Taste Makers

Our smoked food is made very simply using salt and smoke as natural preservatives to enhance delicious Irish raw materials. Everything we make is prepared in small batches by hand and delivered fresh to local farmers’ markets, and our shop in the English Market, Cork City. We can also ship smoked salmon directly to you.

Cold Smoked Salmon

Delicate, delicious, and distinctively Irish. This is the only smoked salmon in Ireland which has been hung for smoking in a traditional timber smokehouse. It makes all the difference: it’s more tender, there is greater depth and balance of flavour, and it has all the hallmarks of a handmade product smoked by someone with decades of experience. The time and care we take and the beech wood smoke we use result in a truly delicious smoked salmon which brings international guests to visit or buy from us in Belvelly. There is nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world.

These are made with organic fish cultivated in the west coast of Ireland, in low density, off shore sites where the tides and the elements ensure lean fish which can hang in our smokehouse.  A portion of their diet is always marine which makes them much more flavoursome. The difference between conventionally farmed fish and these is immense. We know, we’ve tried them all and we simply would not achieve the accolades we receive if we were not dealing with a world class raw material.

Hot Smoked Salmon

The Irish tradition is to cold smoke salmon, but hot smoked salmon- that’s salmon which is smoked while cooking- is really something else. Since we introduced it for Selfridge’s decades ago, this succulent densely flavoured fish has gained an insatiable & loyal following. It’s incredibly versatile- we use at home from breakfast onwards and in our smokehouse kitchen gratins, tarts, salads. That said it is perfect to play a starring role in mains, festive platters and party canapés. Whole sides are great where panache is required, but we have smaller piece too to suit you. Our hot smoked comes ‘plain’ or with smoked Kashmiri chillies, which is also rather addictive (and not actually as hot as it looks).

Wild Smoked Salmon

Frank started out smoking wild salmon from the very beginning, now nearly 40 years ago and honed his craft with this beautiful fish. That included sourcing the finest, and cultivating care and pride amongst the fishermen in handling their stock. The handmade, small scale nature of our business ensures that this mindset is applied to this precious resource all the way through. When it is right, there are few foods that come close, and there are few privileges and luxuries that will bring more joy.

Wild smoked salmon is now extremely rare: only a handful of fishermen still have licenses, and
A short season and strictly limited quota mean that we have a very small number for sale. This fish is caught in the summer , cured & smoked immediately and set aside in frozen storage for release at Christmas time. Please add your name to our list and you will be informed when you can place your order.

Hot Smoked Mackerel

These are the only whole mackerel that are smoked in Ireland and that is perhaps due to the care, time and know-how required to make them. It is of course easier just to bulk order from France where they are produced in industrial quantities, but it’s our pleasure to make them.

The mackerel we source is winter-caught & landed in Ireland. We smoke in small batches several times a week to produce fish with plump, succulent tasty flesh, briny smoky and fishy in equal measure. Smoking the mackerel also results in a burnished golden skin, which may be why they once adorned breakfast at the London Savoy, in the years before Brexit came along. However even if they were a dull grey this is some of the finest smoked fish you will ever eat.

We also produce smoked mackerel fillets dressed with various herbs and spices. They bear no comparison with supermarket-bought mackerel, with a dense, meaty texture, and balanced flavour.

Smoked Mussels in Vinaigrette 

Possibly one of a kind, smoked mussels evoke a love hate response, and those who love them trudge a well-worn path to our markets every week, such is their moreish quality.

We smoke them out of their shells, so what you get is plump mussel meat, fragrant and sweet with beechwood smoke in a luscious, creamy-textured vinaigrette made with whole grain mustard.

The vinaigrette veers towards tartness, which cuts the richness of the smoke it carries to every corner of your green bean salad or hot buttered, preferably sourdough or bakers batch bread toast.

Smoked Haddock

So a lot of people smoke haddock but very few with actual, natural smoke, and ours are distinguishable by their ghostly pallor vis a vis the burnt mahogany or lurid OJ of the other stuff, for that is all you can call it.

Neither the industrial liquid smoke or the alternative artisan oak wood varieties work in our opinion, one being being disgusting and the other unsuited for delicacy, unlike beechwood smoke in an authentic smokehouse, Like ours.

We buy smoked haddock landed locally, and salt the fillets briefly, before hanging them  using our string technology: in other words we do all this by hand in small batches as with all we do, though after 40 years we’re pretty fast. The haddock also receive a much shorter smoke-time than salmon, and so when you add a sliver or two to your morning poached egg, it is gorgeously redolent of smoke, without too-too much. We also enjoy it with no further cooking, a drizzle oil, a spritz of lemon, although according the food safety brigade that is taking your life in your hands, abs it should be cooked to over 75c.

Smoked Butter

We’ve been smoking butter for decades, and while Frank often suggests new product ideas for smoking there are few that cannot simply be improved with a sliver of our smoked butter.

Take a firm fat fresh piece of cod for example, possibly cured with some salt, and fry skin-side down until crisp with a little oil. Then baste with frothing smoked butter until à point and serve the cod with a salad of sliced raw tomatoes, also drizzled with the cooking jus and flaked salt. In short, way better than smoked cod.

Never again should you put yourself through the trauma of the badly smoked spud tasting of cinders & tar, or the squishy taut flesh of a brined smoked chicken. With a bit of smoked butter life is so much better … says Betty.

Smoked Sundried Tomato Tapenade

Made with Italian sundried tomatoes and garlic - both smoked - lemon juice and olive oil, this is intensely tomatoey and nicely smokey.

Smoked Spices

This is where the light trace of smoke added to a foodstuff is worthwhile…. (See diatribe under smoked butter) for every jar and packet of smoked chilli, smoked paprika is sure to bring a return customer, and every absence of same elicits wails of despair. (Well, near enough). We’ve even shipped far overseas, when holiday visitors run out of the spices they’ve purchased in Cork, creating new spice routes for the mid-century.

Seriously though, if you like pep and character in your food, with an aura of je ne sais quoi (that’s the smoke) then these are the essential condiments. We promise that they will not hang around your spice shelves, unused & dusty for we use our own as much as we use salt, but without any of the guilt.

From our Smokehouse Kitchen

Here we make simple dishes such as smoked salmon and mackerel pates, our crushes, made with hot smoked salmon or mackerel with horseradish, creme fraiche, lemon juice and dill, and our poached salmon and crab salad, a throw back to the cocktail years with its Marie Rose dressing. We also make luxurious hand-rolled fishcakes in a variety of flavours. The only preservative we add is lemon juice. Due to the relatively short shelf life of these products, they are only available at local markets in Cork.