Smoked fish customer day

Would you be up for a smoked scallop? Some wild smoked salmon? Ever tried a smoked prawn? How about a buckling?

A select number of FishSoc customers tried all these and more on a lovely June afternoon when we ran a customer day focused on smoked fish.

Our base for the day was the FishSoc studio kitchen which you can get a glimpse of in many of our videos. The day was hosted by Alistair (and I confess, the author of this piece), founder of The Fish Society a very long time ago.

The starter was smoked prawns with a glass of fizzy water, whilst everybody introduced themselves and discussed whether they wanted to try their hand at filleting. Two brave souls stepped forward so we decamped to the FishSoc wet room for a demo by our filleter and Tiktok star Sandor followed by the, er, trial itself.

We have to confess neither volunteer had a natural skill in filleting, but with a spot of guidance from us, both produced creditable fillets which they took home at the end of the day. Sandor then showed them a very neat fillet from a very large cod. They were pleased we hadn't presented them with such a monster to fillet.

This was followed by a factory tour including a quick peek inside the cold store, and we met everybody else who makes the Fish Society happen.

Then back to base for a blind tasting of four kinds of smoked salmon. Everybody liked them all (phew! - even the imposter... learn more at our next smoked fish day) and we had an extensive discussion about where all the wild Scottish salmon has gone and the various Pacific alternatives which have now come to the fore.

Then we sat down for the main course of six more kinds of smoked fish which most of our visitors had not tried before. Smoked halibut and smoked tuna were judged knockout successes, but smoked scallops stole the day. It was all very convivial, especially by the time we got onto the third bottle of wine.

We closed off the meal with a choice of summer pudding or lemon tart. Let it be known that everyone decided on a bit of both.

Definitely a great success. If you'd like to know about the next customer day, please email customerteam@thefishsociety.co.uk.

Our customer days cost between £90 and £130 and last from 1pm top 5pm on a weekday. We are also planning some evening and weekend customer days. Keep your eyes peeled.