"We’ve been lighting a fire here for over 150 years."
Traditional methods passed down through one family and used in the same premises of a business in a North Yorkshire town bring about a unique side-effect thanks to a visible and aromatic part of the process, its owner said.
Barry Brown is the fifth-generation manger and partner at Fortune’s Kippers in Whitby – the coastal town’s only traditional smokehouse.
Founded in 1872, the manual skills carried out seven days a week include gutting and splitting fresh herring then hanging them in the old tar-lined wooden building in Henrietta Street to be cold-smoked over wood until cured into kippers.
The end-product is herring eaten mainly as a savoury breakfast or light meal, often served hot with bread or toast, butter and sometimes eggs.
Fortune’s Kippers favourite way to cook kippers is to poach them in water.
Mr Brown said: “When we finish the shift at 4pm we light the fires and close the smokehouse up.
“Depending upon demand, we then come in between 7am and 7.30am the next morning.”
The end-of-day process creates a “light grey, light blue” smoke which Mr Brown says smells quite sweet.
Firefighters have been called to reports of smoke issuing from eaves of the property where the magic happens and which has been mistaken for an emergency.
Mr Brown said he’s incredibly grateful that members of the public do the right thing and raise the alarm, especially as the building is part-wooden.
He said: “It’s not really a problem once people have read the signs, but I can understand some people getting bothered when they see the smoke, but we’ve been lighting a fire here for in the same spot for 150 years.”