Cullen Skink

Though I sampled the local specialties of Haggis and Black Pudding while in Scotland and ate so much salmon that it came out my ears, it was the chowder-like soup called Cullen Skink that all three of us loved and ordered over and over again.

A creamy soup made from smoked haddock and potatoes, it was on almost every menu.

Whether at a pub, a road-side rest stop or the café at the Kelvingrove Art Museum, we found ourselves enjoying it for lunch or snack quite often.

We grew quite fond of it despite its funny and unfortunate name, skink being too close to "stink" and the slang term of "skank" here in the U.S.

The first part of the name comes from the Northern fishing village of Cullen where the main ingredient, Finnan Haddie (haddock smoked using green wood and peat), was made.   The second part of the name "skink" isn't as easy to track down and theories abound.

After coming home, we were eager to find a good recipe and re-create this Scottish chowder to share with friends and family.

First we found this article in The Guardian which compared methods of preparing the soup.  It seemed that the secret to a good skink was poaching the smoked haddock and using the resulting liquid as the base for the soup.



Though we found lots of cooked smoked fish, it was harder to find uncooked Finnan Haddie.  We couldn't find it anywhere locally and were starting to give up until our Scottish friend Evelyn turned us on to this online source.

Haddie in hand...



Jimmy set out to make a batch of Cullen Skink to take to our family Thanksgiving gathering that we had this past weekend.



It's a simple recipe...fish, leeks, potatoes and milk...



Jim is the chef in our house and loves nothing better than chopping and preparing food.  He finds it relaxing.

I find it relaxing too since he's doing it and not me!!  We're a match made in heaven.



The soup turned out just as we hoped but the family results were mixed.

All of the adults loved it; but the kids?

Well, even before tasting it there was...

"There's FISH (with wrinkled-up nose, disgusted-face looks) in this soup?  oh......."

And after tasting it...

"It's pretty good considering it has fish in it."

Let's just say, there were lots of left-overs in the kids' bowls for parents to enjoy.

Happy Soup Days to all of you.