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By Root 921 0

the North Sea, take no food during their long rest. I was told in Norway that people who live up on the Arctic coast refuse to eat them. For a start, they are written over in a language they cannot read – look at a mackerel next time you buy one – and the browny-reddish part is because they feed on the bodies of drowned sailors and fishermen. In fact, this ‘red muscle sustains their continuous swimming, which in these pelagic fishes never ceases, and the white muscle is flexed when a burst of speed is needed’. I suppose the prejudice and the stories began because the mackerel wintering in those parts are in poor condition, and so not worth eating anyway.

I have been speaking of our northern mackerel, the Atlantic mackerel, Scomber scombrus, caught on both sides of the water. It has various relations in the warmer seas of the world. The finest to eat, finer than our mackerel, are the wahoo, cero and Spanish mackerel of the Mexican Gulf, where the king mackerel is also caught in abundance. Then there is the sierra of the Pacific Coast, and the Monterey Spanish mackerel, and species off the coasts of China, Japan and India. In Britain, or on holiday in southern Europe, you may well see the Spanish mackerel which has the usual pattern of dark squiggled ‘writing’, but on a smaller, less bold scale. All recipes for mackerel, and many recipes for bluefish, herring and sardine, are suitable for these species as well.

One aspect of mackerel that I dislike intensely is the deep-brown coloured, hot-smoked fillets and whole fish that are now so widely on sale and on the menus of many cafés and restaurants. The texture is unpleasingly soft, the taste too smoky-brown as if some essence or powder has been used.

Cold-smoked mackerel is another matter, however. Cold-smoked mackerel is a treat for the gods. Why it is so difficult to find, I do not know. A neighbour once turned up with a tray of these pale golden delicacies that he had wrested from Macfisheries in Swindon, not long before they expired. We had a share-out and I found that they kept well in the freezer. They came out for special visitors, who were often puzzled to know what fish precisely they were eating.

Another success with mackerel, large ones for preference, is the gravadlax cure of salt, sugar and dill, see p. 310. Really fresh mackerel, especially if you have caught them yourself, are ideal for sashimi (p. 364) or for a simple marinade of olive oil and lime juice. Lime juice is also a good treatment for mackerel fillets destined for the grill.

HOW TO PREPARE MACKEREL

Mackerel need no scaling. When you clean the cavities, guard the roes, which are a delicacy. For persistent blood marks, rub in a little salt and then rinse under the cold tap. Mackerel are best grilled, or dry-fried in an iron pan. Slash them diagonally either side of the backbone, in the plumpest part.

As with herrings, wash your hands and the utensils with plenty of cold water after dealing with mackerel. This gets rid of the smell which can be a problem with oily fish. They can then be washed in hot soapy water in the usual way.

ESCABÈCHE OLD AND NEW

The word escabèche has a fine sound, almost a flourish to its tail. By origin Spanish, it comes from the West Indies, where they have long used it to describe a particular method of pickling fish. In England it turns up, briskly abbreviated to caveach, in the middle of the eighteenth century. Mrs Raffald gives two recipes in The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769), one for sole, the other for fish in general, the only difference being in the spicing.

Hannah Glasse in The Art of Cookery (1747) gives the following method:

To pickle Mackrel, call’d, Caveach

‘Cut your Mackrel into round Pieces, and divide one into five or six Pieces: To six large Mackrel you may take one Ounce [30 g] of beaten Pepper, three large Nutmegs, a little Mace, and Handful of Salt. Mix your Salt and beaten Spice together, then make two or three Holes in each Piece, and thrust the Seasoning into the Holes with your Finger, rub the Piece all over with the Seasoning,