Big British Food Map Smoke on the water

Date Published:

14/05/2008

There's no smoke with out fire, unless perhaps we're 'cold smoking'. Andrew finds out more about one of the oldest ways of treating food

There's a subtle whiff of smoke wafting through the car window and I know I must be getting near to the Brown and Forest smokery. I'm here to meet Jesse Pattisson, who gave up a life as chief executive of a large pharmaceutical company in East Anglia for a life of wood smoke some eight years ago. Michael Brown began the business of smoking eels (a traditional Somerset food) as well as crayfish, but upon retiring brought Jesse into the business. Jesse has known Michael since he was 18 years old but he always wanted to work for himself, so two years ago Jesse bought the business outright.

Fancy clients

Since then he's built it up, and his smoked salmon now graces the tables of trendy London restaurants The Ivy, J. Sheekey and the shelves of Fortnum & Mason. He tells me how this came about. "Chefs are passionate people; if your product is good enough and they love it, then they're off." The salmon in question is first brined in water, sugar and a little bit of whiskey, before being cold smoked. It's also laid flat on racks rather than hung vertically.

Despite the big name London contracts Jesse's eye is still on the local and mail order markets, where you can get a whole side of his salmon for £29 delivered. "Forty per cent of the mail order we do is within 50 odd miles," he says, with the rest going elsewhere around the country. Handy if you can't get a table at The Ivy.

The subject of local

On the subject of local he's matter of fact about where his raw ingredients come from. The salmon comes from a unique farming operation in Loch Duart in Scotland and the duck from Gressingham Foods in East Anglia. “No it's not local, but it's a fantastic product, and I can't find better.” He goes on, "I produce very good food, from a very good product, businesses stand or fall on that". His eels come from closer to home, namely the rivers Avon, Test, Stour and Piddle. They're brought in to the smokery live and processed there and then.

The smoking process

I ask him about the smoking process. "Smoking is all about the quality of ingredient you put in, it's about adding a flavour that enhances that ingredient." He talks me through the two ways of smoking. Hot smoking is where the food is roasted over a large fire for 20 minutes to cook it, and then the fire is slowed with dust to produce smoke that imparts flavour. Cold smoking is a much longer process; the product goes in raw or brined over a slow burning dynamite style trail of wood dust. This produces lots of smoke but no heat, and can typically last for 20 hours or more. And that's it, no gas or electricity or firelighters, just wood and the flame.

Jesse uses native woods in his smokery. "There's some really interesting African woods, but what's the point in using African wood in an English smokery?"

Attached to the smokery is a small shop and restaurant that allows Brown and Forest to show off its wares, furthermore each part of the business can play off each other, with restaurant eaters buying something to take home and mail order customers making the effort to seek it out when on holiday. This combination of wholesale, shop and restaurant means that Jesse's eggs aren't all in one basket. Now I wonder if he's ever tried smoking an egg?

Watch Jesse explaining the skill of smoking