Pan-Fried Shad Roe (Jeff's)

Every spring I have shad roe shipped to the house from the East Coast, and when I am in South Carolina in the spring I cook it there and eat it in restaurants too. I cook it simply: butter, salt and pepper in the pan, low and slow. High heat makes the eggs inside the sac burst and makes quite a mess. I know this from experience.

Ingredients

• 1 set shad roe per person (a pair of lobes)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons butter
• Salt and black pepper

Directions

1. Dry it. Rinse the roe gently in cold water and pat it dry with paper towels. Handle it carefully and keep the sacs whole.
2. Low heat. Melt the butter in a skillet over low heat. It should barely sizzle.
3. Cook it slowly. Lay in the roe and season with salt and pepper. Cook it low and slow, turning once, until it is firm and cooked through and lightly browned on both sides. Keep the heat down the whole time: high heat makes the eggs inside the sac burst, and the pan and the stove pay for it.
4. Serve straight from the pan, with the butter spooned over.

Notes

What this is My method, not a measured recipe. I have not timed it; the test is a sac that is firm all the way through. A thick set takes longer than it looks like it should.

Why low heat The eggs are packed tight inside a thin membrane, and too much heat bursts it. Hank Shaw gives the same rule in his shad roe recipe: cook it “like bacon: slowly, at a nice, calm sizzle,” because the eggs spit. His version, floured and fried in bacon fat and served over grits, is Shad Roe with Bacon and Grits.

The other good way Floured roe with bacon is also good, and it stays in the collection as a great recipe in its own right. The plain butter version here is the everyday one.

Fresh, not frozen Shad roe is a spring food: the runs start in Georgia in January and reach New England by May and June. Roe that has been frozen “loses its texture and gets fishy” (Shaw).

The photo The photo shows a raw shad roe set, not the finished dish.

The Offal dive on the Food site covers roe in depth.