‘If it moves we smoke it and if it doesn’t .. we smoke it’

Cat Thomson meets Iain Macrury, who counts himself fortunate to live and work in one of the world’s most beautiful and unspoilt places – an island where community and culture are still prominent

South Uist is one of the few places in Britain that hasn’t undergone industrial farming or been directly affected by heavy industry. The result is a rare coastal habitat (machair), plus miles of silver sands, rare wildlife and an abundance of produce.

With a population of fewer than 2000, jobs on the island are precious, and at Salar Smokehouse, the small team is passionate about the products it makes.

The company was set up in 1997 as an artisan offshoot to provide extra income from a fish farm. The original owner, Eric Twelves, designed and built his own unique kilns based on the dimensions of a biscuit tin smoker he used at home to preserve his fish.

In 2008, the Salar Smokehouse brand was born and by 2009 it was owned by an even larger company called Loch Duart.

A potential disaster for the local economy occurred in 2015 when the company was put up for sale but Iain Macrury, the production manager, bought it with the aim of relaunching the famous Salar brand.

He explained: “I couldn’t let it disappear, I couldn’t be allowed to leave the island."

Was it fate? “I don’t know," he said, “possibly. My mother believes in that sort of thing. We are still based in the same factory space on the shore of Loch Carnan, in the same bay that my grandfather used to fish out of. It feels as if I’m going back to my roots.”

Since taking over Salar Smokehouse it has expanded its range to include cold smoked honey and thyme, chilli and thyme, chilli and lime, lemon and black pepper, lemon and tarragon flavours. The bestseller is still the Hot Flaky Smoked Salmon, which has won numerous awards.

The company is named after the Latin term for Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and employs seven local people all year round, as well as seasonal staff. Mr Twelves is still around to offer advice, Mr Macrury said. ”I’ve consulted him often. I ask him about new things to find out, he is very supportive and he suggests try this or try that. The best part is, I’m proud to say, Eric still buys the product. That is better than any award you can win.”

Mr Macrury explained that the unique smoking process is done in a kiln, which was hand-built and made on the island at the MOD range by apprentices. In 2017, they made the 20th anniversary Salar presentation tin; with a nod to its humble beginnings, it looked like the original biscuit tin smoker.

Mr Macrury, the youngest of six children, recalled his idyllic childhood on Benbecula. “It was a lovely place to grow up, safe and in such a nice area. It was a great upbringing where you could roam, fish or work on the croft – it was a happy place and safe.”

With machair grazing for cattle on the croft as well as some arable land, he said: “We had to muck out cows, make corn stooks and stacks or cut peat. You really have to be a jack-of-all-trades with a real sense of community spirit, as the family were often drafted in to help when needed.”

His father worked as a black

smith on Benbecula in the 1940s but turned his hand to anything to survive.

Mr Macrury said he was spoilt with food growing up – “high-class products, langoustines, crabs, lobsters, local lamb, beef, mutton. Dad also shot, so we had wild duck or geese. My mother is a great baker and we never went hungry."

His nephew has taken over the croft and is the fourth generation to live and work there. Mr Macrury didn’t feel that crofting was for him and he stays with his family a mile away. “I kind of regret it but I made my own path.”

He and his wife Emma know hard work, running both Salar and Charlie’s Bistro in Benbecula. As he wryly admitted, “I am following in my father’s footsteps working all day and all night.”

He worked on the MOD range before studying business management at Lews Castle College on the Isle of Lewis. Then he worked in hotels, bars and restaurants in Stornoway, Inverness and Glasgow but “I was homesick all the time, I would come home at every opportunity. I wasn’t a city person. I have to see the sea, hear the sea. There is something in the islanders, something about it, that calls you back.”

He came back to work as a chef for

Polochar Inn on South Uist, “with a free rein to support local food suppliers. We cooked Ready, Steady, Cook style, so shellfish, and plenty of it."

There he met Emma in the 1980s and, after a brief romance, they lost touch for 20 years. He said: “The call of the isles sent her back and the perfect fairytale happened, we met again and ended up getting married.” But in 2009 he was offered a 9 to 5 job in the smokehouse which worked with his family life.

Has he ever want to give up? “Never, not one day. Every day is still exciting and demanding. I have personal pride in getting it right, and 0 Left: Iain Macrury from Salar Smokehouse on South Uist, also above. Top: Iain with his wife Emma at the smokery. Far left: some of the company’s bestselling products

Hebridean pride. Every day is different.” he said.

The salmon is laid flat and drycured, within legal requirements for salt, then placed flat on trays and exposed to extreme heat, 60kg every 30 minutes. It is a fast procedure which retains the moisture and provides the perfect balance of flavours between fish, salt and smoke.

Mr Macrury said: “We can smoke 500 kilos a day or half a ton of fish at Christmas time.

‘When it is busy, everyone jumps in to help – my brother and sister-inlaw and friends. We are a hands-on business and family is important to me. I guess I’m the wee brother and they are all quite proud and want to help me succeed.”

They had explored the possibility of a new factory as part of a joint community project with a viewing corridor so visitors could see the whole process but, he said, “funding for this wasn’t right”. However, the collaborative aspect and community sharing idea appeals and “it would be a great thing moving forward”.

The only thing hidden would be the secret process – “We can’t have anyone copying it”.

He is passionate about Scotland’s produce and, in particular, those with Hebridean provenance, the seafood being the “freshest, with no one handling it. It comes out of the sea straight onto the plate within the hour.

“You can mess about to add value and flavour but we try to keep it as simple as we can and our customers are always delighted. It is what the customers demand now.

"We smoke mainly salmon, although we have smoked local venison, goose and scallops. We like to experiment on a small scale.”

Mr Macrury joked: ”If it moves we smoke it and if it doesn’t.. we smoke it. We also have a couple of ranges at Charlie’s Bistro which are not available anywhere else.”

When lockdown happened the company didn’t know how it was going to survive. He explained: “We had to close down. Employing people in both the smokehouse and at the bistro is a lot of responsibility. During the lockdown we had no days off, working all day and night just to keep afloat.”

At the smokehouse, demand went through the roof. “Mail orders really picked up, to every postcode from south England to Orkney and Shetland, so just like Christmas."

Juggling health provision, island life and tourism is a thorny subject. “It is worrying, visitors coming from the UK and abroad, but we need visitors and we need to welcome them. We need to find the balance.” He is confident it will be all right because people are abiding by the rules to ensure that everyone remains safe.

And visitors spend money but the economic effects are still felt long after they leave. “Although they might visit once in 20 years, they perhaps buy online every year to support us in the Hebrides,” he said.