ARBROATH SMOKIES I Arbroath, Angus, Scotland

Holy smokies, hot off the hook

It’s not a kipper. It’s a hot smoked haddock. Made a little hotter by Rick Stein when he called them ‘a world class delicacy’.

Despite the ‘Arbroath’ tag, they originally came from Auchmithie, a pretty Scottish fishing hamlet three miles up the road. The hamlet originally had no harbour so the sturdy fishwives carried their beaus to their boats so they wouldn’t have wet feet while fishing all day. If that isn’t a fishy tale it’s pretty incredible. The women must have tired of this situation because in 1799 Arbroath council offered families from the hamlet a space in town. Those councillors loved a Smokie.

Arbroath, population 23,000, is a workaday unfussy fishing town that doesn’t quite make it to pretty. Presumably this is what Cornwall would have felt like before the tourist hordes. Its upgraded from the smell of fish to that wonderful whiff of smoke from the various smokehouses dotted around the harbour. Nowadays you imagine some unhappy person might complain. Aside from the Smokies it’s all superb fish n chips and ice cream, largely from third generation Italian immigrants, as is the way on Scotland’s east coast.

Pride of plaice on the harbour goes to M&M Spink’s building. One side is a terraced house, the other, through the alley, is a whole world of smoked haddock that looks out over the fishing fleet. It’s probably a bigger operation than it appears but you can see the origins of fish smoking; local people preserving the glut of a big catch. This connection between food and place reminds The Coracle of Italy and Arbroath Smokies now have EU protected geographical status alongside all your parma hams and Urbino truffles. The Coracle met Michelle, originally from the Czech Republic, who spoke with pride when describing how she uses traditional processes. Sadly, due to our changing environment, the haddock currently comes off boats from further ashore but Spinks also smoke locally caught salmon, trout, mackerel and much else.

The haddock are gutted, beheaded, salted for two hours, dried for five and then tied in pairs with hemp twine to be smoked for 45 minutes over oak or beech wood. It’s a hot and humid fire. Originally those Auchmithie fishwives used a barrel covered with wet jute sacks. The cooking time varies and this is the art of the smoker. The outside of the finished article is dry but the inside should be delicate and moist with that lingering smokey tang to remind you of your holidays. There’s a sliding scale of smoking for flavour versus cooking. Classic smoked salmon is cold smoked but cured, kippers are cold smoked but uncured so need cooking. Smokies are hot smoked so you can eat them cold but they are at their most joyous hot off the barrel, maybe with an oatcake, ideally in Arbroath.