You’ve heard of the BLT, now get ready for the MLT— that’s mackerel lettuce tomato, baby! Bacon is salt-cured and (sometimes) smoked pork, so what if we give mackerel that same treatment? You end up with a delightfully smoky, savory, intense flavor similar to the effect of bacon.
Tinned mackerel makes this recipe easy to pull together, no frying pan required. Tinned mackerel is already cooked and ready to eat straight from the can.
What tin of fish is best for this recipe?
This recipe was tested with Ocean’s Sweet Smoked Mackerel (buy it on Amazon), which contains mackerel, demerara sugar, salt, and sunflower oil. The fish is first cured in salt and sugar, then smoked over beechwood before getting packed with oil.
Since it is a cured product, it has a similarly intense salty and savory flavor like bacon. The texture is very firm and chewy, almost jerky-like. It’s best combined with other fresh ingredients to balance the salt and smoke. Fishwife Slow Smoked Mackerel is a similar product that would also be delicious here.
The oil doesn’t go to waste either! The fish infuses the oil with its flavor, transforming it into a vehicle for savory flavor. The lettuce gets dressed with a little of this infused oil and some vinegar for balance.
Want another fish sandwich? Have a different tin of mackerel? Check out this Mackerel Melt Recipe.
The sandwich layers
Mackerel Lettuce Tomato Sandwich (MLT)
Ingredients
- 4 slices bread of choice toasted
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise I used kewpie
- 4 slices heirloom tomato sub greenhouse or vine tomatoes in winter
- salt I used Maldon sea salt flakes
- 1 tin smoked mackerel in oil sub smoked salmon or herring
- 1/2 cup butter lettuce
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar sub white vinegar or champagne vinegar
Instructions
- Spread mayonnaise on each slice of toasted bread. Top 2 pieces of bread with 2 slices of tomato each, then season the tomatoes with a pinch of salt.
- Remove mackerel from the tin, reserving the oil. Flake the fish evenly over the tomato. In a bowl, combine 1 tsp of oil from the tin, 1 tsp white wine vinegar, and 1/2 cup butter lettuce. Toss to coat butter lettuce leaves.
- Top each sandwich with lettuce and remaining toasted bread. Best enjoyed immediately.
MEI! You popped off with this one. I added a smear of avocado on to one side of toasted sourdough, kewpie mayo & Dijon to the other side… & made it as instructed using Fishwife Slow Smoked Mackerel. This was one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in a long time and it’s definitely going into the weekly rotation. Wow.
Nat! Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. I’m taking notes, going to try adding avocado when I make this again.
not to be dramatic, but this is a revelatory sandwich.
i bought tins of fancy smoked mackerel as a christmas gift for my dad and and am wrapping them alongside a print out of this recipe.
thank you Mei!
Love to hear it! Such a thoughtful gift