How to buy smoked foods

Curing and smoking is all about achieving a balance between sugar, salt and smoke. The well-smoked fish should have a gentle, subtle hue with a bright surface, firm texture, rich succulence and a gentle smoky aroma.

The virtues of wild versus farmed salmon are constantly debated. Whilst the best wild smoked salmon, such as Forman’s definitive London cure, is lean yet rich in flavour and slips down an absolute treat with its yielding texture and exceptionally delicate, gamey, buttery flavour, a farmed salmon will smoke poorly, can run unpleasantly to fat and leach oil even after smoking.

Other fish besides salmon can lend themselves perfectly to smoking: Forman’s has recently extended its range to include marlin, shark, tuna, halibut and sturgeon. Minola smokes delicacies such as oysters and scallops, which make for a perfect, fridge stand-by for impressive last-minute entertaining. Hawkshead in the Lake District have pioneered an organic ‘Lake trout’ of impeccable, ultra-fresh, evocative, almost peaty taste. It is available in organic specialist stores, such as Fresh & Wild. My personal preference is the under-rated, yet richly succulent smoked eel, which makes a perfect easy indulgent supper dish or decadent weekend breakfast with scrambled eggs.

Smoked meat
Meats are receiving distinctive smoke treatments too. At Rannoch smokery, Leo Barclay smokes free-range venison from his own estate. After being hung for about a week to develop its mild yet distinctive gaminess, it is tenderised and brined in muscovado sugar, salt and ‘three secret ingredients’ with a mechanised vacuum massager to preserve the meat. It is then cold-smoked with chips of old oak whisky casks bought from a local Scottish cooperage to impart a real depth of flavour. Some of his hand-sliced venison is packed in flavoursome marinades of olive oil, herbs or wild mushrooms. He also hot-smokes whole grouse, pheasant, chicken and duck breasts.

Byrom House, established by BBC Masterchef finalist Rebekah Jones two years ago, is probably the only UK smokehouse producing cold smoked beef which is cured in a tantalising concoction of sea salt, mustard seeds, chilli, coriander, ginger, pepper and bay, and makes a striking starter, sandwich or unusual brunch dish with Byrom smoked eggs.

Society smoking
Chefs are increasingly smoking their own ingredients, too: Michael Gresslin, of the eponymous Hampstead restaurant (Gresslins), serves his own tea-smoked duck breast and tea-smoked tofu in open ravioli with braised Swiss chard; whilst Stephen Whitney of The Crescent, Marble Arch, serves newly modish suckling pig which he smokes over oak chippings before roasting it and serving with calvados and seasonal vegetable purees. Good kitchenware specialist shops now even sell small-scale home smokers for the truly dedicated smoker. Smoked turkey leftovers anyone?

Stockists
Forman’s, tel: 020 8985 0378; www.formans. co.uk
Minola smoked products are available by mailorder 01873 736900 and are stocked at Selfridge’s Food Hall (London and Leeds)
Hawkshead organic trout is available at branches of Fresh & Wild (tel: 020 7229 1063) and good organic delis nationwide
Rannoch Smokery, tel: 01882 632344
Byrom House, tel: 01536 4117361/ www.thesmokehouse.org
Divertimenti, tel: 020 7581 8065 www.divertimenti.co.uk
Gresslin’s, 102 Heath St. Hampstead NW3, tel: 020 7794 8386
The Crescent, Great Cumberland Place, London W1, tel: 020 7802 4288