Pacific mackerel Japan is a common fish name found in Scombridae family which is a close relative of tuna fish. Aside Japanese pacific mackerel that also known as Japanese seerfish, they still other various types of mackerel including King Mackerel, Atlantic mackerel, cero mackerel, and Spanish mackerel. Japanese seerfish can grow up in length up to 100 cm with 10.57 maximum in weight. The Japanese mackerel is an important stock for East Asia fisheries with South Korea becomes the largest catches followed by Japan and Taiwan.

Pacific mackerel is very popular for canned product, fillets, steaks, and frozen. They tend to be cooked by grilling, frying, baking, and consumed raw for sushi or sashimi. Pacific mackerel Japan fish rich in nutrition such as protein and omega 3 fatty acids which make the fish becomes one of the most popular sea foods for protein and fatty acids sources.

Health benefits of Pacific mackerel Japan

You can find a lot of health benefits when eating Pacific mackerel Japan products thanks to the great abundant of protein, vitamins, minerals, and omega 3 fatty acids. Eating mackerel in moderate amount will affect your body health such as:

1.      The Fatty acids

Eating canned or fresh Pacific mackerel Japan surely gives a lot of healthy advantages, but the amount of consumption still need to be limited. This is because mackerel also bring mercury level that can be found in most of the ocean fish such as tuna and sardines as well. That’s why, do not or never consume too much mackerel each week to prevent over excess of mercury content in your body.

Mackerel whole round are great to be cooked alone or mixed with other ingredients to make one great delicious and healthy recipe. Mackerel can be purchased as canned fish product that easily to be found in grocery stores or better, you can buy fresh whole round mackerel instead which offer higher amount of nutrition without additional seasonings or preservation. You can also pick up a mackerel that serve as fillets, cutlets, or steaks that are boneless and easier to be prepared. Mackerel can be cooked by grilling, frying, smoked, or baking. One of the simplest ways to enjoy eating mackerel at whole is barbeque with easy preparation.

How to barbeque mackerel whole round fish?

Mackerel whole round are very great for barbequing; they will have delicious taste with robust flavor which suitable to the smokiness of BBQ. In addition, it takes easy preparation since you do not need to remove the bones of mackerel manually because you can just barbequing the whole fish and since mackerel fish is a fast cooked sea food, barbequing the fish with its bones help to slowing down the cooking time and thus prevent you to overcook. With that being said, overcooked mackerel will result in dry appearance so it will decrease the joy when eating this oily and succulent fish.

When barbequing a whole round mackerel, you will be able to tell whether the fish are cooked through by the color of fish eyes which turn into milky white while the flesh should be moist and flaky as well as the skin that are easily to be removed. When barbequing the mackerel, make sure that the grilling is clean and the fish is well oiled to prevent the fish sticking to the grill.

Before you cook the mackerel, you need to know how to pick the best mackerel whole round fish. Choosing the high quality mackerel which in good condition will ensure you to have great meal, learn how to pick the fresh whole round mackerel by following the tips below:

-          Check the eyes and pick mackerel with clear and bright eyes not sunken

-          The mackerel should have ocean-like smell

-          The fish feels a bit slippery with oily look and moist skin

-          The scales are attached firmly to the skin and should not be missing

-          The flesh feel firm as well and the tail is stiff

-          Bright red gills

-          The skin looks shiny with bright and natural coloring

If you are finding it hard to find a good fresh and raw whole round mackerel, then you can replace them with frozen mackerel which can be found at fish market or grocery stores. These are the instruction when choosing mackerel whole round frozen:

-          Check the package whether is there any damage

-          No sign of thawing and the fish should be frozen hard

-          No visible signs of dry, white, and dull patches or in other words freezer burn

When you purchase either fresh or frozen mackerel, you should use them as soon as possible to get the best condition. If you want to use them one day after then you need to keep and store them carefully to prevent spoilage. You can store the fish inside refrigerator but make sure that the temperature is between 0 to 5 degrees Celsius. Fresh fish should be used soon; however you can store them overnight only while frozen fish should be stored at -18 degrees Celsius or less. Please take a note that frozen fish should not be refrozen to keep the taste tasty.

Now, how you can make mackerel whole round barbeque?

·         Scale the mackerel and remove the gut/ internal organs. Clean the fish before you barbeque them and after that slash the flesh several times so the seasoning absorbed to the fish meats perfectly. You can drizzle and season the fish with marinade or olive oil.

·         Preheat the grill and place the fish on top of the barbeque directly or in barbecue fish basket.

