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Broiled Fresh Mackerel
Clean the mackerel, wash and wipe dry. Split it open so that when laid open the backbone will be in the middle. Sprinkle lightly with salt, and lay on a buttered gridiron over a clear fire, with the inside downward, until it begins to brown; then turn the other when quite done, lay on a hot dish and butter it plentifully with melted butter, one tablespoonful of cream, cover with a hot dish and let stand three minutes before sending to table.
A straightforward split-and-broil fish, written for a coal or wood fire and a hinged gridiron. Almost everything that needs translating is equipment rather than ingredients.
- The hinge: dry fish, hot metalWiping the fish genuinely dry and heating the buttered grate before the fish touches it is what keeps the skin from welding to the bars. A wet mackerel on a cold grid tears apart when turned.
- "A clear fire"This means coals burned down past flame, with no smoke — an even, fierce radiant heat. The modern equivalent is a well-lit charcoal grill or an oven broiler preheated 10 minutes with the fish 3-4 inches from the element.
- Split, not filletedThe fish is butterflied through the belly and opened flat with the backbone left in, skin outermost. A fishmonger will do this if asked for the fish split flat for broiling.
- TimingNo times are given because the fire was the variable. A 1 to 1 1/4 lb mackerel opened flat needs roughly 4-5 minutes cut side down, then 3-4 minutes on the skin, and is done when the flesh at the thickest part flakes and reads 145F.
- Broiled in a modern ovenUnder an overhead broiler there is no need to turn: lay it skin down on a buttered rack or foil and broil cut side up for 6-8 minutes.
- The butter and creamThe tablespoon of cream is stirred into the melted butter to make a loose sauce, not whipped. The recipe says only to butter it 'plentifully', so the quantity is left to the cook; an ounce or two of butter to the spoonful of cream gives a workable sauce.
- Covering with a hot dishStanding three minutes under a second warmed plate keeps the fish hot and gives the butter time to work into the flesh. It is an instructed step, not a flourish.
- YieldOne mackerel of this size serves one generously or two modestly; the recipe names no accompaniments.
Mackerel spoils faster than almost any food fish, which is why nineteenth-century American cookbooks distinguish so sharply between "fresh" mackerel and the salted barrel fish that was a staple of the New England trade — salt mackerel had to be soaked overnight, while fresh mackerel was a coastal luxury said to be best eaten very soon after landing. Broiling split over coals was the standard treatment for oily fish, since the fat bastes the flesh and the direct heat crisps a skin that would only go slack in a pan. The finish here — melted butter loosened with a spoonful of cream, then covered with a hot plate — belongs to that same plain-cooking tradition.