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Finnan Haddie........does it ring a bell? .......The other day as I was reading Hawkslayers blog about mushy peas and mint sauce I am reminded of differing foods not only in other countries, as I grew fond of kippers and eggs, but right here in the good old USA. I am from Maine and we have many distinct foods that is seldom seen anywhere else. Needhams, Italians, whoopie pies, Moxie and fiddleheads to name a few. Many think that anything north of Boston must be Canada, and in fact the only way to get to Maine is through New Hampshire. unless of course you are in Canada. I recall a dish from my youth that I dearly enjoyed but you do not hear of let alone see anymore. It was called Finnan Haddie. So named after a small town in Scotland. It is actually smoked Haddock that is prepared in hot milk. Once the fish is done the milk is used for a cream sauce and the Haddock is chunked and returned to the sauce. Mom always served it with Mash and peas. Any leftover was consumed with the eggs at breakfast. Naturally the Cream sauce was spiced up to your taste buds and was often yellowish in color which was due to the turmeric in it. Haddock does not salt well so the smoking was a way of preserving the fish. Speaking of salt we also had Cod in small wooden boxes packed in salt and it was prepared in a similar way.......Has anyone ever heard of Finnan Haddie? If so was it fixed in like manner or another way......Have a great day friends and bon apetite'..... "The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind."....T. Paine |
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10/20/2009 11:09 am |
Oh I remember Finnan Haddie, as well as many other things that have been mentioned from o'er there.... I made a number of these dishes myself while working in England. Finnan Haddie is still made the way your mother made it... but forget the skim milk... it has to be whole and with a big dab of butter. A somewhat similar dish is Kedgeree in which the smoked fish and rice is cooked in milk and butter in the oven. Not my favourite but whenever I cooked it I got rave reviewsHappiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it. J. Petit Senn
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Finnan Haddie is named after the the village of Findon near Aberdeen, where the fish was first smoked by that method. Strictly speaking a finnan haddie is a smoked fillet of the fish with skin attached on one side. Traditionally it was fried with bacon, or used in kedgeree, which is probably the second dish you speak of and contains rice eggs and curry spices. Smoked fillet without any skin is more usually poached in milk and butter. Also traditional is Cullen Skink, a soup made with smoked haddock, potatoes and cream. My mother used to add spooties to the soup after dad and I had been out fishing. Lol, in those days we used them for bait, just dug 'em up for free...nowadays spooties are seen as a delicacy and restaurants charge the earth for them! I look back on my childhood and am amazed at all the food we considered "poor man's pickings", rabbits, pigeons, game birds and as much fish and shellfish as we could catch. Sadly, pollution put an end to the days of mussel, cockle and crab gathering on our shores. And now Scotland's great history of fishing and seafaring is more or less gone too...because of the overfishing of our seas by Russian, Norwegian and Spanish factory ships. Have you ever had Arbroath Smokies 60min? They're wonderful too...smoked, like kippers, but whole, bones an' all. And smoked mackerel is good too. Scotland has a lot more to offer than tartan, whisky and salmon!
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In England it is Finnan haddock, which is smoked haddock served at breakfast with a parsley based sauce. We call it Finny haddock in Nottinghamshire, the county I was born in. It is named after Findon, or Finnan is a small coastal village near Aberdeen in Scotland. It is there where the best smoked haddock is supposedly made. I'd like to try some right now if it were available. Alfie...
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10/21/2009 10:59 am |
here in Fleetwood Lancashire England we still have several smokies but they are modern versions these days all stainless steel and mint clean , there used to be a couple of dozen smokehouses ( Finnies) Finnon Haddocks come in two varieties , natural smoked have little colour but are by far the tastiest after 16 hours in the smoke house and then theres dyed Finnon these do a few hours in the smokie and are then dipped into a yellow vegetable dye that is most popular in restuarants ~~ local folks wont touch the dyed stuff today health and safety food legislation prohibits anything but haddocks in the smokie but in earlier days the staff would smoke all manner of things ready for the christmas season at their home apple smoked chedder cheese was my favourite, smoked over apple tree chippings , before 1970 Fleetwood had a local cheese factory and staff would exchange cheeses for smoked goods like kippers, salmon, hams and pork bacon ~ the smokie bosses didnt mind as long as they got theres done too
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