Galloway Smokehouse

Please Note:Some customers have experienced issues placing orders through this website. To place an order with us, please phone 01671 820354 and we will advise as best we can.

For this reason we are currently not taking any orders through our online store. We will resume normal service after Christmas.

Galloway Smokehouse would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Nestling on the banks of Wigtown Bay is the Galloway Smokehouse, home of prize winning smoked  Scottish salmon, trout, seafood and game. With the gentle smouldering of whisky cask sawdust and only the best in raw materials, prepare your taste buds for a real gourmet treat. From the simple kipper to the grand salmon a huge variety of smoked and fresh food is on offer.

A seasons greeting to you all. On last years price list I wrote of great financial turmoil, well this year it all seems to be settling down. We all now own a couple of banks and our pensions have been plundered. However life is for living and there is nothing better than good honest home produced food. So much emphasis is now put on where food comes from and how it gets here, it all becomes a bit of a blur. If we all try to eat locally produced food and eat with the seasons rather than demand year round supplies, shun unnecessary packaging and reduce waste, it all helps. Our philosophy here is to do just that and is summed up up nicely by the photograph of the roast venison haunch - the Roe was shot eating my Christmas trees while the parsnip, carrot, squash and potatoes were all grown in my garden! Many of you will not be this lucky but at least when you buy our products you can share in our sentiments.

This summer was as busy as ever, we had the honour to be rated in the top 5 smokehouses by the magazine "Great British Food" but our summer's weather was a bit of a a wash out. The rivers were in spate for long periods and consequently the wild fish were in short supply so we had non for smoking. Once they are in the rivers they can then only be taken by rod anglers. So, a wet summer means poor salmon netting but good salmon angling and lots of spawning fish for the future stocks.

However Christmas is coming, the nights are drawing in and there should now be snow on the hills soon. Santa's sledge is cleaned and polished and his reindeers are on extra oats. It's time to offer you a variety of our products to grace the table and tickle the taste buds. We have made a few changes this year and after many requests have reintroduced venison. Galloway has huge areas of poor soils unsuitable for crops but ideal for grazing and forestry, consequently we have large numbers of Roe deer. These are considered by many as the producers of the best venison and command a high price in Europe. The size of the haunch is similar to a leg of lamb but with very little fat and far more taste, so a much healthier and flavoursome choice.

Here at the Galloway Smokehouse, we pride ourselves on our quality control. Our kilns are small allowing close monitoring of small batches, our raw material is the best we can find and even our sawdust is specially selected. It is a by-product from a nearby Cooperage, where whiskey barrels are refurbished. This sawdust is impregnated with whiskey and when burnt in our smokers, gives a rich strength of taste to all of our products.

All foods are cured with salt before smoking and to balance the harshness most smokehouses add sugar. To give a fuller flavour we add dark syrup and black rum. So with the best in raw materials, lots of love and attention and that extra special fresh Scottish air, our prize winning smoked foods are a gourmet's delight.

In these days of mass production machines are now available to fillet and slice the salmon, unfortunately these machines make no allowances for the variations in the raw material. We at the Galloway Smokehouse pride ourselves on the hand filleting and slicing of all our salmon and trout (we do slice our bacon and duck by machine though).

After smoking all our products are vacuum packed to seal in the distinctive flavours. In this form they can be kept in the fridge or freezer without any loss in flavour. In fact, a selection of Galloway's finest in the freezer is always a good insurance for those emergency gourmet occasions.

Our philosophy is to produce the best tasting products using local materials at the best possible price while not wasting valuable resources on excess packaging. We cannot compete with mass production on price but can certainly beat most, if not all, on quality. So if you have not already tried some of our best make this Christmas something to remember and order as soon as possible - you will not be disappointed.

 
Allan Watson
Owner of Galloway Smokehouse