Irish Smoked Salmon

Two distinctions matter when buying. The first is smoke: cold-smoked salmon is cured in salt then smoked below thirty degrees, so it stays raw in texture and slices translucent, while hot-smoked is cooked through and flakes. Irish practice is predominantly cold smoking over oak, often from old whiskey barrels, and the better smokehouses still cure by hand rather than injecting brine. The second is the fish. Wild Atlantic salmon commercial netting was effectively ended in Ireland in 2007 to protect collapsing stocks, so almost everything sold now is farmed, some of it organically certified in Clare and Donegal; anything sold as wild is either rod-caught under strict licence or, at a certain price point, worth questioning. Smokehouses at Burren, Ummera, Connemara, Woodcock and elsewhere sell direct. The traditional accompaniment is brown soda bread, butter, lemon and capers, and nothing more.

What you actually see

• Cold versus hot smoking - translucent and raw-textured against cooked and flaking.
• The oak - often from whiskey barrels, in the traditional smokehouses.
• The wild fishery closure - commercial netting ended in 2007.
• The serving - brown soda bread, butter, lemon and capers.

When to go

Any time; smokehouses sell year-round and several have shops open to visitors. Christmas is peak season and prices rise.

Honest expectations

Almost all of it is farmed - claims of wild salmon deserve scrutiny given the fishery closure. Prices vary by a wide margin for products that look similar. Supermarket own-brand and artisan smokehouse products are not comparable.

Nearby

Smokehouses with shops operate in west Cork, Connemara, Sligo and Donegal.