Galloway Smokehouse

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.

July 1st-  the sea is warming up and the summer fish have arrived, after our really dry spring and the lawn turning a strange brown colour we have now had a little of the wet stuff to freshen everything up. The rain also heralds the start of the summer grilse season, these smaller salmon supplied by our local netsmen are ideal for steaks, fillets or steaming whole. The larger fish arrive later in the season and these are best for smoking. We have our own boat and catch a selection of local fish - sea bass, grey mullet, flounder, plaice and a few lobsters and crabs. More are supplied by a number of local fisherman.                  Our summer fishing  is very dependant on the weather and tides but if we can't fish we do have deliveries from other fishermen most days. Prices do fluctuate so if you would like a selection by next day delivery please phone for daily prices. There  are some very fancy traceability labels these days but no supermarket can match ours - Allan caught a lobster at 8am, Jason boiled it at 10 am it was chilled and Shona packed and sent it at 5pm, delivered next morning at 9am. Beat that if you can. Todays prices are cooked - lobster £15 /kg (about £7 each) Crab £3.00/kg (about £1 each) wild sea bass £10.50/kg and grey mullet £4.50/kg. Wild grilse and salmon should be arriving soon.

The smokehouse is  working as hard as ever and here at the Galloway Smokehouse we pride ourselves on our quality control. Our kilns are small allowing close monitoring of small batches, our raw materials are the best we can find and even our sawdust is specially selected. It is a by-product from a nearby Cooperage where whisky barrels are refurbished. This sawdust is impregnated with whisky 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