Cullen Skink

the Moray coast's soup of undyed smoked haddock poached in milk with onion and potato, some of it mashed to thicken the pot

Origin: Cullen, Moray & the North-East of Scotland

From the journey of Potato.

Cullen skink is a soup of smoked haddock, potato, onion, and milk from the fishing town of Cullen on the Moray Firth. Skink is an old Scots word for a shin of beef and by extension for a soup made from it, and the name has transferred to a fish soup that contains no beef at all, which is a not uncommon fate for a dish name. The fish must be undyed smoked haddock, and in its most correct form the Cullen skink is made with a finnan haddie: a haddock split, brined, and cold-smoked over peat, named for the village of Findon south of Aberdeen. The bright yellow smoked fillets sold in most supermarkets are dyed and are usually hot-smoked or lightly cured; they will make a soup, but a pallid and oddly sweet one. A proper finnan is pale straw-coloured, firm, and smells of smoke rather than of colouring. The thickening is done with the potato and nothing else. Some of the cooked potato is mashed into the soup and the rest is left in pieces, which gives body without flour or cream. A skink that has been thickened with a roux is thicker and duller, and the Cullen Skink World Championship, held in the town since 2013, has views on the matter. The milk is poached rather than boiled, and the fish goes in whole and is flaked back afterwards, so that the pieces stay in recognisable flakes. It is served with bread and butter and, on the Moray coast, is a lunch rather than a starter.

Ingredients

Fish

500 g undyed smoked haddock, ideally finnan haddie, on the bone if possible

Base

600 ml whole milk
300 ml water
1 bay leaf
2 onions, finely chopped
50 g butter

Body

700 g floury potatoes, peeled and diced

Seasoning

1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 salt, to taste

To finish

3 tbsp chives or parsley, chopped
2 tbsp double cream, optional

Method

Put the haddock in a wide pan with the milk, water, and bay leaf and bring it slowly to just below a simmer.
Poach for six to eight minutes, until the flesh flakes, then lift the fish out and set it aside. Keep the poaching liquid.
Never boil the milk. It catches on the base, splits, and takes on a scalded taste that no amount of seasoning will hide.
Skin and bone the fish and flake it into large pieces, keeping any bones and skin.
Return the bones and skin to the poaching liquid, simmer for ten minutes, then strain it and discard them. This is what turns a milk poach into a stock.
Melt the butter in the pan and soften the onions over a low heat for ten minutes without colouring.
Add the diced potatoes and the strained poaching liquid and simmer for fifteen minutes, until the potatoes are completely tender.
Lift out about a third of the potato, mash it smooth, and stir it back in.
That mashed third is the only thickening the soup gets, and it is the whole difference between a Cullen skink and a chowder.
Return the flaked fish, warm it through for two minutes without letting the pot boil, and season with pepper and a little salt.
Taste before salting. Smoked haddock brings a great deal of its own and many pots need none.
Scatter with chives, add the cream if you like, and serve with bread and butter.

Notes

Undyed smoked haddock is not a preference but the recipe; the dyed yellow fillet gives a different and worse soup. Poach below a simmer. Simmer the bones and skin in the poaching liquid for ten minutes before straining, which is the step that gives the soup its depth. Thicken with mashed potato and not with flour. Salt last. It thickens on standing and is loosened with a little more milk when reheated, gently.

The Gastrographer

Name: Cullen Skink
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Moray & the North-East of Scotland
Ingredients: 500 g undyed smoked haddock, ideally finnan haddie, on the bone if possible; 600 ml whole milk; 300 ml water; 1 bay leaf; 2 onions, finely chopped; 50 g butter; 700 g floury potatoes, peeled and diced; 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper; 1 salt, to taste; 3 tbsp chives or parsley, chopped; 2 tbsp double cream, optional

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control