·         Cook the mackerel about 3 to 5 minutes on each side and turning the fish just once during cooking. The mackerel are cooked when the flesh looks opaque and comes easily away from the bones.

Follow the steps above to cook and barbequing mackerel whole round fish and enjoying them with your family.

Mackerel South Africa type that easily to be found is probably cape horse mackerel or simply just horse mackerel. This is a small fish with maximum size of length reported to be up to 60 cm while common length that most fisherman caught is about 30 cm only. As one of the pelagic species, horse mackerel is very abundant in South Africa waters and Namibian. However, much of the catch is exported to other countries and the fish stock status is uncertain, while some of the experts saying that the status is still underfished.

Horse mackerel South Africa can be found swimming around in 300 m depth in ocean and their favorite area is mostly in continental shelf and sometimes can be seen over sandy bottoms. Now, mackerel is very popular as exported and imported sea food along with salmon, tuna, and sardines. Just like any other types of mackerel, South Africa horse mackerel is also great to be consumed as fresh, frozen, fillets, steaks, smoked, or canned fish products. But, just like any other fishes, fresh mackerel is the best thing and have more nutrition than the one which have been processed by factory production line.

How to clean mackerel South Africa?

If you happen can purchase mackerel South Africa fish either fresh or frozen, you need to clean them thoroughly before cooking. Find mackerel with good condition with clear and bright eyes and smell like the ocean while the texture is firm. After that, bring them to home and start to clean them using these steps below:

How to clean and filleting the mackerel South Africa in just one-step way?

Professional can cleaning and filleting the mackerel in the same time, of course this need some practice to be done successfully. If you never done this before, you can still practice it at home and beside practices makes perfect. Although the result maybe will make the fillets smaller in size, but it does not need too much time for both cleaning and filleting. Learn how to do it well below:

-          Using your fingertips, try to feel the belly and please take some note to where the firm muscle heads way to the softer belly cavity.

-          Grasp the head to secure the whole fish then cut downwards at the neck till the sharp knife reaches the fish spine.

-          Head the knife toward the fish tail in a sweeping plus smooth stroke.

-          Angle the blade around the mackerel’s belly thus it leaves the ribs behind plus avoid cut the fish belly cavity, if you do just simply trim it away with your knife carefully.

-          Now the rest thing that you should do is flip the mackerel and then repeat the process above. You can skin the fillets and get rid the blood line as well.

If you never work with mackerel South Africa cleaning process and you do not have too much time to clean the fish on your own, then just by some fillets or boneless mackerel which priced more but easier to be prepared. And for the warning, always use caution when working with sharp objects like the knife.

Mackerel scomber scombrus has other nickname if you curious, they called as Norwegian mackerel, Boston mackerel, and Scottish Mackerel. But of course people simply call it ‘mackerel’. It is a fish that love to swim in temperate water and mostly can be found in Mediterranean Sea, Northern Atlantic Ocean, and the Black Sea. During warm season, they like to appear on the surface or close to the shore and during colder season in the autumn and winter months, they will start to migrate into deeper southern water to seek warmer temperature. They will swim in large school when migrating from one point to another.

About mackerel scomber scombrus

Atlantic mackerel has elongate body just like most of mackerel species. It has wavy black lines marked the steel blue form and it has pointed long nose. The fish has two spiny dorsal, anal fins, two pectoral fins, and small caudal. Mackerel scomber scombrus can grow up to 30 cm for mature or adult fish, but some people have been caught mackerel scomber as large as 2 feet or 60 cm. Official maximum weights is 7.5 lb or 3.4 kg.

Atlantic mackerel scomber scombrus is a highly commercial fish and typically caught after for its delicious meats. It has very oily texture and the fish provides high quality omega 3 fatty acids oil. Almost one million tons of mackerel Atlantic has been caught every year worldwide. Large quantity of mackerel Atlantic fish sold as fresh, frozen, canned, and smoked. Although they have been caught in really large quantities, but the stocks remain sustainable and abundant.

Large school of Atlantic mackerel will break down into shoals when they want to feed on larger prey. When they consume plankton, the fish mouth will be opened as wide as they can and then they will swim in packed school to form net-like miniature group of fish. They will trap the plankton so they cannot escape and then capture with the mouth opened wide apart.

Mackerel scomber scombrus products

As a part of important commercial fish in the fishing industry, mackerel Atlantic like to be captured by fisheries using purse seine method as well as gill and trammel nets, trolling lines, and trawls. World annual catch is around one million tons and in 2014, it almost reaches 1.5 million tons. Countries that like to catch and contribute large amount of Atlantic mackerel are Norway and United Kingdom.

