This dish has an ancestry stretching back to at least the 16 th Century where they were mentioned in the household book of James V. Finnan Haddies are direct descendants of “speldings” which Robert Ferguson refers to in his 1773 poem “The Leith Races” – “Guid speldins, fa will buy?”. In that same year James Boswell described them as being “salted and dried in a particular manner, being dipped in the sea and dried in the sun, and eaten by the Scots by way of a relish”. Apparently you could also buy them in London!

Whilst speldings were a hard, salted, unsmoked haddock the modern Finnans are lightly salted and smoked and this process was developed in the fishing village of Findrum around six miles south of Aberdeen. The advent of the railways was responsible for changing the speldings into the smoked haddock of today and this fabulous dish can be prepared for breakfast, lunch or dinner and can be served with oatcakes, bread and butter or boiled floury potatoes, baked tomatoes and maybe some buttered spinach.

You will need:

From Our Shop

750g of skinned Smoked Haddock

Other Ingredients

8 fl/oz Double Cream
Freshly ground pepper
A little butter
4 poached eggs

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/Gas 4/Bottom Shelf of Aga Roasting Oven.

Put the fish “skin” side down into a “greased” shallow dish. Pour over the cream and grind some black pepper over the top (no need for salt since the fish has it’s own saltiness). Bake for around 20-30 minutes but check during this cooking time to make sure that the fish is still coated with the cream which will reduce and thicken.Serve topped with a lightly poached egg. Yummy, the yolk spills out all over the creamy fish and I drool over its deliciousness.