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Fresh Mackerel, Broiled
Split through the back, dredge with salt and pepper, grease the broilingiron, and broil quickly, lay the flesh side to the fire first; when browned, turn without breaking it, and brown the other side; pour melted butter over it, and serve hot.
A four-line recipe that assumes a coal range and a hinged wire broiler held over live fire. The method translates directly to a grill or a broiler element, with one adjustment to the order of cooking.
- The broiling-ironA gridiron or hinged wire broiler used over live coals; the hinged sort clamps shut over the fish so it can be turned as a unit. A fish basket for the grill does the same job; without one, use a well-oiled grill grate or a preheated heavy pan under the broiler element.
- Split through the backCut down either side of the backbone from the back rather than the belly, so the fish opens flat in one piece with the skin intact. A fishmonger will do this if asked for a kited or butterflied mackerel.
- DredgeHere it means simply to dust or sprinkle, not to coat in flour. Salt and pepper on both cut faces is all that is intended.
- Flesh side firstThe one instruction worth keeping. Sear the cut side over high heat for two to three minutes to set the flesh, then turn once onto the skin. Mackerel is soft and will fall apart if flipped repeatedly.
- Broil quicklyHigh heat throughout, close to the flame. Total time for a whole mackerel of about a pound is roughly six to eight minutes; the flesh should be opaque to the bone and lift from it cleanly.
- Melted butterLemon juice and parsley are a common modern addition, cutting mackerel's oil. The original finish is not wrong, only austere.
- YieldOne mackerel of 3/4 to 1 lb per person, or a larger fish split between two.
- FreshnessMackerel is a high-oil fish that spoils quickly. Buy it firm, bright-eyed and smelling of nothing but sea, and cook it the day it is bought.
Mackerel was among the cheapest and most abundant fish on the American Atlantic coast in the nineteenth century, salted by the barrel for winter and sold fresh in season along the seaboard; the specification "fresh mackerel" in a title like this one may well reflect how common salt mackerel was in the household, where it had to be soaked overnight before use. Its oiliness made it a natural for dry, fierce heat, and broiling over coals was the standard treatment in English and American kitchens alike long before gas ranges. That the recipe assumes readers own a broiling-iron and know how to grease it places this book in the period when the coal or wood range was still the center of the kitchen, with the fire itself, rather than a dial, doing the regulating.