Morgan’s FishFishmonger · Barry · since 1979Barry

The smokehouse

The kiln in the yard, and nothing dyed.

A brick box the size of a wardrobe with a fire pit at the bottom and rods across the top, built by Gethin's father in 1984 from a drawing of one in Craster. It smokes two or three times a week over oak and beech, cold and hot, and the shop smells of it on those mornings. This page says what is in it this week, when it comes out, and what it costs.

The inside of a small brick smokehouse: split herring and sides of salmon hanging on rods in a haze of oak smoke, a glowing bed of wood chips below

This week

What is in the kiln, and when it comes out.

The rota moves with what the boats land; herring in, kippers out.

  • Kippers over oak; smoked haddockLit at six in the morning; the shop smells of it by eight.
    Out Wednesday 8am
  • Smoked salmon, cured Wednesday night; hot-smoked mackerelLit at six in the morning; the shop smells of it by eight.
    Out Friday 8am
  • Hot-smoked salmon with honey; smoked cod roe when there is roeLit at six in the morning; the shop smells of it by eight.
    Out Saturday 2pm

From the kiln

What we smoke, and what it costs.

  • In today
    From the smokehouse · Whole

    Kippers

    Smoked Tuesday; undyed, the colour of a kipper

    Our kiln, oak£4.20 pair
  • In today
    From the smokehouse · Filleted

    Smoked haddock

    Pale gold because it is undyed; for the kedgeree

    Our kiln, oak£19.50/kg
  • In today
    From the smokehouse · Filleted

    Smoked salmon

    Cured overnight, cold-smoked a day and a night, sliced by hand

    Our kiln, oak and beech£48.00/kg
  • In today
    From the smokehouse · Filleted

    Hot-smoked mackerel

    With cracked pepper; the thing to try first

    Our kiln, beech£3.80 fillet

Also from the kiln

  • Smoked salmon, 200g pack, hand-sliced£9.80
  • Hot-smoked salmon with honey, Saturdays£5.50 a portion
  • Smoked cod roe, when the cod are running£6.50
  • Smoked eel, twice a year from the Severn£12 a portion
  • A whole side of smoked salmon to orderfrom £58
  • Your own catch smoked, up to 2kg, two days£12

How it is done

Four fish, four ways through the smoke.

Kippers

Whole herring from the Gower boat, split along the back, brined for twenty minutes, hung on tenterhooks and cold-smoked over oak for fourteen hours. No dye, so they are the colour of a kipper and not of a traffic cone. Grilled, or jugged in a pan of hot water for the people who mind the smell.

Haddock

Milford haddock filleted and brined, then cold-smoked for six hours. It comes out pale gold, which is what undyed smoked haddock looks like, and people who have only had the yellow kind take a moment. Kedgeree, Cullen skink, a poached egg on top.

Salmon

Sides from the one farm, dry-cured overnight in salt and brown sugar, rinsed, dried, then cold-smoked for a day and a night over oak with a little beech. Sliced by hand on the morning it comes out. A side to order for a party; 200g packs on the counter.

Mackerel

Filleted, brined, rubbed with cracked black pepper and hot-smoked over beech until it is cooked through and the skin is bronze. The thing we sell most of from the kiln and the one to try first: in a salad, on toast, in a pâté with horseradish.

Questions about the smokehouse

Why is your smoked haddock not yellow?

Because we do not dye it. Smoked haddock is pale gold; the bright yellow kind has had a dye added before smoking, which does nothing for the taste. Ours tastes of haddock and oak.

Can you smoke fish I caught?

Yes: bring it gutted and we brine and smoke it in the next run, £12 for up to two kilos, more by the kilo. Trout, bass, mackerel and sewin all smoke well. Two days.

Smoked fish, posted anywhere in Britain on a Monday.

Kippers, smoked haddock, smoked salmon and hot-smoked mackerel, vacuum-packed on the Monday morning and posted first class in an insulated box with ice packs, £7.95. Order on the order page with "something from the smokehouse" and say where it is going.

Order a Friday boxToday's board