A fishy story

I thought about Finnan haddocks last November, and thought about them again a couple of weeks ago. I failed to find the original of the picture that came with reference 1, but Google did turn up the one above from reference 2, rather nearer to the real thing.

One thought led to another and I found myself at the Fish Society, who offered a fine picture of a smoked haddock and offered to sell me two large ones for about £20 each, including postage. A bit strong but I thought we could give it a go.

Turned up on the advertised day, with the fish wrapped up in a slightly more serious version of the packaging used by the people at Neal's Yard Dairy. Plus a 'Beryl' cup from our large collection of such stuff, although not quite as large as it used to be. Utility crockery, once used in schools and hospitals across the land, it has served us well. No complicated patterns to tire of.

A little disappointed to find that our haddocks came trimmed, folded and frozen. In my innocence, I thought that the whole point of smoking fish was to preserve it, and that freezing should not be necessary. In any event, not much like either the picture on the supplier's web site or the snap above - at least not at this stage.

BH decided, quite rightly as it turned out, that one fish was enough for two. So one popped in the freezer and one thawed out against the next day. By which time it was looking much more like a fish, even if it had been trimmed - rather spoiling the appearance to my mind.

BH was elected chef for the day, and she elected to add a bit of milk to the mix. Cooked the fish, which weighed in at just over a pound, seen here turned out of the fish kettle, for around 10 minutes.

I didn't do a very neat job of taking the bone out, but my half looked well enough on the plate. Very good it was too, best smoked haddock that we have had for a while, prejudices about trimming and freezing notwithstanding. And the milk seemed to have drawn just about the right amount of salt, leaving a delicately flavoured haddock. And the half fish was plenty for one.

Wound up proceedings with a spot of rhubarb crumble. Rather an odd time for rhubarb and rather pink for my taste - I prefer the older, thicker and greener stalks - but it went down very well just the same.

The second haddock followed just about a week later. Same treatment and same result. Plus I did a better job on carving on this second occasion. Probably not another rhubarb crumble but neither BH nor I can presently call to mind what we did have.

So verdict, a bit pricey but very good. I expect we will have another go at some point. They also do smokies, which I rather like, snapped above. I suppose they will be trimmed and frozen too. A shame that the few times that I passed through Arbroath, on the way to important business in Aberdeen, were before I had heard of smokies. On the other hand, I did see the largest herring gull I have ever seen at the fish dock at Aberdeen. Possibly no longer there.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/11/fish-soup.html.

Reference 2: http://fishonfriday.org.uk/. A trade association rather than a shop. Founded by Fishmongers’ Company, one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of London. No idea what livery companies have to do with the real world these days.

Reference 3: https://www.thefishsociety.co.uk/. This one is a shop, based in Guildford, although the haddock came from Grimsby.

Reference 4: https://theupperscale.co.uk/. Another shop, this one based in Billingsgate, which a correspondent tells me provides a similar service to the Fish Society. But, sadly, no Finnan haddocks.