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Broiled Fresh Mackerel
Neatly clean and wipe a fine, fresh mackerel of three pounds; split open through the back; suppress the head as well as the spine bone. Have a very light tablespoon oil on a plate with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper; mix well, then repeatedly roll the fish in the seasoning; arrange on a broiler and broil on a moderate fire for six minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish; spread a little maitre d'hotel butter over; decorate with a little parsley greens and six quarters of sound lemon and serve.
A straightforward French-style grilled mackerel, written when "broiler" meant a hinged wire cage held over coals. The instructions are terse in places and assume a cook who already knows what maître d'hôtel butter is.
- Buy it fresh, and mean itMackerel is an oily, fast-spoiling fish and the recipe's insistence on "fine, fresh" is not decorative. Look for firm flesh, clear eyes and no ammonia smell; poorly handled scombroid fish can develop histamine that cooking will not destroy.
- "Suppress the head as well as the spine bone"This is a literal translation of the French supprimer — simply remove them. The fish is split down the back and opened flat, kite-style, so it lies in one piece skin-side down.
- A three-pound mackerelAtlantic mackerel at most fish counters run 1 to 1.5 lb. Two smaller fish will serve the same purpose; reduce the broiling time to roughly 4 minutes a side.
- "A very light tablespoon oil"A scant tablespoon — enough to carry the salt and pepper onto the skin, not to fry the fish. The full teaspoon of salt suits a 3 lb fish; it will be aggressive on anything smaller.
- Moderate fire, and what it means indoorsA moderate charcoal fire is about medium heat, with the grate a few inches above the coals. Under a modern overhead broiler, set the rack roughly 4 to 5 inches from the element at a moderate setting and turn the fish, as the original directs.
- Six minutes a side is the outside limitTwelve minutes total suits a whole 3 lb fish. Butterflied fillets from smaller mackerel are done when the flesh turns opaque and flakes at the thickest point — often 6 to 8 minutes total. Overcooked mackerel goes dry and strong-tasting.
- Maître d'hôtel butterMaitre d'hotel butter -- Assumed knowledge in a kitchen of this period: softened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then chilled. Allow about 3 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon parsley and the juice of half a lemon; slice it cold onto the hot fish so it melts at the table.
- YieldA 3 lb whole mackerel serves three to four as a main course.
The International Cook Book is generally credited to Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and the phrasing here shows its French kitchen ancestry plainly: supprimer for "remove", dresser for "dress on a hot dish", and maitre d'hotel butter treated as something every cook already keeps to hand. Grilled mackerel with parsley-lemon butter is a long-standing fixture of European fish cookery -- the oily flesh takes hard direct heat well and needs acid to cut it, which is why lemon appears in both the butter and the garnish. Mackerel was also cheap and abundant along the Atlantic coast, and it spoiled quickly before reliable refrigeration. Its place in a book of international cookery reflects a moment when American hotel kitchens were codifying French technique for a domestic audience that had the fish but not yet the vocabulary.