reLAKSation 223.
It's
a matter of personal taste!: Christmas is
when the market for smoked salmon reaches its peak. Smoked salmon is extremely
popular at this time of the year and all the retailers carry an extended range
of smoked salmon and smoked salmon products. It is also a time to buy smoked
salmon at bargain prices as every store competes for custom. The November issue
of the IntraFish newspaper posed
the question whether such mass marketing of smoked salmon has ruined it?
IntraFish
say that there was a time many years ago and now long gone, when smoked salmon
was a delicacy found only in the finest restaurants served alongside beluga
caviar and Dom Perignon champagne. Today, the availability and consistency of
farmed salmon means that smoked salmon can be enjoyed all year round. Equally,
this same availability and consistency means that smoked salmon is not reserved
for heads of state but can be bought in almost every supermarket. However, there
are some people who believe that this widespread availability has come at a
price - lower quality. Michelin star chef, Martin Wishart, says that consumers
have lost sight of the taste and texture. "This has reduced the appeal and
the product itself has been sort of bastardised".
The
problem is of course that producing small quantities of gourmet quality smoked
salmon is a very different business from producing smoked salmon for the
supermarket. The old adage that 'you get what you pay for' very much applies to
smoked salmon..... or does it?
IntraFish
compared the price of smoked salmon from some of the leading salmon smokers to
demonstrate the huge variation in smoked salmon quality. These include:
Balik’s
Tasr Nikolaj fillet
-
£12.73/100g
Fortnum
& Mason’s Wild Irish -
£11.39/100g
H
Formans Wild Scottish
- £8.04/100g
Loch
Fyne Kinglas fillet
- £4.69/100g
Hebridean
Smokehouse
- £4.02/100g
Martin
Wishart’s Gourmet
- £2.68/100g
Sainbury’s
Isle of Skye
- £2.01/100g
Not
surprisingly, Isle of Skye smoked salmon from British supermarket Sainsbury’s
was the cheapest, although, this is their premium range. They also sell a
cheaper standard range. However, the list produces some anomalies. Michelin star
chef, Martin Wishart has recently launched his own smoked salmon where
everything is produced by hand. The salt and sugar is rubbed on by hand, the
product is cured for seven hours, rinsed then smoked over whisky –oak
chippings for three full days. It then ‘rests’ for one day in a chilled
room. This, he told IntraFish, takes volume out of the equation. The point he
says is quality, not quantity, although this does not seem to be reflected in
the price. The real problem with the above list is that it does not compare like
with like. We, at Callander McDowell, have reproduced the list using examples of
each manufacturers standard smoked salmon, not their most special products.
Balik’s
Norwegian
- £7.00/100g
Fortnum
& Mason’s Scottish/Irish - £12.00/100g
H
Forman’s Farmed Scottish
- £3.18/100g
Loch
Fyne Freedom Food
- £3.75/100g
Hebridean
Smokehouse
- £5.56/100g
Martin
Wishart
- £3.50/100g
Sainsbury’s
Isle of Skye
- £3.19/100g
Surprisingly,
Sainsbury’s is not the cheapest, albeit by 1p/100g. Other than Balik’s which
is manufactured in Switzerland and therefore is also subjected to exchange rates
and higher costs and Fortnum & Mason’s whose food products all carry a
price premium, most smoked salmon prices are similar. Is there some way that
consumers can differentiate which smoked salmon is most suitable for them.
Intrafish
highlight some of the claims that these smokehouse have made for their salmon.
Fortnum & Mason reportedly claim that there are not many wild Irish salmon
left and that’s what makes it so tasty!!. Presumably, if Irish salmon stocks
increase, the resulting salmon won’t be so tasty? Fortnum & Mason’s
website is even more confusing. They claim to be the only store in the UK to
sell smoked salmon made from wild salmon caught in the four home nations. Each
is given a different smoke and this and its origin is reflected in the price.
The cheapest is smoked Welsh salmon. F&M state that ‘the Welsh smoked
salmon is given a slightly longer smoked after its struggle up the valleys’.
Next most expensive is smoked English salmon. ‘The English smoked salmon is
given our slightly longer smoked appropriate to its stiffer upper lip.’!!!
