$ · lifting and turning delicate fish fillets
Turn a fillet without it falling apart
Sliding beneath fillets and turning them with less tearing than a thick spatula.
OXO Good Grips Little Fish Turner
Jurel in English is Jack mackerel. It belongs to the Carangidae family; the names below show how the same fish is sold across international markets.
Also called
🇺🇸Jack mackerel🇬🇧Horse mackerel🇫🇷Chinchard🇵🇹Carapau🇮🇹Sugarello🇩🇪Stöcker
Jurel is the everyday oily fish of the Iberian Atlantic — cheap, abundant, and eaten far more often at home than in restaurants. In Portugal, as carapau, it is close to a national staple: grilled whole over charcoal with olive oil and vinegar, or fried small and eaten whole. Northern Spain and the Canaries call it chicharro. The flesh is darker and firmer than sardine, with a pronounced iron flavour and a line of tough scutes along the tail that should be trimmed before cooking. It is at its best grilled, escabechado, or canned. Despite the English name it is not a mackerel and not closely related to one: it belongs to Carangidae, alongside pompano and amberjack, and its firmer, drier flesh behaves differently in the pan. Chilean and Peruvian jurel is a different but closely related Trachurus species sold under the same name.
Names by country
| Country | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸United States | Jack mackerel | |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | Horse mackerel | Not a mackerel — a Carangidae, alongside pompano and amberjack |
| 🇦🇷Argentina | Jurel | The South American fishery is a closely related Trachurus species sold under the same name |
| 🇫🇷France | Chinchard | |
| 🇪🇸Spain | Jurelprimary | Chicharro in northern Spain and the Canaries |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | Carapau | A Portuguese staple — grilled whole over charcoal, or fried small and eaten whole |
| 🇮🇹Italy | Sugarello | |
| 🇩🇪Germany | Stöcker |
Culinary substitutes
Often confused with
Handling fish at home
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