Return of the mack | Fish
Word of Mouth blogFish This article is more than 14 years oldReturn of the mack
This article is more than 14 years oldRaw mackerel is delicious, but the Scots have other tricks up their sleevesWe're at the height of the mackerel season. In his paean to fishing in tomorrow's Weekend magazine, George Monbiot (see him fishing here) says that the best way to cook mackerel is not to. That's hard to disagree with: the Japanese say that raw mackerel straight out of the water is as good as otoro. But that means eating them on the boat or the beach. Mackerel fade very fast – a mackerel twelve hours old is nothing like a bright one straight from the water.
When I catch the first mackerel of the day I like to take the fillet off with the gutting knife and cut it up sashimi-style, preferably immediately after knocking it on the head. On the boat we fish from in the west of Scotland we keep a little Tupperware box containing soy, wasabi and lemon. We dip the mackerel chunks in. A shot of whisky works. It's worth moving to the Hebrides for.
Next best, we'd argue, is the Scottish way. You fillet and bone the mackerel and roll it in pin-head oatmeal. If there's none to hand, you can just crush a couple of oatcakes. Then melt butter in a pan on medium heat and fry the mackerel for a minute or two on each side. Be sure to put them flesh side down first. If you start skin side down they'll curl up like Chinese fortune-telling fish.
My mother likes to 'mackerelax' them, in a style with a vague nod to the Nordic fish semi-cure. This is her recipe:
Take two big mackerel, filleted and carefully boned. Sprinkle the flesh side with a thick frosting of sugar and add almost as much sea salt on top, and then a layer of fresh dill. Put the two mackerel together, flesh-to-flesh, on a big plate. Put a similar plate on top, with a couple of stones as weights.
Leave for at least 6-12 hours in the fridge. Then, without taking the plates off, pour away any liquid, turn the whole thing upside down, replace the weights and leave a further 6-12 hours. It won't slice like smoked salmon (try cutting across the grain), but it eats beautifully it with a little dill and mustard sauce, crème fraiche or soured cream.
I've got one of the tin box smokers they sell in fishing tackle shops, which you can put straight onto a picnic fire, with wood dust sprinkled under the fish tray. Eaten hot straight from the smoker the mackerel are fantastic, squeaky-fresh between the teeth.
After this, you'll not be tempted by the sad, flaccid mackerel you see even in the best fishmongers. As an oily fish, like herring, their flesh deteriorates very fast. Once they've made the trip to the city the best thing you can do with them is casserole them with cider and apple. But I'm a fresh mackerel snob. Any other ideas?
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