Arthurstown is a small village at the foot of the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, the kind of place that looks out to sea and takes its time. It seems fitting, then, that one of Ireland’s finest artisan smokehouses has been operating quietly here for generations. Ballyhack Smokehouse is a family business — five generations deep, according to the Walsh family who run it — and the salmon they produce is among the most distinctive in the country.
The Method
The process is slow by design. The salmon — grade-one Scottish farmed fish and organic Irish salmon reared off the west coast — is cold-smoked using beechwood chips for up to 48 hours. Beechwood rather than the sawdust used in most commercial operations, and the difference is immediately noticeable: a lighter, more subtle smoke that infuses rather than overwhelms. The flesh stays silky. The flavour is genuinely clean.
Ballyhack is one of Ireland’s oldest operating smokehouses, and the artisan method is something they’re explicit about protecting. There’s been investment in the facility in recent years — upgraded production, a retail outlet at the premises — but the fundamentals of the process haven’t changed. The fish is still smoked the way it always was.
Where to Find It
You can buy directly from the Ballyhack Smokehouse website and have it delivered nationally — the packaging is designed for postal delivery and arrives in excellent condition. It’s also worth visiting in person if you’re doing the Hook Peninsula circuit; the retail outlet is at the premises in Arthurstown. For anyone planning a serious seafood spread — Christmas, a celebration, or just a Sunday that deserves better than the supermarket — a full side of Ballyhack smoked salmon is the kind of thing that quietly makes you look like you know what you’re doing.
Five generations, one method. Ballyhack Smokehouse makes the kind of smoked salmon that reminds you why the artisan version is worth seeking out.
Ballyhack Smokehouse is in Arthurstown, Co. Wexford. Order online and find stockist details at ballyhacksmokehouse.com.
