When I was a girl, as a special treat
my grandmother, who was rather sophisticated, would take me to the
Jewish delicatessen at the end of her street to buy smoked salmon.
The
old man in the white coat would slice the fish with expert precision,
interleaving each long, slender strip with greaseproof paper.
Later,
with strong tea served through a strainer into porcelain cups for the
grown-ups, and lemonade in a cut-glass tumbler for me, she would serve
the salmon — with its beautiful, sunset hue — on crustless brown bread
triangles, evenly spread with butter.
Anne Shooter is looking for the perfect smoked salmon just like her grandmother used to give her when she was a child
Thirty years on and smoked
salmon is no longer an occasional treat. Today, thanks to salmon
suppliers going to extraordinary lengths to keep their product
competitively priced — often at the expense of taste and quality — it is
available in every supermarket for the same price as a box of cereal.
‘Rather than using wild salmon
from Scotland, we now have the much fattier farmed salmon, and there is
no comparison,’ says Chris Leftwich, chief inspector to The
Fishmongers’ Company.
Still
smoking top-quality salmon the traditional way is Lance Forman, of H.
Forman & Son, whose family business has been in the East End of
London since 1905. He supplies Fortnum & Mason and The Savoy.
‘Smoked
salmon was a gourmet product that came about to preserve Scottish wild
salmon, the king of fish,’ he says. ‘But now mass production has taken
over the industry.
Anne criticised the loophole in country of
origin rules. Salmon farmed in Norway but smoked in Scotland can be
listed as Scottish salmon
‘Forty five per cent of the salmon
sold in the UK now is Norwegian, which is OK in itself, but how long
does it take for a fish to get from Norway to the factory? Three days
minimum. No wonder it tastes bad.’
One
problem is ‘Country of Origin’ means where the food last went through a
‘substantial change’. So if it’s Norwegian salmon, but smoked in
Scotland, the manufacturer can state the country of origin as Scotland.
‘In
England, we are strict about how the fish are killed, but in some farms
in Norway fish are killed cruelly, in carbon dioxide baths where they
are starved of oxygen and thrash about as they are dying, breaking down
the flesh, then they’re filleted by machine,’ Lance says.
Lance,
who smokes only wild or top-quality farmed salmon, says while he cures
salmon by sprinkling it with salt to draw out the water, others use
brine injections to avoid weight loss, which give a salty taste but wet
texture.
He talks of liquid
smoke being sprayed on fish ‘like a spray tan’ rather than smoking it
gently for 24 hours. And, he says, many suppliers cure with sugar, which
retains moisture, covers up the taste from salt injections and
counterbalances the bitterness of fierce smoking or the liquid smoke
‘tan’.
Then there is the
pellicle. This is the crusty layer formed during smoking on the outside
of the fish, which Lance says should always be removed.
‘It
reduces the weight of the fish, though, which means it sells for less,’
says Lance. ‘So some smoked salmon still has it on — and it is
revolting.’
Other smoked
salmon contains brown meat, which comes from blood vessels. It has a
more fishy taste and tends to go off more quickly. It would never be
served in a good restaurant.
However, many supermarkets incorporate it with the pellicle to add weight and price.
After
the news last week that the price of salmon is to rise after Norway’s
harsh winter, I’m determined to make sure I’m getting value for money.
So I decided to put the supermarket selections to the test.
H. Forman & Son Smoked Scottish Salmon (Waitrose), £5.99 for a 125g pack, £4.80 for 100g
Made
with Scottish farmed salmon and salt. Smoked salmon just how I remember
it. Long, elegant slices, cut so thinly they are translucent. This is
moist but not too fatty and very mildly salty with a hint of smoke. Soft
and utterly delicious. A beautiful thing. 5/5
H. Forman & Son Smoked Scottish Salmon (left) Ocado Oak-Smoked Salmon (right)
Ocado Oak-Smoked Salmon, £4.95 for 200g or three packs for £10, £2.48 per 100g
Farmed
in Scotland and Norway, made with salmon, salt and sugar. The pellicle
and brown meat is still attached. The salmon is flabby and wet and the
slices are thick. Truly horrible. 0/5
Ocado
says: ‘We leave the pellicle on to cater for more traditional
consumers. The salmon is produced in England by an artisan supplier and
smoked in a kiln using oak from sustainable sources.’
