Boiled Salt Mackerel with Butter

Ingredients

• a salt mackerel
• a teaspoonful of salt

Method

1. 1

   Soak the mackerel overnight in cold water or heat in fresh water.

2. 2

   Place skin side up in a pan, cover with cold water, and heat gently.

3. 3

   Replace hot water with cold as it heats.

4. 4

   Serve with sauce made while freshening the fish.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 2 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management (1885) by Juliet Corson, page 126. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

BOILED SALT MACKEREL WITH BUTTER. Either freshen a salt mackerel by soaking it over night in cold water, with the skin up, or by repeatedly heating it in fresh water frequently changed. The fish should be placed, skin upward, flat in a pan large enough to hold it, and covered with cold water, the pan being put over a gentle fire. As soon as the water is scalding hot, it should be poured off and replaced with cold. The fibre of the fish is not hardened by this process ; and generally, by the time the fish is fresh enough to use, it is cooked. While the fish is being freshened, make a sauce as directed below ; and when the fish is freshened drain it, pour the sauce over it, and serve it. The mackerel may be soaked, then broiled, and served with white sauce or clarified butter, and a dish of boiled potatoes. CLARIFIED BUTTER. Put in a cup or small saucepan four heaping tablespoon- fuls of butter, a saltspoonful of salt, and quarter of a salt- spoonful of white pepper, and set it in a pan of hot water over the fire where the butter will slowly melt ; as soon as it is melted, carefully pour it into a sauceboat, without dis- turbing the sediment at the bottom, and serve it at once. 222 PRACTICAL AMERICAN COOK£.RY. DRIED SALMON. After the fish has been scaled, split it down the back, remove the entrails, saving the roe; then rub the fish thoroughly with dry salt, and hang it by the gills to drain over night. The next day mix together two ounces each of powdered rock-salt and brown sugar and four ounces of powdered saltpetre ; rub this mixture well into the fish, and lay it on a large dish for two days ; then drain the fish, rub it thoroughly with dry salt, hang it by the gills, and let it dry. After it is thoroughly dry, it will be ready for use. Dried salmon may be stewed in white sauce, broiled, and served with butter and pepper, or cut in thin strips and served as a relish; or broiled or fried, after it is soaked over night in cold water, or brought to the boiling-point after having been put over the fire in cold water enough to cover it. SALTED SHAD. After the shad have been scaled, split therA iown the back, clean them, saving the roes, wash them iit plenty of cold water, and lay them in a wooden tray or tub, with fine salt sprinkled thickly between the fish ; let the fish stand in this salt for two days. Then drain and wipe the shad, again sprinkle them with coarse salt, and pack them away in boxes or tubs. Before using salted shad, soak them over night in fresh water, laying the skin upward. After salt shad has been freshened, . it may be baked, boiled, broiled, or fried. DIAMOND-BACK TERRAPIN. The accompanying cut shows a diamond-back terrapin. The short, thick legs are covered with a greenish-black skjp ; the tail is small and short ; the head is thick, and is gen- erally drawn close to or under the shell ; the back" shell is FISH AND SHELLFISH {pOTSSON). 223 divided into clearly defined sections, the lines of which converge towards the centre, the centre itself being per- ceptibly raised and slightly pointed ; these points form a series of elevations down the middle of the back, which give the terrapin its name of diamond-back. Diamond-Bach Terrapin. HOW TO BOIL TERRAPIN. Terrapin should be alive when brought from the market. Wash them by putting them for half an hour into a tub or large pan half full of clean cold water ; have over the fire a large pot half full of boiling water ; plunge the terrapin into this, head first, grasping them from the back to avoid the possibihty of a bite ; let the terrapin boil from five to ten minutes, or until the skin of the claws or legs can be rubbed off with a wet cloth ; after this outer skin is removed, put the terrapin again over the fire in suflScient clean boil- ing water to cover them, with a teaspoonful of salt

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