Boiled Mackerel

Ingredients

• mackerel
• three to four ounces of salt
• two tablespoonfuls of white vinegar

Method

1. 1

   Wash and clean the mackerel, removing the roes.

2. 2

   Lay the fish and roes in cold water, adding salt and vinegar.

3. 3

   Bring to a boil, skim, and simmer until done.

4. 4

   Remove immediately to prevent cracking.

5. 5

   Serve with roe and sauce.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 2 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 878. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Mackerel. — The mackerel is one of the most beautiful of fish. It sometimes attains to the length of twenty inches, but usually is about fourteen or sixteen inches long, and about two pounds in weight. Mackerel is in great demand as an article of food, but to be partaken of in perfection it should be perfectly fresh. No fish spoils more rapidly. The common idea respect- ing macierel is, that they are in best condition when fullest of roe; at that time, however, though not impoverished, they have little flavour. It is in the early part of the season, when the roe is not yet full grown, that mackerel have most flavour. In France, and some other parts of Europe, mackerel are often salted. Mackerel (;i la Poulette). — Cut large mackerel into three pieces, after being emptied, cleansed, and drained. If there be roes, dry and dredge them, as well as the fish, with flour. Make a srasonin^; of finely-chopped MACKEREL, onion, parsley, pepper, and salt, scalding the parsley and onions first. Lay the pieces of fish, but not the heads or tails, into a stewjDan ; sprinkle the seasoning equally over each layer, add an ounce of butter in bits, and a small cup of veal broth, but only enough to prevent the fish sticking to the bottom of the stewpan. Close the lid of the stewpan tightly until the mackerel is done, which will be in about half an hour. Some of the seasoning should be kept for the top, and some bits of butter. Place the fish on a dish, keep it warm before the fire, until the sauce is thickened. Make it boil up again, and add more pepper or salt, if requiied. Have ready- beaten two yolks of eggs, remove the sauce from the fire, and stir them with half a table- spoonful of \Tnegar into it. When smooth and thick, pour it over the fish. Mackerel, Baked. — Get quite fresh mackerel ; they may be known by their almost silvery brightness. If stale, they are limp in body, and red and dull-looking about the eyes and head. No fish can be more unwholesome when stale, and mackerel keep worse than any other fish. Djdng almost immediately after being taken fiom their native element, they should be used as soon as possible. They are good cooked in many ways. When baked, they should be cleaned, and the roes taken out, to be filled with a forcemeat delicately prepared, as fol- lows : — Put into a basin four ounces of bread- crumbs, two ounces of butter broken into bits, haK a tea-spoonful of savoury herbs, a little chopped parsley, an anchovy boned and pounded, pepper, salt, and cayenne, and an egg to cement. Onion, in very small quantity, and shred yery fine, may be added if the flavour be liked. Fill the fish with the forcemeat, lay them neatly into a dish, with small bits of butter, pepper, and salt. Bake half an hour in a moderate oven, serve with maitre d'hotel sauce or plain melted butter. The roes should be placed in the baking-dish with the fish. Probable cost, 28. Four fish sufficient for six persons. Mackerel, Baked (another way). — A quick and simple way of baking mackerel : — Put four or six middle-sized fish, after being washed and well dried, into a baking-dish, back down- wards, and rounded so as to make the heads and tails meet ; put the roes with them, and some flour and Ijutter blended together in the pro- portion of half an oimce of butter and half a tea- spoonful of flour to each fish. Add a little salt and cayenne, a small glassful of port or sherry, and enough chilli vinegar to flavour. Bake with some bits of butter over the top, and a buttered paper pressed tightly down without crushing the fish. It is economical to remove the heads and a little of the tails of the fish before baking. Mackerel, Boiled. — Wash and clean carefully, after removing the roes. The mac- kerel is in its greatest perfection when there is little roe. Lay the fish and roes separately into cold water, and to a gallon of water add from three to four ounces of salt and two table- spoonfuLs of white ^'inega

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.