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Spanish Mackerel with Paprika
Trim and cut the head off a fresh Spanish mackerel of three pounds, split in two through the back, then remove spinal bone and lay on a lightly buttered tin, cut side up. Season with a teaspoon salt, half teaspoon paprika and teaspoon anchovy essence, spread a tablespoon of butter over the surface, squeeze the juice of half a lemon over and set in the oven for thirty-five minutes. Remove, dress on a hot dish, pour the gravy (if any) over decorate with a little parsley greens and serve.
A plain baked split fish, and the only real decisions are oven heat and how long you leave it there. The original gives neither temperature nor much margin for error.
- Oven temperatureNo heat is specified, as is common in books of this kind. Bake at 400F; a 3 lb mackerel split flat is thin enough that a hotter oven risks the edges drying before the centre sets.
- Thirty-five minutes is longA butterflied 3 lb Spanish mackerel will be done in roughly 18 to 25 minutes at 400F. Cook to 145F at the thickest part, or until the flesh just parts from the backbone line. The original timing probably assumes a slower, less predictable oven.
- Anchovy essenceA bottled condiment of salted anchovy, usually with vinegar and spice. Substitute a teaspoon of Asian fish sauce, or mash one oil-packed anchovy fillet into the butter; either gives a similar salty background note.
- Split through the backThe fishmonger will do this. Ask for the mackerel butterflied from the back with the spine removed, skin left on, so it opens flat and lies skin-down on the pan.
- PaprikaHere this means sweet Hungarian paprika, not smoked Spanish pimenton. Half a teaspoon over a whole fish is for colour and mild warmth, not heat.
- "Gravy (if any)"The pan liquid is butter, lemon and fish juices. Tip the pan and spoon it over; if it has separated, swirl the pan off the heat with a small extra knob of cold butter to bring it back together.
- Buttered tinUse a shallow rimmed sheet pan or gratin dish so the juices concentrate rather than spread and scorch. A rack is wrong here; the fish should sit in its own butter.
- YieldA 3 lb whole fish, boned, feeds three to four as a main course.
Spanish mackerel (Scomberomorus maculatus) is an Atlantic and Gulf fish that was landed in quantity along the American East Coast and reached northern city markets by rail and ice in the late nineteenth century, which may help account for how often it turns up in American hotel cookery of the period. The paprika treatment appears to reflect a vogue for Hungarian seasoning often said to have taken hold in restaurant kitchens around 1900, when paprika, along with the phrase "à la Hongroise," appeared on menus in dishes with no Hungarian ancestry at all. Anchovy essence in the same recipe points to the English side of the professional kitchen's inheritance: bottled fish condiments were the standard shortcut for adding savoury depth before commercial stock bases were widespread. The result is a characteristic "international" dish of its moment, an American fish seasoned by way of Budapest and London.