_Mode_.--Mackerel should never be washed when intended to be broiled,
but merely wiped very clean and dry, after taking out the gills and
insides. Open the back, and put in a little pepper, salt, and oil; broil
it over a clear fire, turn it over on both sides, and also on the back.
When sufficiently cooked, the flesh can be detached from the bone, which
will be in about 15 minutes for a small mackerel. Chop a little parsley,
work it up in the butter, with pepper and salt to taste, and a squeeze
of lemon-juice, and put it in the back. Serve before the butter is quite
melted, with a _maître d'hôtel_ sauce in a tureen.
_Time_.--Small mackerel 15 minutes. _Average cost_, from 4d.
_Seasonable_ from April to July.
[Illustration: THE MACKEREL.]
THE MACKEREL.--This is not only one of the most
elegantly-formed, but one of the most beautifully-coloured
fishes, when taken out of the sea, that we have. Death, in some
degree, impairs the vivid splendour of its colours; but it does
not entirely obliterate them. It visits the shores of Great
Britain in countless shoals, appearing about March, off the
Land's End; in the bays of Devonshire, about April; off Brighton
in the beginning of May; and on the coast of Suffolk about the
beginning of June. In the Orkneys they are seen till August; but
the greatest fishery is on the west coasts of England.
TO CHOOSE MACKEREL.--In choosing this fish, purchasers should, to a
great extent, be regulated by the brightness of its appearance. If it
have a transparent, silvery hue, the flesh is good; but if it be red
about the head, it is stale.
FILLETS OF MACKEREL.