The Epicure's Almanac or Diary of Good Living
April 22nd : BROILED MACKEREL
There is a senseless jingle extant, that
“A leg of mutton boil'd,
Is a leg of mutton spoil’d."
However inapplicable the rhyme may be to mutton, it is strictly true as regards mackerel. Nothing can be more woolly, flat, and tasteless than boiled mackerel; as a proof of the absence of all flavour, that most hor rid abomination fennel sauce is served with it. Now a good-sized fish, with a hard roe, split, broiled, rubbed over with fresh butter, and eaten with Reading sauce,
Cayenne, and salt, is by no means unsavoury ; and I feel certain when once this mode of dressing has been tried,the usual method will be entirely superseded.