Gerookte Makreel (Smoked Mackerel)

Mackerel is a fish in a hurry — fast-swimming, fast-spoiling, and richly oily — and smoking is the old answer to all three. Gerookte makreel takes a fish that must be eaten quickly fresh and turns it into something firm, golden, and keeping, its abundant fat transformed by gentle heat and woodsmoke into deep, savoury richness. On buttered rye with a squeeze of lemon, it is one of the great simple pleasures of the North Sea coast.

A fish worth smoking

The waters off the Netherlands have always yielded mackerel in summer, arriving in shoals that gorge and grow fat, and their oiliness makes them ideal for the smokehouse. Where lean fish can turn dry and papery under smoke, mackerel stays lush — the very quality that makes it hard to keep fresh is what makes it superb smoked. The coastal smokers who worked herring and eel took mackerel too, and the burnished whole fish became a fixture of the fishmonger's counter.

Brine, dry, smoke

Three unhurried steps make the difference. The brine seasons and firms the flesh; a spell of air-drying builds the tacky pellicle that smoke needs to grip; and then a low, clean smoke at around 80°C cooks the fish through while lacquering the skin to bronze. Rush any of them and you get pale, patchy, or bitter results.

Good smoked mackerel should be glossy outside and juicy within, tasting of woodsmoke over the fish, not the other way round.

Because mackerel is so oily, it forgives a little extra time on the smoke, but it is best pulled while the flesh still glistens. Eat it plainly on dark rye, or whip the flaked flesh with crème fraîche and lemon into a pâté — either way, keep the treatment as honest as the fish.