Recommendations
Mackerel rillettes with Old Duff 100% Moutwijn Jenever
On the dish is a rillettes of smoked mackerel with browned butter, chives, capers and lemon, with toast alongside. Set against that is a jenever of one hundred percent malt wine at 45%, unaged and grain-sweet, which takes away the smoke fat of the mackerel in one sip.
From the shelf
The bottle
Old Duff 100% Moutwijn Jenever is distilled at Herman Jansen Beverages on Zijlstraat 6 in Schiedam, a house that dates back to 1777. It is a jenever of 45% vol in a 70 cl bottle, made from one hundred percent malt wine and not aged in wood. So there is no neutral grain alcohol in it: malt wine is an unaged grain distillate from three- or four-fold pot distillation, and in this bottle it forms the entire base. That is well above the legal requirement of at least 1.5% alcohol from malt wine and 30% vol for the designation jenever.
The combination
Why this works together
Smoked mackerel is an oily fish, and in these rillettes another hundred grams of browned butter is added; that is so much fat that a light drink has nothing to set against it. Pure malt wine at 45% can, and does so in two ways at once. The alcohol dissolves the fat, so the next toast starts clean again, and the grain sweetness of unaged malt wine goes along with the nutty, almost caramel side of beurre noisette. That last point is the real connection: browned butter and freshly distilled malt wine share the same toasted grain note. The capers and the lemon juice bring salt and acidity, and because this jenever has not been in wood it stays dry and does not sweeten that acidity. The umami from the smoked fish thus gets an equally savoury counterpart from the grain.
At the table
The dish
- For 4 people
- Ready in 10 minutes of preparation and 30 minutes of chilling
- Type drinks snack
What you need
- 150 g smoked mackerel fillet
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 5 g fresh chives
- 1 tablespoon pickled capers
- half an organic lemon
- freshly ground pepper
- toast or ciabatta to serve with it
How to make it
- Remove the skin and bones from the mackerel and mash the fish flesh finely with a fork in a bowl.
- Heat the butter in a saucepan until golden brown and starting to smell nutty. At that moment pour the butter straight over the mackerel and mix everything well.
- Snip the chives finely and stir them with the capers through the mackerel.
- Grate the yellow zest of the lemon and squeeze out the fruit. Add the zest and the juice in small amounts, starting with 1 teaspoon, and season with pepper.
- Put the rillettes in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm and serve with toast or ciabatta.
In the glass
Serving
Pour Old Duff 100% Moutwijn Jenever at room temperature into a tulip glass, filled to the brim. With a bottle made entirely of malt wine, chilling is a waste: chilled, of the 45% you mainly keep the alcohol and lose the grain note. A small glass is enough; better to top up twice than to fill one glass too full.
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