ArdglassCo. Down

Co. Down · Since 1986

Cold-smoked salmon, the same way for forty years.

N 54.26° · W 5.61° · 06:14, Dawn

Order direct Inside the smokehouse

The salmon goes in on day one.

Comes out on day three.

The same way it has, for forty years.

Chapter 01 · The Salmon

Cold-smoked. Never cooked.

Cold-smoking does not cook the fish. The smoke is held below 28°C for three days. The salmon firms slowly. The flesh takes on the colour of the oak shavings and a depth of flavour that no shortcut produces. Hot-smoking is a different process; we do not do it.

We use Scottish-farmed salmon from one supplier we have worked with for nineteen years. The fish arrives whole, on ice, the morning of day one. It is dry-cured by hand in coarse sea salt and Demerara sugar, rested overnight, and hung in the kiln on the morning of day two over oak shavings, never wood chips.

The result is what you would expect from any small smokehouse that has not changed its method to suit a supermarket: a side of salmon you can taste the smoke in. Sliced thinly with a long blade. Packed in greaseproof paper, then a wooden box.

Macro detail of cold-smoked salmon flesh, translucent amber slices, the surface lacquered by smoke, knife marks visible across the cut
Plate 03 · Side, 36 hours into cure

Chapter 02 · The Method

Three days over oak.

Cure on day one. Smoke on day two. Rest on day three. The kiln has been working since 1986; the principle has not changed.

  1. Day · 01

    01

    Cure

    Whole sides are washed and dried, then laid in shallow trays of coarse sea salt and Demerara sugar. They rest in the curing room overnight at 4°C. The cure draws moisture and seasons the flesh.

  2. Day · 02

    02

    Smoke

    Sides are rinsed, patted, and hung in the kiln on stainless hooks. Oak shavings smoulder below at a controlled temperature. The smoke rises slowly through the rack for fourteen hours.

  3. Day · 03

    03

    Rest

    The smoked sides come down and rest on wire racks in the cool room. Slicing happens by hand on day three or day four, against the grain, on the long Sheffield blade.

Single side of salmon hanging in the smoking kiln, fourteen hours in, oak smoke visible against the dark interior, deep amber light catching the flesh
Plate 04 · Hour 14 in the kiln, Day 02

The kiln does the work the cure and the slicer book-end. We do not rush it. We have not rushed it for forty years.

Chapter 03 · The Smoker

Forty years at the same kiln. The smoke knows me, and that is more useful than any thermometer.
Patrick McKenna · Master Smoker · Ardglass since 1986
Patrick McKenna · 03:42 · Kiln doorway
Ardglass harbour at golden hour, stone pier, working trawlers tied up at low tide, soft dusk light over the County Down coast

Chapter 04 · The Place

A working harbour. Not a fishing village.

Ardglass is a working harbour on the County Down coast. The sea here is cold and persistent. The weather is the weather. Boats land scallops and crab in the morning and the wind picks up by afternoon. The smokehouse sits two hundred yards from the pier.

There is no visitor centre. No tasting room. There is the kiln, the cool room, the slicing bench, and the wrapping table. We open the door if you knock during the working week.

Latitude N 54.2599° Longitude W 5.6076° Bearing Quay Lane, Ardglass, BT30 7SB

Chapter 05 · The Range

Four sides, sent direct.

Hand-sliced, hand-packed, posted with overnight tracking. Limited daily run; some weeks we sell out by Wednesday.

A short letter, when there is something to say.

A four-or-five-times-a-year note from the smokehouse. New batch dates, harbour weather, the occasional recipe from the slicing bench. No marketing. Unsubscribe in one click.