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Fresh Mackerel, Fried
Score and salt the fish, roll in Indian meal, and fry in hot fat. If you put the fish into fat that is not very hot, it will fall in pieces before it crisps.
Haddock and scrode may be cooked in the same manner.
A four-line recipe that assumes you know how to buy and split a mackerel. The one thing it insists on — very hot fat — is the whole method.
- Fat temperature is the hingeMackerel is soft-fleshed and oily; dropped into warm fat it steams and disintegrates before a crust sets. Bring the fat to 375F and fry in batches so the temperature does not crash.
- Indian mealThis is cornmeal rather than wheat flour. Fine or medium yellow cornmeal gives the crisp, sandy coating intended; coarse stone-ground meal will not adhere as evenly.
- "Scrode"Modern spelling scrod — not a species but a market term for a small young cod or haddock, usually under 2½ lb, split for the pan. Any thin white fillet substitutes.
- ScoringTwo or three diagonal cuts on each side help heat reach the thickest part and reduce curling. Keep them shallow on a fillet; on a whole split fish they can go deeper.
- SaltingThe recipe salts and coats in one movement; if you salt ahead, blot the fish dry before the meal goes on. A wet surface is a common cause of coating slipping off in the pan.
- Fat and quantityThe recipe specifies only 'hot fat'; lard or beef drippings would have been usual choices, and a neutral oil with a high smoke point behaves the same. A half inch in a heavy skillet is enough for shallow frying.
- Timing and donenessWhole split mackerel takes roughly 4 minutes on the flesh side and 3 on the skin, fillets less. Cook to 145F at the thickest point; the flesh should be opaque and just parting.
- YieldOne mackerel of about a pound serves two. Serve immediately; lemon or vinegar, though not called for here, is a common accompaniment to an oily fish.
Mackerel was one of the cheapest fish on the Atlantic coast, sold fresh in season and salted the rest of the year — which is why a cookbook of this period specifies fresh mackerel in the title. The cornmeal coating marks the recipe as American rather than English; Indian meal was a common pantry staple and cost less than flour, a habit that survives in Southern fried catfish and New England fried smelts alike. The offhand note that haddock and scrod may be treated the same way reflects how these books were used: one technique, applied to whatever the fish market had that morning.