Now you can your give your family (and your tastebuds) a treat with our amazing traditionally smoked fish available form our secure online shop.  At Downies of Whitehills all of our quality smoked fish is smoked the natural way. What that means is that no food dyes are used in any part of the process.

We start by purchasing the best freshly landed fish directly from the fish markets of the North East of Scotland, where it is taken immediately to our fish processing facility "Downies of Whitehills" where it is held in a chilled area at 0 - 4 degrees until ready to be filleted, then skinned. Prior to the fish going into our smoker, whether it be haddock, herring for kippers, mackerel or salmon for hot smoking, the fish is placed into a brine for a certain length of time, depending on what is about to be smoked.

Once the fish has been removed from the brine, it is placed over sticks and into the smoker which is fuelled with oak shavings and sometimes even shavings from whisky barrels. Once the fish has been either smoked or hot smoked, it is then left to cool and chill prior to being sold either in our own shop or from this website. 

Just walking past the smoke house when the smoker is being used is enough of an attraction for customers to call into our factory shop. Once customers have tried our quality smoked fish they then know their is no other place they would buy their smoked fish from. The quality speaks for itself.

The difference between smoked fish and hot smoked fish is that the hot smoked product is smoked then cooked at a temperature of at least 86 deg.c. so when it is chilled either the salmon or mackerel is ready to eat as soon as it is placed on the plate. 

A Kipper History:
By definition, "a kipper" is a fish which has been split from tail to head, salted, and smoked. Typically the species is herring but traditionally it would be any fish found in great numbers which arrive in great abundance, thus they are salted and smoked to improve flavour and preservation.

The Old English origin of the word comes from various sources such as Icelandic kippa which means "to pull, snatch" and the Danish word kippen which means "to seize, to snatch". From this the English word kipe is a basket used to catch fish. 

The origin of the word kipper is Old English which dates to at least 1000 years ago. It is known that smoking and salting of fish, in particular herring, predates written history. We also know it was eaten in Germany and reached Scandinavia sometime during the Middle Ages.