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Fresh Mackerel, Mignonette
Cut the head off and split in two a three-pound piece of fresh mackerel, remove spinal bone and wipe neatly, then place in a lightly buttered baking dish. Place in a bowl one ounce butter, two tablespoons flour, three tablespoons bread crumbs, four finely chopped shallots, a half bean chopped garlic, half teaspoon freshly chopped parsley, half teaspoon chopped chives, one teaspoon curry powder, a teaspoon paprika, half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons grated nutmeg, one saltspoon thyme and one saltspoon crushed bay leaf; mix well with a spoon two minutes, then spread this mixture and squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the mackerel, set in oven to bake forty minutes, remove and send to table in same dish.
A whole baked mackerel under a spiced crumb crust, from a book that assumes you own a saltspoon and can read an oven by hand. The measurements convert cleanly; the timing and the oven do not.
- SaltspoonUsually reckoned a quarter teaspoon, though some period sources make it an eighth. Taking it as a quarter, the nutmeg is about half a teaspoon and the thyme and crushed bay leaf a quarter teaspoon each.
- "Half bean" of garlicI.e. half a clove, finely chopped. "Bean" for a garlic clove recurs throughout this book.
- Oven heatNone is given. A moderate oven, in the region of 350-375F, suits the dish; anything hotter will scorch the crumb topping before the thickest part of the fish is done.
- The timing is the problemForty minutes will dry out mackerel badly. A split three-pound fish wants roughly 20-25 minutes at 350F; test the thickest part behind the shoulder and pull it when the flesh just parts.
- Size of fishAtlantic mackerel usually run one to two pounds, so a three-pound fish means a large one, or another species such as Spanish mackerel. Two smaller mackerel, split and boned, work in place of one large, with the time cut further.
- The topping needs fatOne ounce of butter creamed into flour, crumbs and aromatics makes a stiff paste rather than a spreadable one. Soften the butter thoroughly and press the mixture onto the fish in a thin, even layer; if it refuses to spread, work in a little more melted butter rather than water.
- Curry powder in 1906Commercial blends of the period were generally milder and more turmeric- and coriander-forward than a modern Madras-style powder, which is hotter; a scant teaspoon is probably closer to the intended effect.
- ServingBaked and served in the same dish, as directed, this feeds four as a main course. Boiled potatoes and the remaining half lemon suit it.
This comes from Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book, the work of a chef long associated with Delmonico's in New York, and it shows the house habit of tagging a plain fish with a garnish name. Mignonette in French cooking usually points to coarsely cracked pepper — the peppercorn fragments were thought to resemble mignonette seed — and here the shallots, the crumb crust and the pungent spice mixture carry something of the same idea onto a baked fish. Mackerel was cheap, oily and abundant along the Atlantic coast, and it spoils faster than almost any other market fish, which is why period recipes insist on the word fresh. The technique is a savoury crumb coat that seasons, browns and holds moisture at once.