The changes in the proximate compositions, lipid classes, and fatty acids of muscle and dripped lipids, and the amino acid compositions and mineral content were studied in Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus niphonius muscle cooked using a frying pan, oven, and microwave oven. The moisture content was high in the raw sample (65.7%) and decreased with cooking, decreasing the most with frying pan method (54.5%). Conversely, the protein, lipid and ash contents increased significantly with cooking (P<0.05). The dripped lipid content from the cooked muscles was the highest with the frying pan sample (0.81%) and was approximately half this level in the oven (0.46%) and microwave oven (0.34%) samples. The percentage of non-polar lipid (NL) in the total lipid content exceeded 95% for the muscle lipids (13.9-17.6 g/100 g sample) and 99% for the dripped lipids (0.34-0.81 g/100 g sample). The prominent fatty acids were 18:1n-9, 16:0, 22:6n-3, 16:1n-7, and 20:5n-3 in the muscle and dripped lipids. The frying pan muscle lipid contained high levels of saturates and monoenes such as 16:0, 18:0, and 18:1n-9, and low levels of polyenes compared with other muscle lipids. The fatty acid compositions of the dripped lipids were similar with all three cooking methods. The prominent total amino acids in Spanish mackerel muscle were glutamic acid, aspartic acid, lysine, leucine, and arginine, and their proportions were similar (45.49-45.82%) in all samples. The potassium and phosphorous contents increased significantly with cooking (P<0.05), and while no heavy metals were detected in any sample. These results indicate that the change in nutritional components, especially the lipid content, was lower with the microwave oven and oven methods compared with the frying pan method.