The French serve their shad with fresh-sorrel sauce—Alose à l’oseille. In Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey’s “Classic French Cooking,” Claiborne described shad and sorrel as “a liaison fit for the gods.” In America, you can buy the imported sauce. If you make your own with fresh sorrel, don’t be shy. Larousse Gastronomique will tell you to use two kilos of fresh sorrel.
Worldwide, there are thirty-some species of shads, of which the American shad is the largest. Asians generally serve them steamed. In India, they are steamed with banana leaves. I have no idea what Africans do with the denticle herring of Cameroon. I’d kipper it.
Copyright © 2002 by John McPhee
All rights reserved
FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Published in 2002 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
First paperback edition, 2003
www.fsgbooks.com
Designed by Gretchen Achilles
eISBN 9780374706340
First eBook Edition : March 2011
Shad dart by Yolanda Whitman
Some parts of this book first appeared, in slightly different form, in The New Yorker.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: McPhee, John A.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-10444-3
ISBN-10: 0-374-10444-1
1. American shad. 2. Shad fishing—North America—History. I. Title.
QL638.C64 M4 2002
597’.45—dc21
2002025012
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-0-374-52883-6
Paperback ISBN-10: 0-374-52883-7