The Arbroath smokie

Despite high unemployment and modern town planning, the fishing town of Arbroath, on Scotland’s east coast, still retains its charm, with its blue and pink fishermen’s houses along the harbour. Lobster pots sit on the harbourside and nets get repaired by local fishermen killing time between tides and bad weather.

The Spink family have a long fishing history in Arbroath. Bob Spink, a fifth-generation Spink, now runs the family business, as well as redesigning his smoking kilns with his brother to give his Arbroath smokies (hot-smoked haddock, whole apart from their heads) an authentic smokiness and as close as can be to the original taste, when they were smoked over wooden barrels all those many years ago. After years of campaigning, the family’s artisan product, has been awarded the EU’s PGI status (Protected Geographical Indication), meaning that only haddock smoked in the traditional method within 8 kilometres of Arbroath can be sold as the real thing, so their smokies can now sit alongside products like prosciutto de Parma and Champagne.