About Woodcock Smokery

Hello. My name is Sally Barnes, I'm the founder and owner of Woodcock Smokery, let me introduce myself and my business to you.

At that time my fisherman husband brought home quantities of delicious fresh fish which we very much enjoyed cooking and eating. However, there was no freezer in the house then and so I began experimenting with smoking fish to preserve it, both enhancing its natural flavours and giving it a longer shelf life than fresh fish. My early experiments were with a tea chest and pan set in the bottom of it, but in 1981 I acquired an Afos mini-kiln in settlement of a debt and set about acquiring the real skills of the smoker’s art.

After a lot of further experimentation with the kiln, I settled on a variety of recipes for smoking fish, to preserve the fresh tastes and excellent quality of the raw material that the local fishermen provided. The kiln made it possible for me to produce both cold and hot-smoked fish. Cold smoking is at a temperature of less than 30°C which means that the fish is ‘cured’, hot smoking at a higher temperature means that the fish is smoked and cooked at the same time.

Working things out for yourself is good, but it can only take you so far, and by now I really wanted to know and understand more of the processes involved in producing such wonderful food. So, in 1991, I studied Food Production Systems with the Open University and then the following year I took the OU course on Oceanography. More and better equipment, premises and facilities followed as we continued to refine our skills and establish a customer base for a range of fish products including mackerel, herring, tuna, haddock and pollack.

Since then, we have regularly attended national and international festivals and conferences, adding to and sharing our knowledge with chefs, restaurateurs, retailers, academics and policy-makers. In 2006, our smoked salmon was awarded Best Speciality Product, Best Fresh Product and Supreme Champion in the Great Taste Awards, the ultimate recognition for food producers in the UK and Ireland.

In 2009, we won Best Irish Speciality Award at the Great Taste Awards and a Special Commendation from the judges.



In 1996, I attended Slow Food’s Salone del Gusto in Turin, and became a huge fan of the Slow Food ethos, which seeks to preserve the pleasures of the table from the pressures of mass-production of foods. Many of us live such fast lives these days that we don’t take the time to enjoy both preparing our food and the pleasures of enjoying of good food with good company. The Woodcock Smokery workshop is a 'Centre of Learning' for the Slow Food University of Gastronomy, in Pollenza, Italy.

Slow Food also seeks to protect regional foods from the ravages of over-regulation, which too often cause the closure of very small, artisan businesses.

Woodcock Smokery is such a business, small, family-run, making use exclusively of wild fish caught by sustainable methods. Our methodology is time-honoured and traditional and all our products take time to prepare and finish without making use of any colourings or artificial preservatives. All we add are salt, smoke, skill, care, and lots of time.

Taste for yourself, and then you’ll see what we mean.

Sally Barnes