Cullen Skink

Cullen skink a fish soup associated with the fishing village of Cullen in NE Scotland, happened to be singled out for mention by Marian McNeill (1929) in her pioneering survey of traditional Scottish cookery. However, it is but one of a number of such soup/stews, based on smoked haddock and incorporating milk, with potato as a thickener. Catherine Brown (1996) affirms that these were made by fishwives all along the coast.

In fact the word ‘skink’ comes from the German word Schinke (ham) and has the same meaning in Scotland as hough, i.e. the part of an animal corresponding to the human ankle or shin; so the archetypal skink is a soup made from shin of beef. Presumably the people in places such as Cullen adapted this to the fishy version.