Scottish and Irish smoked salmon retail at the same price. ‘The Scottish
smoked salmon is given our lighter London cure allowing the rugged Highland
flavour to predominate.’ Finally, F&M give ‘the Irish smoked salmon the
lighter London cure to allow it’s wild rover characteristics to come through
unchallenged.’ To us, at Callander McDowell, it is not the smoke that needs to
be challenged!!
Fortnum
& Mason are not the only company to make dubious claims. H Forman & Son
claim a 100 year old smoking technique but on their website they dominant claim
is that ‘their retail packaging is the smartest and most stylish packaging for
smoked salmon currently available.’ Presumably, this adds to the taste?
According
to IntraFish, Loch Fyne use Freedom Food salmon in their smoked salmon but the
reason that the company has managed to ‘easily’ hang on to its high-end
image is by building on the mystique of Scottish salmon. Loch Fyne’s Helen
Seaborn told IntraFish that ‘our smokehouse is right outside a loch, not an
industrial estate’. We assume that the salmon enjoy the view, providing that
they can see through the smoke!!
What
ever claim is made, the real proof of a good smoked salmon is in the eating. In
the run up to Christmas, the press have conducted a number of different taste
tests, although the results have been remarked ably similar. The Times invited
Herbert Berger and Soren Jessen from the restaurant 1 Lombard Street to taste
supermarket smoked salmon. Top of their list was Sainsbury’s Taste the
Difference Isle of Skye smoked salmon, which received 4 stars. Bottom of their
list was Young’s Scottish smoked salmon which received only one star.
The Observer Food Monthly conducted two separate tests. The first was carried out by fish expert Mitchell Tonks of Fishworks. He too found that Sainsbury’s TTD Isle of Skye smoked salmon was top of the list and he awarded it five stars. He preferred this to H Forman & Sons wild smoked salmon which he only gave two stars. Bottom of his list was Tesco’s Finest wild Alaskan salmon which he thought was not worth any stars at all. It is a shame that the Observer did not give Mitchell Tonks any of the Young’s smoked salmon, which came bottom of the Times taste test, to taste because he endorses the Young’s product. On the Young’s pack, Mitchell Tonks writes that” Smoked salmon for me is a real treat. Something special to look forward to. I really love the care and attention that Young’s give to producing it. They insist on only taking fish from the icy cold waters of approved farms on the West Coast of Scotland. Using time honoured methods they cure the fish with pure sea salt, and gently smoke it over oak and beech wood to deliver a subtle and mouthwatering flavour. Every fillet is trimmed by hand and sliced in a traditional D shape. What I really like is that they leave part of the pellicle on. This is the smoky outer layer of the salmon which has a fuller richer smoked flavour.” Such descriptive words didn’t seem to go down well with his fellow chefs from 1 Lombard Street.
The
observer also invited Marcus Waering of the Savoy Grill and Petrus to conduct a
similar taste test. He also preferred Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference smoked
salmon, although this time it was the chestnut smoked version launched recently.
This beat the Hebridean Smokehouse salmon into second place. What makes this
test interesting is that the magazine followed the test with an article about
buying gourmet food. Caroline Boucher wrote that she preferred to buy her smoked
salmon from the Hebridean Smokehouse because she feels totally reassured by
it’s quality. Readers of the observer Food Monthly must be really confused.
We,
at Callander McDowell, have tasted some of the smoked salmon featured in the
taste tests. We certainly do not agree with the Times that Young’s branded
smoked salmon is bottom of the heap. In our opinion, it certainly rates higher
than the John West branded salmon that the Times tasters thought worth three
stars. Although to be fair to John West, previous tastings of their product has
found it acceptable, the last tasting was dire.
We
recently mentioned that we had visited the London Fine Food Fair and tasted
smoked salmon from a variety of well known independent smokers and we were
generally unimpressed. What is clear is that choosing a smoked salmon can be a
very personal and down to an individual’s own taste preferences. Neither the
price paid nor the claims made are any indication of what a smoked salmon tastes
like. Our view is that once a consumer has found a smoked salmon he or she
likes, then it is best to stick with it.
We
would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New year and look
forward to your continued support in 2006. We will be back in January with a
review of Christmas supermarket prices.