Full Day Smoking Course

Time: 9.30 am to 5 pm

The full-day interactive smoking course is all about learning the fundamentals of preparing, curing and smoking a variety of wild fish with Sally Barnes. This hands-on masterclass will focus on hot and cold smoking, where participants get to fillet, cure and smoke wild fish. It is suitable for home cooks as well as chefs who want to learn more about smoking. Participants will also learn the principles of smoking and curing other products like meat, poultry, cheeses, and vegetables.

Questions throughout the day are encouraged. Note-taking is advisable.

“Thank you for a fabulous experience, we really enjoyed the course” - Margot and Gabriel

“Invaluable information, this is above and beyond ANYTHING I had found on youtube!” - Orla

What to expect

• Welcome coffee/tea/well water on arrival

• A talk about Woodcock Smokery and Ireland’s vibrant culinary heritage

• Learn the Basic Hygiene principles of safe food production

• Discussion of choosing raw materials - wild fish, salt and wood

• Hands-on filleting, curing, cold and hot-smoking fish

• Tastings of Sally Barnes smoked products such as cold smoked haddock, hot and cold smoked Albacore tuna

• Casual sharing lunch of smoked fish, salads, West Cork cheeses, bread, pickles and more

• Something sweet

• Well water and homemade cordials

• You will get to bring home some of the cold and hot-smoked fish you created

• Other smoked fish products are available to purchase directly after the course

Full description of course schedule below

9.30 am

You will be welcomed into the famous Smokery of Sally Ferns Barnes for coffee and tea. Then, you will be introduced to Woodcock Smokery and the Sally Barnes Method, including a description of the traditional techniques of hot and cold smoking wild fish developed over 44 years.

Please note that the course starts at 10 am SHARP, as time and weather play a part in the smoking process.

10 am

You will enter the workshop, change into work clothes and learn the Basic Hygiene principles of safe food production.

10:30 am

Your first lesson will be about selecting good fish and identifying the quality of the raw product, including aspects of seasonality, provenance, and the physiology of wild fish from local waters.

11 am

Your second lesson will be hands-on filleting and learning about the tools of the trade for preparing raw, wild fish. This will include knife skills and filleting techniques. 

Depending on what is fresh and caught by local boats, you could be working with mackerel, whiting, gurnard, pollack, john dory, plaice, haddock or sole.

11:30 am

Your third lesson will be on salt-curing: the effects of different brine vs dry salting and how these affect different species of varying size, fat content, and musculature for the required preservation of salt-cured wild fish.

Your fish will be salted accordingly in preparation for the smoking process.

12 pm

Your fourth lesson will be about cold smoking. Some of the salted fish will be brought into the workshop for cold smoking. Here, you will learn about the different types of hardwood, burning temperature, and the release of esthers for flavour. Kilns will be lit, and your fish will cold smoke until cured, which would take any amount of time, depending on the variables of any given day, like humidity, temperature, and weather, and how these affect the fish during the smoke cure.

1 pm

Lunchtime. A long table lunch featuring some of your hot-smoked fish alongside some of Sally Barnes’ hot and cold-smoked products, local artisan cheeses, salads, pickles, chutneys and bread.

Weather permitting, we might stroll to the neighbouring Ringfort to soak in the West Cork fresh air.

2.30 pm

Your fifth lesson will be on the art of hot smoking, both the Sally Barnes Method and basic smoking in a kitchen environment. You will learn how to create delicious hot smoked fish with simple materials anywhere, whether at home, in a busy professional kitchen or on the beach.  

You will begin to hot-smoke the fish, which will be ready for you to bring home.

3.30 pm

Tea break. It's time to reflect on what you learned so far and check the cold-smoked fish in the kiln.

4 pm

Your sixth lesson will be an in-depth open discussion about Wild Fish. Informed by the direct experience of a former fisherwoman, commercial fisherman’s wife, active Slow Food member and producer of world-renowned hand-crafted artisan fare, Sally will enlighten you about the fascinating world of wild fish and what it means to be at the absolute apex of her industry, having spent forty years engaged with the land and sea of West Cork.

4.30 pm

At this point, the cold-smoked fish should be finished. We will vacuum-pack some fish for you to take home.

Your seventh and final lesson of the day is learning how to identify when the fish is properly cured. You will also learn about how long preserved fish can last, depending on the variables of the smoking process.

Please note that sometimes, the fish might not be ready to take home due to the weather. If this happens, we will arrange to deliver it to you via post over the next few days.

5 pm

Time to go home and practice what you have learned with friends, colleagues and family.