1,421 easy and fully explained recipes, with 33,930 photos and 78 videos

Mackerel rillettes

This recipe for mackerel rillettes (or potted mackerel) starts with poaching the fish. The flesh is then taken off the bones and forked into a seasoned mixture of butter, mustard, cream and lemon juice.

In France this is traditionally eaten as an aperitif snack, served on small slices of toast.

43K 5 3

Last modified on: June 19^th 2019

Keywords for this recipe:

For 900 g, you will need:

1 6 mackerel
2 3 tablespoons coarse salt
3 210 g butter
4 6 tablespoons cream
5 3 tablespoons French mustard
6 6 tablespoons lemon juice
7 parsley
8 salt
9 pepper
10 chive flowers (optional)
Total weight: 2,580 grams

Change these quantities to make: 100 g 150 g 300 g 600 g 900 g

Change measures: Metric

Metric weight Metric volumes

How long does it take?

Time required for this recipe:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
40 min.	20 min.	1 hour

At what time:

When will I finish if I start the recipe at ... ?
When should I start for the recipe to be ready at ... ?
Work this out...

Step by step recipe

Stage 1

Ask your fishmonger to prepare 6 mackerel for you: cleaned and the head cut off.

Stage 2 - 3 min.

Rinse thoroughly under cold running water, then put in a large pan of cold water with 3 tablespoons coarse salt.

Stage 3 - 20 min.

Put on low heat and poach gently at a simmer for about 10 minutes.

Ideally, check the temperature of the fish flesh with an electronic thermometer. It will be cooked once the centre of the thickest part reaches 122°F (50°C).

Stage 4 - 30 min.

Remove the mackerel from the poaching water and leave to cool, then take all the flesh off the bones and discard the rest (skin, bones, etc.).

Unfortunately, there's no getting away from it: this is a long and tedious job.

Put all the boned flesh into a bowl.

Stage 5 - 5 min.

Add 210 g butter, 6 tablespoons cream, 3 tablespoons French mustard, 6 tablespoons lemon juice, the finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper to the fish.

Stage 6 - 2 min.

Mix well with a fork.

Check the seasoning. Transfer into jars and leave overnight, at least, in the fridge.

Stage 7

When you want to serve your rilletes, toast some slices of bread (rounds of French baguette here).

Stage 8

Spread the rillettes generously on the toast and decorate, if you like, with a few chive flowers. Then enjoy!

Remarks

Do feel free to vary either the ingredients or the amounts in this recipe. The general spirit of it is: poached mackerel flesh, a little butter and/or cream, herbs and spices of your choice, plus a hint of acidity (normally lemon juice, but vingar or white wine will also work).

For a tastier version, poach the mackerel in a fish stock, rather than salted water.

Keeping

A few days in the fridge, in a sealed jar.

Source

Home made.

Nutritional information

Whole recipe
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
5,638 Kcal or 23,605 Kj	470 gr	25 gr	405 gr
282 %	181 %	2 %	61 %

Per 100 g
Energetic value	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats
219 Kcal or 917 Kj	18 gr	1 gr	16 gr
11 %	7 %	<1 %	2 %

% are calculated relative to a Recommended Dietary Intake or RDI of 2000 k-calories or 8400 k-joules by day for a woman (change to a man).

Possible allergens in this recipe: Fish, Milk, Mustard

How much will it cost?

For 900 g : 8.86 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

This recipe uses (among others)

	Butter: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Harvest Gratin, Provençal colombier for Pentecost, Salmon "en papillote" with small vegetables, Potimarron (Japanese chestnut pumpkin) purée, Canadian apple crumble, ... All
	Cream: You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Chicken and mushroom pie, Caesar salad, Rice à la grecque, Potimarron and Parmesan tart, Coconut-vanilla cream for Elsa , ... All
	Mackerel: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Mackerel Fillets in White Wine, ... All
	Lemon juice: You can check-out other recipes which use it, like for example: Brussels sprouts salad with smoked trout and Comté cheese, Macarons (the original French macaroons) , Crispy potato and mushroom brik rolls, Rémoulette dressing, Simple mushroom salad with thyme and lemon, 3 ways, ... All

Other recipes you may also like

Gingerbread

Maybe this recipe will bring back memories.
273K4.2 1 hour 4 min. February 21^th 2011

Candied grapefruit peel

Not really a dessert, more a kind of sweet. After soakiing, strips of grapefruit skin are cooked very slowly to conservethem in sugar. It's a real treat with coffee at the end of a meal.
356K 14 1 day 1 hour 21 min. December 20^th 2018

Bouquet garni

Used very frequently in French cuisine, a secret of French chefs, it adds flavour to a lot of recipes, and it's easy to prepare. The basic principle is to make a small bundle of herbs, bind them in green leek leaves and to tie it up, so that the whole thing can be removed and discarded easily after...
404K3.5 12 min. March 21^th 2017

Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée)

Sweetcrust pastry is one of the basic pastry of French patisserie, used in many tart and cakes recipes, but it can also be rolled out and cut into biscuits, delicious with tea or coffee. This recipe is given for those who have a mixer (Kenwood, KitchenAid or other), but it can also be done with your...
467K 24.4 33 min. July 1^st 2019

How to cook pasta properly

Here is some advice for pasta that's properly cooked and doesn't stick.
1.1M4.4 22 min. July 18^th 2019

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

Post your comment or question

Follow this recipe

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.