Mackerel scomber scombrus offers strong flavor with deep red meat color that attract many consumers. They are typically sold as fresh, frozen, smoked, canned, fillets, and steaks. The fish is extremely healthy because they offer pack of nutrients such as protein, omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, niacin, selenium, potassium, and many more. The nutrients content nearly twice compared with salmon. As for the mercury level, North Atlantic Mackerel is safer fish to be consumed unlike Spanish and King mackerel species because they offer lower mercury accumulation. Even according to United States Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, you can consume the fish at least two times per week with moderate amount of course.

In death, Atlantic mackerel remain a beautiful fish with nice appearance and when cooked, they offer delicious texture and taste to have. If you like, you can pan seared the mackerel Atlantic mackerel fish fillets. First, you can marinate the fillets with mixture of water, salt, and pepper. You can also add some oil and lemon juice and the let the fish sit for around 15 minutes. After that, you can pan seared the fish without oil until both of the sides turn golden brown. The smell will soon fill the room, it will offer oily aroma with juicy texture and tender meats. When the fish is done the skin will taste so crispy and you can flake the flesh with some pressure of fork.

If you want to buy frozen fillets mackerel, you should thaw the first before cooking it. Buy frozen fillets at grocery store and then store it to the refrigerator overnight to let it thaw. For quick thawing process, you can soak the frozen fish (still in the package) in cold water for few hours or rinse the frozen fish under cold running water. You can also grill the mackerel scomber scombrus fish with the same marinating process.

No fish can beat mackerel rigs when you want to catch larger predator fish like tuna or billfish. Mackerel can become dead bait when used to fishing and since there are lots of species of mackerel with different sizes, you can simply choose one out of them to attract larger fish. Mackerel species such as Spanish mackerel, sierra, cero, and Australian mackerel are some examples which can be used to make great baits. Of course the best of them all is the Spanish mackerel due to the availability. And it is not too hard to catch baby Spanish mackerel which the size very suitable to make excellent baits. Not to mention bluefin tuna really love to eat them a lot. Although you should limit yourself when catch and making baby Spanish mackerel as the baits otherwise you will cause a conflict with the federal fisheries officers and the state.

How to catch and prepare mackerel rigs

First you need to catch the Spanish mackerel fish to make good mackerel rigs. You need to spot large school of Spanish mackerel and then cast small spoons, nylons, plugs or feathers jigs to catch them. You need to choose bait that eye-catching with bright and shiny colors. Just go to the tackle shop and fyi, most tackle shops know where to find school of Spanish mackerel and thus you can ask them. Spanish mackerel fish is a fast swimmer, they will give strong fights with high speed movement and this is why they can make a great tackle game.

Alternatively, you can purchase frozen mackerel rigs from shops, but different stores/ shops offer different qualities. When you can find one shop that consistency supply high quality frozen mackerel for baits, then stay with them even if the price is slightly more expensive, but it is worth it.

When you catch your own mackerel, you need to store them quickly into a cooler full of crushed ice. Soon after you catch a mackerel, add baking soda, formalin solution, salt, and large bucket of seawater. Remove the guts and rinse the mackerel cavity when they are dead. Never leave the fish on the deck, the mackerel should stored into cool brine/ salt water as soon as possible. This can be done for frozen mackerel fish as well since you need to thaw mackerel fish in cool brine.

Finally, start rigging the mackerel fish

To catch larger fish, you need to have both angling and bait rigging skills. Spanish mackerel rigs offer easy and simple preparation if you know the basic principles how to rig it. Follow these guides to make a great mackerel rig with Spanish mackerel:

1.      Remove the eyeballs before you rigging the fish so the bait can swim better

2.      Make sure that you follow “bilateral symmetry” when rigging the fish, whether you rig the mackerel on the wire or cable, mono, or place the hook on top of the fish head or in the body cavity, it is all about symmetry.

3.      When rigging the baits, make sure that you can still be able to see the bait on the surface or in other words you need to make the mackerels stay in sight. To do that, you can pull the mackerel head using circle or J-hooks sewn on top of the fish head plus close to the nose tip.

4.      There are many ways to make the best mackerel rigs including:

That’s several steps you can follow when making good mackerel rigs, no matter what kind of rigs you want to have, mackerel fish will get the bite coming from your targeted larger fish. Spanish mackerel is the best choice of them all as the rigs.