The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Smokie Trail baits foodies, history buffs
Anew food and drink trail has launched with the aim of putting one of Angus’ most well-known delicacies on the map: Arbroath smokies.
The Arbroath Smokie Trail takes visitors from the Arbroath Signal Tower Museum along the coastline to Auchmithie.
Along the route, there are five locations that tell the story of the smokies, including the museum itself, which allows those participating to learn more about the local fishing industry and what makes a smokie a smokie.
Visitors then make their way along to Arbroath harbour, where the surrounding fisheries produce the famous smokies.
Further along the route, visitors are able to taste it for themselves at the Fit o’ the Toon, before heading along to Arbroath cliffs.
After this, the final stop is the small village of Auchmithie, around three miles north-east of Arbroath.
It is thought to be here that the idea of smoking fish over barrels first started in Scotland as Scandinavian settlers travelled across the North Sea, bringing the technique with them.
One of the organisers, Sophie Thomson from Appetite For Angus, said: “The trail is part of the work we do for Scotland Food and Drink, where we said we would work on three trails to promote Angus as a food and drink destination of choice in Scotland.”
Free to attend, the trail has been put together by Appetite for Angus in partnership with Visit Angus, Angus Tourism Co-operative, ANGUSalive, Webster Memorial Theatre and other venues, as well as local hospitality businesses and a collective of local community groups, including Auchmithie HAAR and Fit o’ the Toon Community Association.
Arbroath smokie ambassador Iain Spink said an Arbroath smokie has to be made from haddock and goes through a lengthy process before it is ready to be served.
He said: “It starts off as a haddock which has been gutted, at sea ideally, then we head them, we clean them, we salt them for several hours, tie them in pairs, wash the salt off, hang them on these special sticks and let them drip for a short while.
“Then we cook them over a hardwood log fire in the barrel. The barrel method I’m using is an original way to do it – it’s an exact recreation of the original process, thought to have started possibly by the Vikings.
“Nobody knows truly when the Arbroath smokie started. My theory is it came across with the Vikings and slowly evolved over the years into the Arbroath smokie we know today.”
The trail is in its pilot phase of the project, with more destinations expected to be added and the full launch to occur next year as part of Visit Scotland’s Year of Storytelling.