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Broiled Finnan Haddie
Soak whole finnan haddies or fillets in cold water 1/2 hour. Drain and wipe dry. Spread with softened butter or olive oil, and grill, allowing 6-7 minutes to each side.
Finnan haddie is cold-smoked haddock: cured and smoked but essentially raw, and often quite salty. The soak and the full cooking time are both doing real work here.
- Don't skip the soakHalf an hour in cold water pulls out enough salt to make the fish palatable; older, drier, heavily cured pieces may want an hour, with a change of water. Modern commercial finnan haddie is usually milder, so taste a corner after cooking a test piece if you are unsure.
- It is not cooked yetCold smoking flavours the fish at temperatures too low to cook it. Grill it through to opaque and flaking, an internal temperature of 145F, rather than treating it like hot-smoked fish that only needs warming.
- Timing depends on thicknessSix to seven minutes a side suits a whole split haddie or a thick fillet of an inch or so. Thin supermarket fillets a half-inch thick will be done in 3-4 minutes a side, and overcooking dries smoked haddock badly.
- Skin side firstIf the skin is on, start skin down and give it the longer stretch. The skin helps hold the flesh together for the turn.
- Butter is structuralSmoked haddock is lean and sticks readily. Oil the rack or grate as well as the fish, and brush on more butter after turning.
- Yield and servingAllow about 6-8 oz of soaked fish per person as a main course. It wants lemon, plenty of black pepper, and something starchy and bland alongside; boiled potatoes are traditional.