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MACKEREL (a la Poulette)
Cut large mackerel into three pieces, after being emptied, cleansed, and drained. If there be roes, dry and dredge them, as well as the fish, with flour. Make a seasoning of finely-chopped onion, parsley, pepper, and salt, scalding the parsley and onions first. Lay the pieces of fish, but not the heads or tails, into a stewpan; sprinkle the seasoning equally over each layer, add an ounce of butter in bits, and a small cup of veal broth, but only enough to prevent the fish sticking to the bottom of the stewpan. Close the lid of the stewpan tightly until the mackerel is done, which will be in about half an hour. Some of the seasoning should be kept for the top, and some bits of butter. Place the fish on a dish, keep it warm before the fire, until the sauce is thickened. Make it boil up again, and add more pepper or salt, if required. Have ready-beaten two yolks of eggs, remove the sauce from the fire, and stir them with half a table-spoonful of vinegar into it. When smooth and thick, pour it over the fish.
A straightforward braise finished with an egg-yolk liaison, in the manner the French call à la poulette. Two things need attention: the cooking time, which is far too long by modern standards, and the sauce, which will curdle if it is allowed to boil after the yolks go in.
- The hinge: never boil the finished sauceThe recipe is explicit that the pan comes off the heat before the yolks and vinegar go in, and it means it. Yolk proteins begin to set well below boiling -- from about 150F -- and will seize into grains as the mixture approaches a simmer, so the liaison is stirred into liquid that is hot but not simmering and thickened by residual heat only.
- Half an hour is too longThick cuts of a large mackerel are cooked through in 10 to 15 minutes in a tightly covered pan; at thirty they will be dry and beginning to fall apart. Cook until the flesh parts from the bone at the thickest point, then lift the fish out and reduce the liquor.
- Veal brothA light, gelatinous, near-neutral stock. A mild chicken stock is the closest thing on a modern shelf. Avoid fish stock, which pushes the dish towards a matelote, and avoid anything heavily salted, since the liquid is reduced.
- Scalding the onion and parsleyA brief plunge in boiling water, then drained. It takes the raw bite out of the onion and fixes the colour of the parsley; the point is that the seasoning is not fried, so the sauce stays pale.
- StewpanA straight-sided pan with a close-fitting lid. A saute pan or a wide saucepan does the job. The recipe seasons 'each layer', so the fish need not be in one layer; the liquid is deliberately shallow, barely enough to keep the fish off the base.
- The roesSoft (milt) and hard (egg) roes were sold in the fish and were expected to be used. They are still good, floured and cooked alongside the fish, but they need less time than the flesh, so add them for the last five minutes.
- VinegarHalf a tablespoon of a plain white wine or cider vinegar, not malt, which is too assertive. Its job is to cut the oiliness of the mackerel, the same role lemon plays in a modern version.
- YieldOne large mackerel cut in three serves two as a main course. The heads and tails are excluded from the pan, but they are worth simmering in the broth beforehand and straining out.
A la poulette is the old French kitchen's name for a pale sauce finished off the heat with egg yolks and an acid, usually lemon or vinegar; it is the same liaison that carries blanquette de veau and the classic treatment of mussels, and the name is generally traced to the sauce's use with young chickens. Mackerel spoils faster than almost any fish on the market, and before refrigeration it was sold and eaten very soon after landing, which is one reason it appears so often in Victorian cookery books with sharp accompaniments -- gooseberry sauce, fennel, mustard or vinegar -- to cut its richness.