A watercolour of a pan of crisped potato hash with flakes of dark mackerel and slices of green gherkin
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from Scandinavian and Scottish fish hashes

Mackerel and potato hash

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 6 months, set by Vegetable oil (sunflower or rapeseed).

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
3
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.1 L
Active
15 min
Total
22 min

Ingredients

Same rule as every hash on this site: press it flat and leave it alone. The crust is the dish and stirring destroys it.

Dry both the potatoes and the fish properly first. Two wet ingredients in one pan is how you get grey mush.

  1. Drain and dry the potatoes. Drain the mackerel, keeping a spoonful of its oil.
  2. Oil hot, dried onion two minutes.
  3. Potatoes crushed in roughly. Press flat. Four minutes untouched.
  4. Turn in big pieces. Another three minutes flat.
  5. Mackerel flaked in with the mustard and its reserved oil. Two minutes, barely stirred: it is already cooked and will fall apart if worked.
  6. Malt vinegar and pepper off the heat. Sliced gherkins over.

The mustard and the vinegar are both cutting the oiliness of the mackerel. Skip them and it is a heavy plate.

Serves 3.

What this was adapted from

Scandinavian and Scottish fish hashes: cooked fish crisped with potato

  • fresh hot-smoked fish and boiled potatoes → tinned mackerel and tinned potatoes

    Both components of the original are already cooked, which is precisely what tins give you. The tinned versions are softer and wetter, so both need drying hard before they meet the pan or the hash steams instead of crisping.