By Girl Up North Meets Alfred Enderby
When I moved back to Cleethorpes I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of my old colleagues Patrick Salmon was the proud owner of Alfred Enderby’s on Grimsby Docks.
Alfred Enderby has been smoking fish in a traditional way for over 100 years since it’s inception back in 1918. It has enjoyed many years of success thanks to the Enderby family and in 2016 Patrick took hold of the reigns and has continued that success.
Impressively they have won numerous awards including runner up for “Best Individual Product” in the Slow Food London Awards, in 2017 they won Producer of the Year at the Lincolnshire Life Magazine Taste of Excellence Awards and have also received two Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Foods in 2018. Most impressively their Grimsby Traditional Smoked Haddock has being awarded PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status. This protects a regional food that has a specific quality, reputation or other characteristics attributable to that area.
After bumping into Patrick at a networking event he invited me down to the smoke house for a tour. On the 2nd April I put on my wellies and headed down to Grimsby Docks to see where the magic happens. It’s been a long time since I visited the docks and felt a little nostalgic with this little trip down memory lane.
My tour started with Patrick showing me where they bring in the fresh fish each morning from Grimsby Fish Market, so early starts all round! It’s then filleted by their expert filleters removing all the bones. The following stage is the curing which is brining for haddock and salting for salmon.
Next the fun bit, the smoking!
The fish is placed into huge smoking chimneys, smouldering sawdust is placed over fresh sawdust and the smoking begins. Naturally formed tar is inside the chimneys and I must say I have never seen tar look so pretty! The fish is then packed and chilled ready for delivery.
Not only do Enderby’s deliver to wholesalers across the country, supply Michelin star restaurants in the big smoke, they also deliver across the UK straight to your door!
I was able to take some of this gorgeous fish home with me. As per Patricks recommendation I cooked the haddock with spinach, cream and a little mustard. All I can say is WOW it was amazing. He also recommended other recipes I can try and I am secretly hoping an Alfred Enderby cook book is on the horizon.
It was fantastic to see the smoking process and the impressive chimneys in the smoke house. I would 100% recommend popping down to see how it’s done. Massive thank you to Patrick for showing me his world!
Companies like Alfred Enderby are a credit to our business community and I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves in the future.
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