FAQs

My Finnan Haddie is vacuum packaged perfect for frozen storage and will stay in excellent condition after you re-freeze it for 6 months. There is really no limit to frozen storage, so far as food safety is concerned, it will be safe to eat even after a year or more if you keep it well frozen.

For the very best quality, it is best thawed in your refrigerator overnight, for use the next day. But if you are in a rush, you can thaw the pack quickly immersed under gently running cool water.

There is no difference between them, they are exactly the same thing. I use them both throughout the website because they are both popular key words used by people searching on the internet. I have launched my new three minute microwave product as smoked haddock because it describes the product and is easily understood by new customers.

Your fish has taken two days to get to you and is most likely going to be thawed out on arrival. It is normal for the fish and ice pack to be thawed out by the time it reaches you.  Finnan Haddie does not spoil quickly and remains in good condition even after a few hours at room temperature.  Cool your fish down rapidly on arrival, or place in your freezer.

My smoked haddock has a light golden color, not a deep or bright yellow color. This is because I do not add any kind of additional color pigment to my brine, like Annatto, a product from a tropical fruit pulp that is widely used by smokers who need to add color to make their product look more smoked.
The use of dyes was widely accepted in smokehouses until the late 1980′s when people became aware of the risks associated with these artificial ingredients. At that time they were mostly eliminated.  For example, one that I worked with in the 1980′s. F-K-Brown, was commonly used to make kippers a deep brown color. But it was a carcinogen. I used to have my arms dyed brown with the stuff when tentering out the kippers at Ice Atlantic Seafood, in Shetland.
Now most smokehouses choose to keep to an all-natural color produced only by the smoke itself. That is what you see with my Finnan Haddie. The color is from the white hickory smoke, and it produces a pale/light golden color. The smoke flavor is the same as a product made with the use of Annatto, but there are only three ingredients (haddock, sea salt, wood smoke), not four.

Very often fish that you purchase frozen has already been frozen twice.  It is often  distributed frozen and thawed out for processing, then re-frozen in its new product form.  Your Finnan Haddie was made from fresh haddock, and was flash frozen the same day that I smoked it within about one hour.  It is best to keep out any packs that you want to cook in the next few days. Keep them refrigerated.  Freeze the rest knowing that when you thaw it a second time in your refrigerator it will still be of exceptional quality.

Yes it is safe, but you should cook that one first. The vacuum has no food safety function with frozen Finnan Haddie.  But it does protect you fish from drying out and helps keep it much better frozen if the bag is still air tight. The removal of air from the bag prevents the fish from oxidizing and getting freezer burn during long term frozen storage. The vacuum sealed bag only adds a minimal amount of time, maybe a couple of days, to your Finnan Haddie when held under refrigeration.

It has a shelf life of 12 days from the day it was smoked.  Since I flash froze it immediately after smoking it arrives with a full shelf life if kept well refrigerated.  I  would recommend that you cook your Finnan Haddie within 10 days or store it frozen.

Because your Finnan Haddie was smoked cold it is raw and requires cooking.  But if you wish to experiment and eat some raw it will be safe to do so because it has been previously frozen.  There is no danger of parasites.

Your sea scallops are best if removed from the bag and washed in cold water.  Pat them dry and store in a shallow dish in the coldest part of your refrigerator tightly sealed under   plastic wrap.  Do not let them dry out, but also – do not keep them soaking in the water either.  An alternative way, and the very best way to keep them, would be in a thin plastic bag after washing placed in direct contact with crushed ice in a bowl inside your refrigerator.

They were flash frozen within a day of capture so they will be good for three or four days in your refrigerator. If you want to keep longer place the unopened bag directly in your freezer on arrival.

Take the salted cod pieces out of the bag and wash off all the salt under running water. Then put in a large sauce pan in cold water and store in your refrigerator. Change the water three or four times over 72 hours.  Now the salt cod is perfect for using in any recipe, cook like you would fresh cod, ie. don’t boil in hard water for long, just simmer gently for four minutes, or cook in your salted cod dish.  Do not over cook or follow recipe instructions that tell you to boil for half an hour!

I am definitely going to make those wonderful large kippers again, they are a great food that needs to be made available in premium quality, and I love to make them. Believe it or not, when we were making kippers in Shetland back in the 1980′s we often thawed out large fatty herring that had been shipped to Shetland from Halifax in Nova Scotia. So the perfect large herring is closer now, but I am not quite ready to roll them out yet. Definitely in 2013.