Important: Safety Warning
This page describes home-canning methods from before the causes of botulism were understood. Canning low-acid foods without a pressure canner, as described here, can allow the growth of Clostridium botulinum, whose toxin is among the deadliest known. Follow current USDA home-canning guidelines instead.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Pickled Mackerel
(Germany.) Skin, bone, and cut into pieces 4 pounds of fresh mackerel, put it in layers in a stone crock, sprinkling herbs, pepper and salt and bayleaves between each, using 1 tablespoonful, cut fine, of all the herbs. Press down, cover with vinegar, and seal air-tight. Bake in a moderate oven 6 hours. It will keep several days in a cool place. Good for supper.
This is a German soused fish — a slow acid bake rather than a true preserve — and it hinges on the vinegar rather than the oven. A few of its instructions need translating before the dish will work in a modern kitchen.
- Do not seal it airtight in the ovenA sealed vessel can build pressure as it heats, and a modern screw-top jar or clamp lid will not vent. Cover the dish with a lid set loosely on top, or with foil, so steam can escape.
- Moderate ovenThe book gives no temperature; "moderate" is usually read as somewhere around 325-375F. At that heat six hours is far longer than boned mackerel fillets need — the fish will be dry and shredded. Long baking in soused fish recipes is generally there to soften bones, and this recipe has already removed them. One to two hours at around 300F is nearer the mark for 4 lb of fillets.
- Vinegar strengthHousehold vinegar then and now runs about 4-5 percent acetic acid, and that acidity is what keeps the fish. Many German versions dilute it with an equal part of water plus a little sugar, which gives a more edible result; going much weaker than half-strength gives up the keeping quality.
- The vesselA glazed stone crock is non-reactive. So are glass, enamelled cast iron and stainless steel. Do not use bare aluminium, copper or unlined iron with this much vinegar.
- "1 tablespoonful, cut fine, of all the herbs"Genuinely ambiguous — it can be read as a tablespoon of each herb or a tablespoon of the mixture in total. Marinades of this kind commonly use a mixture such as dill, parsley and thyme, often with onion and whole peppercorns, though the recipe specifies only herbs, pepper, salt and bay. Which herbs is left entirely to the cook.
- Mackerel and freshnessMackerel is a scombroid fish and develops histamine quickly if it has been held warm at any point before you get it. Neither cooking nor vinegar destroys histamine. Buy it very fresh or frozen-at-sea, and keep it cold until it goes into the crock.
- Storage"A cool place" meant a larder at cellar temperature. Refrigerate it, submerged in its vinegar, and treat the author's "several days" as three or four. This is not a shelf-stable preserve and should not be treated as canned goods.
- Yield and servingFour pounds of boned mackerel feeds eight to ten. Serve it cold, straight from the pickle, with dark rye bread, butter and boiled potatoes — the "supper" the recipe has in mind.
Pickled or soused mackerel belongs to the broad northern European family of marinierter Fisch — herring, mackerel and sprats laid down in vinegar with onion, bay and peppercorns — that fed coastal Germany and the Baltic long before refrigeration and survives today in shop-bought Brathering and Bismarckhering. The method is acid preservation rather than salting: vinegar drops the pH low enough to hold spoilage bacteria for a few days in a cold larder, and the fish comes out firm and sharp rather than salty. Its appearance here, filed under a German heading, is typical of the compilations that gathered dishes from abroad for American cooks; the note that it is "good for supper" places it squarely in the cold-table tradition of the German evening meal, where bread, butter and something pickled did the work of a cooked dinner.