I recently had six fresh mackerel fillets left after making lemon and mackerel pâté. so I tried my luck with a bit of salt curing. so using a small stainless steel gastronorm tray with a thick layer of grey sea salt I packed and layered the fillets skin side down, rubbed a ground black pepper and smoked paprika and salt mix in to the flesh and topped with rounds of lime to cover and repeated with the matching fillet and placed flesh side down on top of the lime on the other fillet and covered in and packed in more sea salt. I repeated this twice more. After making sure the fish was fully covered in the salt I cling filmed and placed in the recesses of the walk in. Some 60 hrs later I found the time after service to delve in and see what I would find. having never attempted this before and being a self taught chef, I was excited to find that my first attempt was a kind of success. After removing the lime, brushing off as much salt as I could, I sliced off a sliver and tasted. Although I love the strong taste of makeral, I was not disappointed to find the mackeral had become lighter in flavour, firmer in texture yet smoother resembling cured salmon. Really tasty on some Melba toast I found tubbed up. The lime had added the essential acidity to balance the salt and the black pepper added the extra depth. When I said kind of success, I would add a herbal note next time, maybe rosemary, lemon thyme or refreshing flat leaf parsley.