Arbroath Smokies

• Smokies
• pepper
• butter

Heat the fish on both sides (it has already been cooked in the long smoking process), open it out, remove the backbone, mill black pepper over the fish, spread with butter, close up and heat for a few minutes in the oven or under the grill. (In the old days it was brandered.) Serve piping hot.

The smokie, like the finnan-haddie, makes an excellent savoury.