Heston from Waitrose Lapsang Souchong Tea-Smoked Salmon, £4.49 for 100g
Contains
Scottish farmed salmon, sea salt and sugar (the tea is used to create
smoke). The texture of this isn’t bad, although the pellicle has been
retained, but it tastes of tobacco. It isn’t pleasant to eat. 2/5
Waitrose
says: ‘Our cold smoke process takes 10-15 hours, so the pellicle is, in
fact, just a slightly firmer edge that we think is an important part of
the product.’
Heston from Waitrose Lapsang Souchong Tea-smoked Salmon (left) and Young's Scottish Smokehouses Smoked Salmon Slices (right)
Young’s Scottish Smokehouses Smoked Salmon Slices, £10 for 300g — on offer for £5, £1.66 for 100g (Waitrose and Ocado)
Contains
smoked salmon ‘from Scotland or Norway’ and salt. This has a horrible
texture — it is too soft and breaks when you try to pick it up. It has
fatty white stripes and is greasy with no smoke taste. 0/5
Young’s
says: ‘Our salmon is smoked in Scotland with real wood smoke. We do not
inject brine; we either dry or wet salt the salmon in the traditional
way.’
Kinvara Organic Irish Salmon, £6.65 for 150g, £4.43 for 100g (Waitrose and kinvarasmokedsalmon.com)
Made
from Irish organic salmon and sea salt. This has lovely, long slices
and no fatty white lines, though it does have some brown ‘meat’ attached
and a jelly-like texture I wasn’t keen on. Good flavour, though, and at
last a salmon cured traditionally without sugar! 3/5
Kinvara Organic Irish Salmon (left) and Inverawe Smoked Scottish Salmon (right)
Inverawe Smoked Scottish Salmon, £4.79 for 100g (Waitrose and smokedsalmon.co.uk)
Contains
Scottish salmon and salt. This has a royal warrant and rightly so. The
salmon comes in long, thin slices, it is not remotely greasy and is very
flavourful with a strong, smoky taste. It’s quite salty, too —
definitely one for those who like a robust salmon. 4/5
M&S Lochmuir Scottish Oak and Applewood Smoked Salmon, £7.39 for 8 slices (200g), £3.69 per 100g
Contains
Scottish salmon, salt and demerara sugar. This salmon was surprisingly
bad. The pellicle was left on, the slice was too thick and I even found a
bone in it. The flavour was good, though — rich and smoky. 2/5
M&S
says: ‘Our customers have told us they enjoy salmon with a smokier
flavour and a meaty texture — this is done by the traditional method of
retaining the pellicle where the smoky flavour is concentrated.’
M&S Scottish Oak and Applewood Smoked Salmon
(left) and Tesco Finest Scottish Smoked Salmon with lemon and
peppercorns (right)
Tesco Finest Scottish Smoked Salmon with lemon and peppercorns, £5 for 120g, two for £8, £4.17 for 100g
This contains farmed Scottish salmon,
salt, sugar, lemon zest and peppercorns. It has no brown bits, no
pellicle and is soft with a good balance of salt and smoke. The lemon
and peppercorn trim complements the salmon extremely well. Very good
indeed. 4/5
Sainsbury’s
Taste the Difference Scottish Salmon smoked over chestnut wood, topped
with lemon-infused basil oil, £4.79 for 120g, £3.99 for 100g
Contains
salmon, salt, lemon-infused rapeseed oil, basil and sugar. This is so
soft it is difficult to separate into slices. It has no salt or smoke
flavour. 1/5
Sainsbury’s
says: ‘All our smoked salmon are produced in Scotland and naturally
smoked for several hours over woodchips in kilns. We feel the sugar
gives a more rounded and rich flavour.’
Sainsbury's taste the Difference Scottish Salmon (left) and Morrison's Fishmonger Oak-Smoked Salmon (right)
Morrisons Oak-Smoked Salmon, £2.99 for 100g
Contains
Scottish salmon, salt and sugar. This is too soft, too greasy and cut
in uneven slices that are too thick at the bottom. It tastes fishy with a
slight tang. No redeeming features. 0/5
Morrisons
says: ‘Sugar and salt are added to help remove moisture, which can
cause bacteria to form, as well as adding flavour. The fish is smoked
for 8-16 hours and the pellicle is kept on because some customers prefer
it.’
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