lower Connecticut for my fix each spring. And shad festivals abound along the river up as far as Hartford, particularly in Windsor and Essex, to name a few. Indeed, many local fishermen travel to central CT to fish for shad.

Re:Shad roe (ChrisOC)

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:53:52 GMT

I found shad and roe at the Somers Point Shoprite. I was amazed to see that the shad fillets are going for $12.99 lb. Wow. Shad has come a long way from when it was considered a thrash fish!

Re:Shad roe (bartl)

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 14:03:12 GMT

ChrisOC
Its time to revive my annual quest for shad roe. Has anyone seen any yet? I know it comes in earlier down south.

I have never had shad roe, but I will admit that the Nero Wolfe novels have made me curious about it (and the Nero Wolfe Cookbook has at least one recipe).

Bart

Re:Shad roe (seafarer john)

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:25:50 GMT

We saw a sign for a shad fest somewhere in North Carolina ( around Roanoke Rapids, maybe) on our way north last week.

Looking forward to some roe and filets in April around here...

Cheers,

Re:Shad roe (kishkaeater)

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:08:11 GMT

I remember my parents or grandparents calling the roe, Melts. Something they loved eating, never giving us kids a single bite.

Re:Shad roe (ChrisOC)

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:30:20 GMT

Its time to revive my annual quest for shad roe. Has anyone seen any yet? I know it comes in earlier down south.

Re:Shad roe (ChrisOC)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:32:46 GMT

saps; I would have to agree with you on the appearance, but I was raised eating shad roe and look forward to it every year.

John; Those blue points would definitely soften the disappointment, but cheer up shad season is just beginning. Should go on until about Mother's Day.

Re:Shad roe (saps)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:34:50 GMT

Tried it, not a huge fan, but it's definitely not attractive look at, cooked or uncooked.

Re:Shad roe (seafarer john)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:41:31 GMT

Chris: Have pity on those poor heartlanders who ave never experienced the delights of shad roe.

BTW: Went to my friends at Gadaletto's yesterday - no shad roe, no shad filets - they report none available last week in the Fulton fish Market. Maybe next week.

Anyway ,we substituted a couple of dozen blue points with mignonette sauce and a cool bottle of Sancerre -so it wasn't a total loss.

Cheers, john

Re:Shad roe (ChrisOC)

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 10:31:59 GMT

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

Re:Shad roe (saps)

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:54:58 GMT

Placenta Anyone?

Re:Shad roe New with photos (ChrisOC)

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:24:01 GMT

That didn't take long. I just picked up a set of roe and shad fillet at Bob's Seafood Market in Northfield. He corrected my misconception that the fillet was machine boned. They are done by hand and it takes ten cuts to get all the bones. They are not pretty (see photos from last year, on page one of this thread) but they are truly boneless.

Re:Shad roe New with photos (ChrisOC)

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:09:17 GMT

John,.

Thanks for the post. Now I know I can begin my annual search for shad roe.

Chris

Re:Shad roe New with photos (seafarer john)

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:39:41 GMT

It's that time of the year to revive this thread.

A week or so ago I had a delicious shad filet and a sack of roe at Gadaletto's , our local fish restaurant. The shad and roe were from South Carolina. There will be no Hudson river shad this year: the State has closed the fishery completely - perhaps for several years.

The lack of shad in the Hudson has been manly blamed on overfishing the species before they can even reach the Hudson. However, many of us believe the shortage of Hudson River shad is due mainly to the enormous population of striped bass that eat the roes and the fry. The bass population exploded when the State forbade fishing for that species due to high PCB s in their flesh.

So, now we have inedible striped bass and nonexistent shad - thanks to General Electric and the DEC.

Does anyone know if the Delaware shad fishery will be open this year?

Cheers, John

Re:Shad roe New with photos (DLnWPBrown)

Tue, 26 May 2009 20:10:21 GMT

A correction from my mom, she said grandmother put in a small can of tomato sauce, not tomatoes. She and I talked about how things changed between her living there and my being raised by my grandparents. she said I had it alot easier than she did.

