Home › The World's Kitchen › Broiled Spanish Mackerel
Broiled Spanish Mackerel
Cut the head off and split open a fresh three-pound Spanish mackerel; neatly trim the fins. Mix on a plate a tablespoon oil with a teaspoon salt and two saltspoons paprika; repeatedly turn the fish in the seasoning, then arrange on a broiler and broil for five minutes on each side. Remove, dress on a hot dish, spread a very little melted butter over the fish and serve.
A three-ingredient treatment that depends entirely on the fish being fresh and the heat being fierce. The seasoning paste is the whole recipe; everything else is timing.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two of them are half a teaspoon of paprika. The teaspoon of salt is correct for a whole 3-lb fish, not excessive.
- "A broiler" is a hinged grillIn period usage this most often means a wire gridiron or hinged fish broiler, turned as a unit over coals or in a range broiler. Under a modern overhead broiler a split fish is hard to turn without tearing, so grill it over direct heat, or broil it cut side toward the element first and finish skin side up.
- Heat levelFive minutes a side only works over genuinely hot coals or a preheated broiler element at full power. On moderate heat the flesh will steam and stick before it colours.
- Doneness, not clockGo by the flesh parting from the bone under light pressure rather than the clock. Ten minutes total is about right for a fish of this thickness; a smaller fish will need appreciably less. Note that food-safety guidance for fish is 145F at the thickest part, above the 130-140F many cooks prefer.
- Splitting the fish"Split open" means butterflied down the backbone so it lies flat, skin down, not filleted. Any fishmonger will do this; ask them to leave the skin on, since it is what holds the fish together on the grate.
- Oiling the grateThe tablespoon of oil in the seasoning is for flavour and adhesion, not for the grill. Oil and preheat the gridiron separately or the skin will weld to it.
- PaprikaA mild sweet paprika is what is wanted. Smoked paprika would overwhelm a delicate fish, and hot paprika changes the dish into something else.
- Yield and servingA 3-lb whole fish serves two to three. The "very little melted butter" is deliberate; a wedge of lemon is the only other thing this wants.
Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) was among the most sought-after fish in American markets in the decades either side of 1900, running up the Atlantic coast in summer and reaching New York and Philadelphia in quantity. It was rich enough to broil dry, over coals, with nothing but oil and butter, which suited kitchens where the broiler station worked at speed. Being an oily fish it also spoiled fast, and cookbooks of the era insist on the word "fresh" and on the simplest possible handling. Paprika had entered American cookery by the late nineteenth century, valued as much for the colour it gave a broiled surface as for its mild heat.