Does Anyone Actually Eat Shad?

April 21, 2010 By: Marshall Cutchin

Author and Pipeliner co-conspirator Scott Bowen comes up with a sure-fire way to “stomach” shad season on the lower Delaware: catch a hen shad (if you can), and cook up the roe.
“What I have never understood, in all the years I have lived in or visited the Delaware River Valley, is why anyone now actually eats shad. Sure, sure, it’s all about how the fillets are prepared and cooked. That horrible, greasy smoke you smell as you walk down the street — like an odor of cheap leather burned in motor oil — is a sign of willy-nilly grilling.”