Mackerel, Pickled
INGREDIENTS. -4 mackerel, 12 peppercorns, 2 bayleaves, 1/2 pint of vinegar. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 6d.
Boil the mackerel and lay them in a dish; take half the liquor they were boiled in, MACKEREL. add as much vinegar, peppercorns and bayleaves; boil for 10 minutes and when cold, pour over the fish.
TIME.- hour.
MACKEREL, POTTED.
A short vinegar pickle rather than a true preserve: the fish is cooked first, then steeped in its own spiced cooking liquor cut with vinegar. Two of the fractions have been lost in the original printing, so read the quantities with care.
- The missing fractionsThe ingredient list reads "pint of vinegar" and the time "hour": a fraction has dropped out of the printing in both places and cannot be recovered from the text. ½ pint (about 10 fl oz, or 1¼ US cups) and ½ hour are plausible readings, but ¼ is equally possible. The method itself tells you the real proportion: equal parts fish liquor and vinegar, so match whatever volume of poaching water you reserve.
- This is not a shelf-stable pickleThere is no measured acidity, no salt cure and no sterile seal here. Keep it covered in the refrigerator and eat within two or three days; the vinegar is a flavouring and a short-term brake, not a preservative.
- Poach, do not boil hard"Boil the mackerel" means bring to a bare simmer and hold it there. Mackerel is soft-fleshed and falls apart at a rolling boil. Whole fish of about 12 oz each need roughly 8-10 minutes at a gentle simmer; fillets, 3-4 minutes.
- Salt the poaching waterThe recipe says nothing about salt, but unsalted water leaches flavour out of the fish and gives you a weak liquor to build the pickle on. Season the water well and taste the strained liquor before adding vinegar.
- Which vinegarThe ordinary British kitchen vinegar of the period was malt vinegar; modern malt vinegar runs around 5 per cent acetic acid, though period strengths were not standardised. Malt or cider vinegar suits mackerel; white wine vinegar is milder and cleaner. Distilled white vinegar is harsher than intended.
- Cool the liquor firstThe instruction to pour it over "when cold" matters. Hot vinegar liquor will continue to cook the fish and turn it chalky, and it also puts warm food into the refrigerator to cool slowly. Chill the strained, boiled liquor fully before it goes over the fish.
- Yield and servingFour mackerel serve four as a lunch or supper dish, or six to eight as a cold first course. Serve cold with brown bread and butter; the pickle is the sauce.
Souring oily fish in spiced vinegar is one of the oldest ways of buying a few extra days from a catch that spoils fast — mackerel is famously perishable, which is why it was one of the few fish English street sellers were long permitted to hawk on a Sunday. The same idea runs from medieval and Tudor "soused" fish through to the Scandinavian and Dutch pickled herring traditions, and Beeton's book carries more than one version: this vinegar souse and the potted mackerel that follows it directly in the M section. Peppercorns and bay are the standard Victorian souse aromatics, restrained by comparison with earlier recipes that piled on mace, cloves and allspice. The average cost given, one shilling and sixpence for four fish, reflects mackerel's standing as cheap, plentiful food.