Recipes / Fish
Braaied whole mackerel
Whole mackerel slashed, stuffed with lemon and parsley, oiled and cooked in a hinged grid over hot coals for crisp skin and moist flesh.
- Prep
- 10 min
- On the fire
- 12 min
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Rinse the fish and pat it very dry inside and out.
- Cut three shallow slashes on each side, down to the bone but not through it.
- Push 1 or 2 lemon slices and a parsley sprig into each belly.
- Brush the fish all over with the oil and season with the salt and pepper, rubbing some into the slashes.
- Oil a hinged grid well and close it over the fish.
- Braai over hot coals for 4 to 6 minutes a side, depending on thickness, until the skin is blistered and crisp.
- Serve straight away with lemon wedges.
Done when: the flesh at the thickest part near the bone is opaque and lifts away easily, and a thermometer there reads 63°C (145°F).
Tips
- Mackerel is oily, so it can take strong heat without drying out. Do not move it to low coals.
- Ask the fishmonger to gut the fish. Fresh mackerel has bright eyes, red gills and a clean sea smell.
- Sardines and small harders cook the same way in about half the time.
Mackerel is a cheap, oily fish that stands up to the direct heat of a braai better than most white fish. Cooking it whole on the bone keeps it moist, and the slashes let the heat and seasoning in. Our tips on braaiing fish explain how to keep the skin from sticking.
Source
Adapted from Barbecued Mackerel at Saltscapes and Simple Whole Barbecued Mackerel at Greendale.