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Broiled Spanish Mackerel
Remove the backbone, first opening the fish on the back; dry the fish well with a towel after washing it; salt the fish and put it on a gridiron over a clear fire, turning the flesh side down, until it is brown; then turn it This mackerel is very fine with most any of the fish sauces. It should be served while hot. over.
A three-line recipe that assumes you know how to manage a fire. Note also that the typesetting has gone astray: the sentence about sauces has been dropped into the middle of the instruction, and the words "over." belong at the end of "then turn it." Read it as: brown the flesh side, turn it over, finish on the skin.
- The hinge: flesh side firstSpanish mackerel is oily and delicate, and the cut face is what you want marked and set. Give it the direct heat first, then finish skin-side down so the skin takes the punishment and the fillet holds together when lifted.
- "A clear fire" and the gridironA clear fire is one burnt down past smoke and flame to steady coals — no flare-ups to catch the dripping oil. A hot charcoal grill or a preheated broiler element 3-4 inches from the fish gives the same thing. The gridiron is simply a hinged or flat wire grate; oil it well or the skin will weld to it.
- TimingThe book gives none. A butterflied fish of 1½ to 2 lb takes roughly 4-5 minutes on the flesh side and 3-4 on the skin. It is done when the thickest part flakes and reads about 145F; mackerel dries out quickly past that point.
- Boning the fish"Opening the fish on the back" means cutting down either side of the dorsal line rather than through the belly, then lifting out the backbone to leave the fish flat in one piece. A fishmonger will do this if asked to butterfly it.
- Drying mattersThe instruction to towel the fish dry is not filler. Surface water steams instead of browning, and wet skin sticks to the bars.
- SaltSeason more generously than seems necessary and do it a few minutes ahead; oily fish takes salt well, and this recipe relies on nothing else for flavour.
- The fish sauces meant hereSauces commonly offered with broiled fish in nineteenth-century American cookbooks include maître d'hôtel butter (butter creamed with lemon and parsley), drawn butter, or a tartare, generally served separately. Anything sharp and buttery suits mackerel.
- YieldOne butterflied Spanish mackerel of about 1½-2 lb serves two.
Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) was a prized Atlantic and Gulf food fish in the nineteenth century, running north along the American coast in summer and reaching city markets in quantity; cookbooks of the period tend to rank it above the common Boston mackerel and usually broil rather than boil it, the oil in the flesh basting itself over coals. Opening a fish along the back and lifting out the backbone — the butterflied cut — was a common treatment for oily fish destined for the gridiron, since a flat, even thickness cooks through before the outside scorches. The instruction to use "a clear fire" points to a kitchen with a coal or wood range whose fire had to be judged by eye, where a smoky or flaming fire would spoil the fish.