No. 798

Smoked Mackerel

Maquereaux Fumes

Raise the fillets from the mackerel, remove the skin, and trim them into thin slices, lay these on a dish, and between each, set a slice of cold boiled potatoes. Sprinkle over a vinaigrette of oil, vinegar and pepper, dredge over some chopped chervil, very tiny squares of shallot and some chopped fennel and tarragon leaves.

← No. 797 Mackerel in Oil Cold Side Dishes No. 799 Muskmelon and Cantaloupe →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold hors-d'oeuvre that is really an assembly job: the only cooking is the potatoes. Ranhofer assumes you already have a whole smoked mackerel and a cook who knows a vinaigrette by heart, so the proportions are left to you.

Buy hot-smoked mackerelModern supermarket smoked mackerel is hot-smoked and fully cooked, which is what this dish wants. Cold-smoked mackerel is raw and salty and is usually sold for further cooking; check the label rather than assuming.
Filleting and slicingLift the two fillets, peel off the skin, then run a finger down the centre line and pull the pin bones with tweezers. Slice on a slight bias into thin pieces; hot-smoked flesh flakes easily, so a thin sharp knife and a light hand matter more than force.
The potatoesUse a waxy variety so the slices hold together. Dress them while still warm rather than fully cold, which is the one departure worth making from the text: warm potato drinks the vinaigrette, cold potato repels it.
Vinaigrette proportionsNone are given. Three parts oil to one part vinegar is the standard reading, and the mackerel supplies enough salt that the dressing needs none, only pepper as Ranhofer specifies.
Very tiny squares of shallotThis is brunoise, roughly 1-2 mm. Anything coarser dominates the plate. If your shallots are aggressive, rinse the dice in cold water and pat dry.
Fennel means the herbChopped fennel here is most likely the feathery green frond rather than the bulb, which appears to have been little seen in American markets at this date. Dill fronds are the nearest substitute if fennel tops are unavailable; chervil, likewise, bolts fast and is usually easier to find as a pot herb than in a bunch.
Yield and servingNo quantities are given. As a rough guide, one mackerel of about 1 lb will dress a small platter for four to six as a first course. Assemble no more than an hour ahead and keep it cold; the herbs blacken and the potato dulls if it sits.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of what came out of the Delmonico's kitchens in New York over three decades, and its long run of cold side dishes is essentially the hors-d'oeuvre trolley written down: anchovies, sardines in oil, radishes, melon, and here a smoked fish given a French dressing and herbs. Atlantic mackerel was one of the cheapest and most abundant fish landed on the Northeast coast, and because it is oily and spoils quickly it was salted, pickled or smoked in enormous quantities before refrigeration made fresh mackerel a reliable market item. What Ranhofer does with it is characteristic of his method: a common preserved ingredient is raised by proportion and garnish rather than by expense, in this case by chervil, tarragon and fennel with shallot, and by the plain boiled potato that turns a salt-fish relish into something substantial enough to face a table.