Seafood
Smoked Out! This ancient way of preserving fish has survived decades and is being given a new lease of life. Rosalind Erskine discovers the history of smoking seafood in Scotland. Smoked salmon is now a staple of brunch dishes and decadent hotel breakfasts, but this dish, which has become synonymous with Scotland, has been around since the 11th century, as this is the time period when we can trace smoking fish back to. We’ve got the Vikings to thank for our smoking practices, as it’s believed that they introduced smoking as a way of preserving fish to Scotland. There are two main methods of smoking fish - the more traditional involves fish being suspended in purpose-built smokehouses over slowly smouldering wood shavings, and left for a long period of time, often overnight, to be naturally infused with smoke. A more mechanised method involves the generation of smoke via specialist condensers, where the flow of smoke in mechanical kilns is computer controlled and the fish generally spend less time than in a traditional kiln. Fish and seafood can also be smoked on a lower key level using commercially available smaller smokers designed for domestic use, or even by the construction of rudimentary smokers using old tin boxes and wood shavings. There are two principle smoking processes utilised for fish and seafood; cold smoking, which is probably the most commonly used smoking method, where the smoke used gently infuses the fish with flavour without actually cooking it. The other method is hot smoking where the smoke is hot enough to actually cook the fish as well as flavouring it. Salmon is probably the most popular fish species to be smoked in the UK. Farmed salmon is excellent for smoking due to its higher and more consistent oil content than wild fish. Whole skin-on salmon fillets are cured with a mixture of salt and sugar, and often some spices, over a set time, then washed and rested for at least 24 hours; before then being smoked for a number of hours, usually using hardwoods such as oak or beech.
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