Originally Posted by
TMOliver
A blast from the past...
I must have been 5, so set the date as late 1944 or early '45, Dad overseas. Some generous friend gave my mother a case of canned mackerel, back then a grocery store standard. The only edible creation therefrom (after several failures) was mashed with chopped onions and spread on Saltine crackers (which done with sardines helped me survive college).
Don't try it, but if in dire straits and educed to canned mackerel, it's better that way than in casseroles, patties or "loaf'.
....But then, even today, I'll go out of my way to find salt mackerel, to my breakfast palate having better flavor and appeal than kippers. It's been 50 years since they were a breakfast menu standard at San Antonio's Menger Hotel, served with boiled potatoes, truly the "Breakfast of Champions". Then there's smoked mullet, a specialty of the Florida Panhandle Coast, hard to find today, and not everyone's cup of tea.
I've had to deal with canned mackerel precisely once - I was on a sailing course, and the person who stocked the boat with 'supplies' was having a laugh. NOTHING went together! As I proved pretty useless at ropes, sails etc. my jobs were a) monioting the radar and depth guage (which others found baffling!), b) driving with the engine on (simples!) and c) all the cooking (that, and I suspect being a girl also may have played a part!) The only thing I could come up with to use the mackerel was a version of kedgeree, having both rice and eggs, as well as a tin of curry powder. I don't eat fish, but at the rate it vanished, and second helpings having been taken, I think it went down well!