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Mayonnaise of Mackerel
Clean two medium-sized mackerel, put in baking-dish with one-third cup each water, cider vinegar, and tarragon vinegar, twelve cloves, one teaspoon each peppercorns and salt, and a bit of bay leaf. Cover with buttered paper and cook in a moderate oven. Arrange on serving dish, remove skin, cool, and mask with Mayonnaise thickened with gelatine. Let stand until thoroughly chilled, and garnish with sliced cucumbers, lemon baskets filled with Mayonnaise sprinkled with finely chopped parsley, and sprigs of parsley.
A cold entrée in the French manner: mackerel baked in a spiced vinegar court bouillon, then masked with mayonnaise stiffened with gelatine so it sets in a smooth coat. The original assumes you know the temperatures and proportions, so here they are.
- The hinge: the gelatine mayonnaiseSoften about 1 teaspoon powdered gelatine in 2 tablespoons cold water, dissolve it over hot water, let it cool to barely lukewarm, then whisk it into 1 cup mayonnaise. Too hot and the mayonnaise breaks; too cool and it sets in ropes before it reaches the fish.
- Moderate oven350F. The fish is not being browned, only gently cooked through in the aromatic liquid.
- Time, which the original omitsTwo medium mackerel take roughly 20 to 30 minutes at 350F, until the flesh flakes at the backbone and reads 145F. The original expected the cook to judge by eye; a thermometer is more reliable.
- Buttered paperParchment, buttered on the underside and laid directly on the fish. It keeps the surface moist without steaming the dish into pieces the way a tight lid would.
- Tarragon vinegarStill sold, though not in every shop. Steep a few bruised tarragon sprigs in white wine vinegar for a week, or use plain white wine vinegar plus a small sprig of fresh tarragon in the pan.
- Twelve clovesThat is a firm hand by current taste, and cloves dominate quickly. Eight is plenty for two fish, and the spices should be lifted out with the poaching liquid, not left clinging to the flesh.
- Buy the mackerel very freshMackerel is oily and spoils faster than white fish, and this dish is served cold after a long chill. Use fish bought the same day, cook it promptly, and keep it refrigerated throughout.
- Raw egg in the coatingThe mayonnaise is never cooked and the finished dish sits for some time. Use pasteurized eggs or a commercial mayonnaise as the base if serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young, or immune-compromised.
- Yield and servingTwo medium mackerel serve four as a cold entrée or light lunch. Fillet or lift the fish free of the bone before masking, so the coat is not disturbed at the table.
Cold fish under a set sauce is the technique French kitchens called mayonnaise collée "glued" with aspic or gelatine so it clings as a pale mask rather than running off — and it belongs to the same family as chaud-froid. Such dishes are often said to have been helped along by the spread of granulated gelatine as a relatively cheap and reliable pantry item in this period, putting moulded and masked dishes within reach of a household without a French chef; "entrées" in these years could also refer to elaborate cold dishes for luncheon or supper rather than a main course. Mackerel itself was one of the great New England commercial fisheries, landed in quantity along the Massachusetts coast and inexpensive when fresh; dressing so ordinary a fish in vinegar, cloves, cucumber and lemon baskets is exactly the kind of upward translation such cookery aimed at.