Dennis in Cary

Re:Shad roe New with photos (ann peeples)

Sat, 23 May 2009 12:14:07 GMT

Sure isnt pretty, but i would try it...

Re:Shad roe New with photos (brittneal)

Sat, 23 May 2009 04:22:12 GMT

Wow, thats an eye opener! I had never seen shad roe before. I half expected it to look somewhat look the bluegill roe of my youth. They were tiny and bright orange with a clay like constancy. Instead it looked like a couple lobes of goose liver. Im sure you enjoed it but I dont think I cold ever try it.

Re:Shad roe New with photos (Twinwillow)

Sat, 23 May 2009 01:10:39 GMT

Yet again, one more delicacy from the Eastern seaboard I miss out on by living in Texas. Ah, the memories of my youth in NY. Oh well, pass the BBQ, please.

Re:Shad roe New with photos (Born in OKC)

Sat, 23 May 2009 00:31:22 GMT

IIRC there was a roadfood feature earlier this year about a small seasonal restaurant in North Carolina with "fish camp" ambiance that served shad. I can't find that article now. (Shad was not the focus of their menu, but it is unusual to see it mentioned at all.) We have a shad run in Georgia and I suppose it must be one of the earliest in the country each year. Love's Seafood in Savannah is one of the few places in this state that serves the fish or the roe. I always check to see if they have it when we visit the Georgia coast.

I never had a problem with bones in the shad served at Love's so I guess someone there knows what they are doing.

Re:Shad roe (DLnWPBrown)

Fri, 22 May 2009 21:08:05 GMT

Michael, you are about as much an expert on shad as my grand parents were, which puts you in high standing in my book. My grandfather would actually put out special shad nets in the river to catch the fish. The roe were the part of the fish that was of course desired. But things were done differently here where I grew up in eastern NC. The row were dredged in seasoned cornmeal and fried until done. The fish themselves were fried until crisp and you basically ate the crisp bones and threw away what was to harsh to eat. It was a chore to say the least.

The other way we ate shad was to make a fish stew that had potatoes, onions, and tomatoes added to it. The stew was cooked down, with lots of red and black pepper and the roe was added to it in the last hour. The biggie though was the addition of raw eggs gently added to the stew the last 15 minutes or so. The key to making this stew was to never allow it to come to a boil as this would make the fish fall apart and the roe burst their sacs. I enjoyed this stew as a kid until I actually got a fish bone stuck in my throat and almost strangled to death until my grandfather ran his finger down my throat and managed to get the bones out. I wasn't able to eat for several days as the bones had cut my throat up where they were lodged and he forced them out with his fingers.

Needless to say I am not a fish person today but do love other types of seafood.

Dennis in Cary

Re:Shad roe (lobster)

Fri, 22 May 2009 20:23:35 GMT

I live in Oregon and the shad will start running in the Columbia next month. I hope to go and fly fish for them mostly for the fun of it. Also I hope to go sturgeon fishing with shad as the bait. I have enjoyed the roe fried several times and have never eaten the fish. Out west, eating even the roe is rare. Shad is considered by many crab and sturgeon bait (it is good bait). However, the Asian community clean up during the shad run, and stock up for the year. The most common way they eat it is a process of smoking, pickling, and then canning. After the canning the bones dissolve. One guy I met who's Asian wife was doing all the work, said it was very good. I grew up in NH near the Connecticut River. I have heard that they use to pickle shad by the barrel back before the dams were built.

Re:Shad roe (ChrisOC)

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:09:49 GMT

I went to my local fish market on Sunday and they had shad and shad roe. I bought one set of the roe.

And one fillet of shad. This is a machined boned fillet. It is expensive but worth it. It is also very ugly!

.

All those cuts are needed to remove the numerous bones of a shad. Put back together it isn't so bad.

Mrs OC and I each had half of the roe and half of the fillet.

Both fried with LOTS of butter. I poached the roe a little first so it would be cooked through. It is very fragile and if fried too long the eggs begin to burst.

By the way, you can buy shad fillets that are not machine boned and they are alot cheaper but DON"T BUY IT!! it is a hair brush disguised as fish. Lots of bones left in. With the machine boned neither of us got one single bone.

