North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I'm not a pelagic kind of guy, and in the past when I have stumbled across a maccy that wasn't able to be successfully released, it's ended up as bait, cat food or very occasionally cutlets grilled fresh on BBQ.

My neighbor knocked on the door this morning having returned from Dundee after an obviously successful mackerel hunt, and gifted me a bag of mackerel fillets.

For one reason or another, I can't get to chow down on these until Thursday at the earliest. I've generally followed the 'can't eat mackerel' after they've been frozen mantra - but to be honest, have never tried.

Q1/ Will the fillets come up OK if frozen tonight and eaten somewhere over the next few weeks ?

Q2/ Will they be OK to leave in the fridge 4 days before eating? (I often do this with Goldie/Barra fillets with no noticeable ill effect).

Q3/ How do people cook maccy fillets as opposed to cutlets?

Q4/ Should I just cut my losses and throw them in the freezer in my bag of crab bait (and deceitfully tell my neighbor how delicious they were )

OK Slug, first of all, the fillets can get a little bit mushy after being frozen, but not always...if they were well looked after before he handed them to you and your freezer is good and they freeze fast then they can be alright. I have done 2 main things with mackerel fillets as opposed to cutlets.....first up I smoked the fillets well with the skin on, then peeled the smoked meat off the skin and used that to make a nice pasta sauce....delicious, the rest of it I put in a bowl, added good quality olive oil, pepper, thinly sliced chilli, shredded basil and I caramelised some onion and garlic together in a pan, mixed it all in and had that on top of toast, on sandwich and on top of salt crackers with a beer....you get the idea...it was a winner. Second thing I did is skinned the fillets and used the meat to make thai fish cakes, it was fine...yum....any fish will do with these but the mackerel worked fine. Enjoy mate...don't waste em...oh yeah...I don't have a smoker I just used the webber with some wood chips in the bottom.

Cheers Jeno - Thai Fish cakes sound the go - or maybe a curry !!

For future reference. Cutting their head off completely and dragging them backwards behind the boat for 10-15 mins a side to bleed thouroughly and remove the slime improves the eating quality 10 fold. I love macky, especially smoked.

P.s fillets are the only way to go.

slug wrote:I'm not a pelagic kind of guy, and in the past when I have stumbled across a maccy that wasn't able to be successfully released, it's ended up as bait, cat food or very occasionally cutlets grilled fresh on BBQ.

My neighbor knocked on the door this morning having returned from Dundee after an obviously successful mackerel hunt, and gifted me a bag of mackerel fillets.

For one reason or another, I can't get to chow down on these until Thursday at the earliest. I've generally followed the 'can't eat mackerel' after they've been frozen mantra - but to be honest, have never tried.

Q1/ Will the fillets come up OK if frozen tonight and eaten somewhere over the next few weeks ?

Q2/ Will they be OK to leave in the fridge 4 days before eating? (I often do this with Goldie/Barra fillets with no noticeable ill effect).

Q3/ How do people cook maccy fillets as opposed to cutlets?

Q4/ Should I just cut my losses and throw them in the freezer in my bag of crab bait (and deceitfully tell my neighbor how delicious they were )

Very easy
Q1 absolutely. make sure it has been skinned trim any loose ends and scraggy stuf off, no liquid on it and freeze in big chunks or blocks not cut into bits say 6cmx25cmx full depth.
Q2 they will be better than the day caught for a few days as long as they were looked after in the boat 4 days no problem. Make sure there is no water or juice in the container in the fridge and cover with a damp cloth or paper towel not glad wrap or the container lid.
A3 thaw the big chunks out and cut across them to say 10mm to 15 mm thick and egg and bread crumbs shallow fry very simple.
Q4 pfft give em a go its the skinning is the challenge I was spoiled my wife used to do that bit with spanyards. They also eat very well as shashimi day one and two.

rumluck wrote:For future reference. Cutting their head off completely and dragging them backwards behind the boat for 10-15 mins a side to bleed thouroughly and remove the slime improves the eating quality 10 fold. I love macky, especially smoked.

And I thought I had heard it all. How do you do this one side at a time if you dragging in the water or is this behind the boat on trailer on the way home.

They are good Jewie bait................. Just don't ask me what you should do with the Jewies.
Other than that sashimi is a good option

I've eaten frozen mackie as fried crumbed nuggets and it was great.

Leave skin on and salt it and then on a hot pan skin side down. Crispy skin like salmon

AM wrote:

rumluck wrote:For future reference. Cutting their head off completely and dragging them backwards behind the boat for 10-15 mins a side to bleed thouroughly and remove the slime improves the eating quality 10 fold. I love macky, especially smoked.

And I thought I had heard it all. How do you do this one side at a time if you dragging in the water or is this behind the boat on trailer on the way home.

Haha. At trolling speed and most often, in the water! I said each side because when tail roped and dragging backwards they'll plane on their side. You'll see the difference in the color of the skin where the slime is gone.

slug wrote:Cheers Jeno - Thai Fish cakes sound the go - or maybe a curry !!

I find if doing a curry then cutlets are definitely better.....mackerel fillet may....MAY....fall apart which is not what you want in a fish curry! For my fish curry I usually use tuna or Mackie cutlets, I season the cutlet with flour, salt pepper and brown them quickly in a hot pan with a bit of oil, then remove. Then I do the curry sauce and get until I am 100 % happy with the flavour, then I place the cutlets into the sauce and simmer until the fish is cooked through, usually I am spooning sauce over the top of the fillets through this process.....when its done...good to go...and the fish is firm and not falling apart....delisheouso

Spanish mack fillets are always welcome in my freezer, great firm flesh which is great in Thai curries, fish cakes or just pan fried or battered, it's very versatile.
My tips for fillets as follows.
1: get them bone dry before pack
2: cut them in full height sections no longer than your filleting knife (more on why shortly)
3: vac pack them only

now the reason I take a whole fillet and split vertically now is something I saw on a charter boat when we had fresh Wahoo for lunch, I used to half the fillet long ways then try and skin it with some success lets be honest you can waste a little with a Mack if of decent size. Anyway take your now full height fillet and lay it skin down now you'll see the split in the meat along the backbone and we all want to avoid the dark red poop by the skin so you take your knife, cut down the spilt to one side of the fillet, look at it side on and you'll see what I mean then make the turn to run parallel to the fillet and skin the rest and repeat for the upper section of the fillet. the skin, bones and poop bits stay in one piece perfect for the crab pots and you get 2 thick pieces of fish now to cook. I then take this tear drop shape and cut it into 2cm slices and use that in the methods described above.