Description
Ingredients: Mackerel fillets 60%, marinade (water, alcohol vinegar, white wine vinegar (sulphites), Muscadet white wine (sulphites) 3%, natural flavor), aromatics 7% (lemon, onion, carrot, pickle, pepper) , salt.
Les Mouettes d’Arvor Mackerel in Muscadet Wine & Herbs
$9.00
Often translated as Mackerel in Wine and Herbs, which we feel rather misses the point. While that is not completely incorrect, it doesn’t tell the real story. These are mackerel fillets in white wine vinegar, Muscadet white wine, and aromatics–or, to put it another way, in Court-bouillon. A classically French preparation for fine seafood. While this can certainly be eaten straight from the tin, we recommend warming them slightly and having some plan for the broth (if you need suggestions, please ask).
174g tin
Pictured warmed with a salad dressed in mustard vinaigrette.
In stock
Reviews
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Beverly Mullineaux (verified owner) –
Since it is too warm to cook anything today, it seemed like the perfect time to try this. The flavor could best be described as bright. While I didn’t taste the muscadet, I think the bone dry wine played well with the lemon and produced a very refreshing broth. The fish itself had a lovely skin, and the carrots, onions, lemon, and pickles provided a colorful contrast. You could definitely taste the citrus flavor in the fish. I think the broth could make a nice salad dressing, and I wound up adding some of it to a glass of water. It would probably be good in vodka, but it’s too early in the day.
I would not eat this on a daily basis, but I will definitely keep it in my pantry. There are a few ideas I would like to try with it as a warm dish.
Michael Greenberg (verified owner) –
This tin is the first I had from Mouettes d’Arvor: back in January, just as part of a cheeseboard; this evening, tossed with some spaghetti and black pepper. I like their other stuff, but this remains far and away my favorite—one of my favorite mackerel offerings out there.
The most striking thing to me about this tin is how incredibly tender the fish is—room temp out of the tin, but also warmed and pretty vigorously tossed with pasta. Many species of mackerel end up tasting a bit dry unless they’re packed in oil, but these are just a perfect texture.
The “wine sauce with aromatics” is intensely floral and gently sharp—you can taste the vinegar from the marinade. Vinegar is a normal part of court bouillon—it’s meant to hide “fishy” flavors—but it comes across noticeably her. It’s not unpleasant, but next time I’d add some butter or a good (but not too sharp) olive oil to temper the intensity. The wine + vinegar + citrus seems like it shouldn’t play well, but everyone cooperates to create a lovely bouquet.
The photo of the tin contents is on point, though both times my tin held far fewer aromatics than what’s in the photo, which is opulently be-pickled. The ingredients list includes “chilli”, but I could detect no heat of any kind.
josephraa (verified owner) –
Wow this is quite a tin for lemon lovers! Unfortunately, I don’t like lemon with my fish. 🙁
Seriously, this is the most lemon-forward tin I’ve ever had; even more lemony than ones that say “in olive oil with lemon”. I couldn’t taste anything but lemon in the broth or in the fish. The mackerel itself actually seemed like it would have been pretty good otherwise; good texture and not dry, but the lemon flavor really soaked into it. I’m glad I had a taste before choosing how to prepare the tin, because I really was not prepared for all that lemon and it’s not at all what I expected. I ended up trying to mask it in a dish with tons of reaper/ghost pepper flakes (Flatiron Smoke Show blend) and hot sauce (Torchbearer Garlic Reaper). I paired it with chili flavor Maruchan ramen.
Poured the liquid into a pot with some water (just enough to cover the noodle brick) and boiled the noodle brick in that while also poaching an egg in it. Then pulled the noodles and egg out and mixed with the chili flavor packet with a tiny bit of the liquid; this actually tasted alright at this point before adding the fish or any of the extra heat. But the whole point was to eat the fish, so I warmed those up in the remaining liquid and then strained and added to the bowl along with all the extra hot stuff and mixed it up. Finally topped with some chopped green onion. Unfortunately, the fish still just brought too much lemon to the dish for my liking even with all the heat.