Re:Shad roe (Michael Hoffman)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:24:33 GMT

seafarer john

I closely watched a woman who was an expert de-boner of shad for several hours one day. Then I purchased an unboned shad (for some ridiculously low price) from the lady and proceeded home to replicate her labors. My efforts were a disaster, and that particular shad fertilized the tomatoes that Summer. It is indeed a dying skill - I don't look forward to the day when there are no properly boned shad filets available at the market. When I grew up in Poughkeepsie shad fileters were a dime a dozen...

Cheers, John

Re:Shad roe (seafarer john)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:21:47 GMT

I closely watched a woman who was an expert de-boner of shad for several hours one day. Then I purchased an unboned shad (for some ridiculously low price) from the lady and proceeded home to replicate her labors. My efforts were a disaster, and that particular shad fertilized the tomatoes that Summer. It is indeed a dying skill - I don't look forward to the day when there are no properly boned shad filets available at the market. When I grew up in Poughkeepsie shad fileters were a dime a dozen...

Cheers, John

Re:Shad roe (Michael Hoffman)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:16:13 GMT

seafarer john

As to our friend, MH's, recipe: I'm disappointed in him. I was sure he'd be a shad and shad roe fan. After all, he is a guy who knows good food, likes good food, appreciates the wealth of wild game out there, and grew up ( I guess) eating the shad they caught out of the Connecticut river.

Cheers, John

Unless the person doing the boning is an absolute expert, shad are, as far as I'm concerned, beyond inedible. There's a reason why Indians called shad the inside-out porcupine.

I've eaten properly boned shad, and I've eaten shad boned by people claiming to be experts that would kill anyone with their huge number of bones not removed.

As to shad roe, I'm a fan.

Re:Shad roe (seafarer john)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:02:02 GMT

I've been a subscriber since "before the flood" - at least 50 years- and I never was aware of the freebies available. I will look into it this week.

As to our friend, MH's, recipe: I'm disappointed in him. I was sure he'd be a shad and shad roe fan. After all, he is a guy who knows good food, likes good food, appreciates the wealth of wild game out there, and grew up ( I guess) eating the shad they caught out of the Connecticut river.

Without going into detail - just Google shad roe and shad and you'll find a plethora of recipes - enough to please any appetite.

Cheers, John

Re:Shad roe (seafarer john)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:01:55 GMT

Re:Shad roe (kozel)

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:40:45 GMT

seafarer john

Thanks, Kozel, for posting that wonderful piece by Hoffman - I've copied it and tucked it into my McPhee book. I'd completely forgotten that Joseph Mitchell story that, I think, first appeared in The New Yorker magazine about 50 years ago. Does anyone know where I could get a copy of that?

And, Michael Hoffman, I'm interested to learn that rod and reel fishing for shad is also practiced on the Connecticut River - come to think of it, McPhee may have made some mention of that.

Cheers, John

Could it be from April 4, 1959?

ABSTRACT: PROFILE of Harry Lyons, a "riverman" of Edgewater, a former fireman who, even during his tenure as a firefighter was permitted to take time out for shad-fishing every spring. History & description of Edgewater, his birthplace. The land on which it is situated & the land for some distance along the river above & below it was settle in the 17th century by Dutch & Huguenot farmers. Their names are on the older gravestones in the Edgewater Cemetery: The Bourdettes, Vreelands, Bogerts, Van Zandts, Wendells, Dyckmans, Westervelts & Demarest. In the early eighteen hundreds some bluestone quarries were opened, & new people, most of whom were English, began to come in and settle down & intermarry with the old farming & fishing families. They were followed by the Irish. Building stones & paving blocks & curbings for NYC were cut in the quarries & carried to the city on barges. Some of these families died out, some moved away, and some are still flourishing. The Edgewater Cemetery forms a U between a group of factory buildings of the Aluminum Company.

Try this link for the search I did. Looks like you can get the full article with just registration. (Sorry, on further investigation, as a subscriber you get free access, or for $4.99 you can get access to just that issue.)

http://www.newyorker.com/search/query?query=shad&page=2&queryType=nonparsed