Mackerel, Potted
INGREDIENTS. -Mackerel, a blade of mace, cayenne, salt and 2 oz. or more of butter, according to the quantity of mackerel.
Any remains of cooked mackerel may be potted as follows: pick it well from the bones, break it into very small pieces and put into a stewpan with the butter, pounded mace and other ingredients; warm it thoroughly, but do not let it boil; press it into potting pots and pour clarified butter over it.
A leftovers dish: cooked mackerel worked smooth with spiced butter and sealed under a layer of clarified butter. The whole thing hinges on gentle heat and on treating the finished pot as a fresh food, not a preserve.
- ProportionsBeeton gives none beyond "2 oz. or more of butter, according to the quantity of mackerel." A workable ratio is about 2 oz (55 g) softened butter to every 8 oz (225 g) of picked fish, plus 2-3 oz more clarified butter to seal. Two medium cooked mackerel yield roughly 8-10 oz of flesh.
- Do not let it boilThis is the instruction that matters. The butter is there to bind and coat; boiling splits it and the mixture turns oily and grainy. Warm over the lowest heat only until the butter melts and the fish is hot through, then stop.
- A blade of maceMace is the lacy outer covering of the nutmeg seed, sold in curved "blades" and pounded in a mortar. Ground mace from a jar works: about 1/4 teaspoon per pound of fish. Nutmeg is the seed from the same fruit but sweeter and heavier, so use rather less if substituting.
- Picking the bonesMackerel has a row of fine pin bones along the lateral line as well as the frame. Potted fish is eaten cold in spoonfuls, so anything missed will be found. Work through the flesh with your fingers rather than a fork.
- Potting potsSmall straight-sided ceramic or glass jars, 4-6 fl oz each. Pack the mixture down hard to drive out air pockets, level the top, and pour over clarified butter warm but not hot, to a depth of about 1/4 inch.
- Clarified butterMelt butter gently, let the milk solids settle, and pour off the clear fat, leaving the white sediment behind. The solids are what would sour first, which is why they are discarded.
- Storage, which the original omitsNineteenth-century kitchens treated a butter seal as a preservative and kept potted fish in a cold larder for weeks. Do not. The seal creates an oxygen-free layer over low-acid fish, and the relevant organism in fish can grow slowly even under refrigeration. Refrigerate at once and eat within three days.
- ServingTake it out of the refrigerator 20 minutes ahead so the butter softens and the spice comes forward. Eight ounces of fish fills two small pots, enough for four as a first course with toast, and it wants lemon and cayenne at the table.
Potting was the English answer to a glut before refrigeration: cooked meat or fish pounded with butter and spice, pressed into an earthenware pot and sealed under a cap of fat that kept air off. Mackerel was an obvious candidate because it is an oily fish that spoils notoriously fast, and because it arrived cheap and in quantity during the summer runs off the south and west coasts. This entry sits in the tradition of using up remains that runs through the whole of Beeton's work; comparable potting recipes appear elsewhere in the book for meats and shellfish. Mace and cayenne were long-standing potting spices in English cookery. The related dish that survives most visibly today is potted shrimp, still sold under its butter seal, though now sold chilled rather than kept in a larder.