Our Craft
Three generations,
two brick kilns.
Everything we sell still goes through the same brine, the same oak smoke and the same patience Sandy Guthrie started with — just with better boots.
Since 1962
From herring gutter's son to harbour shop
Sandy builds the first kiln
A herring gutter's son, Sandy Guthrie bricks a single cold-smoking kiln behind his father's net shed on Harbour Wynd.
A second kiln, for salmon
Demand from Edinburgh hotels prompts a second, larger kiln — still standing, still patched by hand each spring.
Isla takes over the smoking
Sandy's granddaughter Isla, trained as a marine biologist, returns to the family business and takes charge of the kilns.
The harbour shop opens
The net shed is converted into a proper shop front, so passers-by no longer have to knock on the smokehouse door.
Isla & Tom Guthrie
Isla runs the kilns, Tom runs the counter and the post orders, and the boats still land within sight of the shop window.
How it's done
Brine, smoke, rest
Brine overnight
Fish goes into a simple salt brine as soon as it's filleted — usually within an hour or two of coming off the boat.
Cold smoke, 18–24 hours
Oak, with the odd batch finished over whisky-cask chips, kept below 30°C so the fish cures rather than cooks.
Kippers get the hot kiln
Split whole and smoked overnight over a hotter oak fire, the old East Neuk way, then cooled before boxing.
Rest, then pack
Every batch rests for a day before it's sliced or packed, so the smoke settles evenly through the flesh.
Where it comes from
Nothing further than the next harbour
Our mackerel and herring come off day boats working out of Pittenweem and Anstruther — usually the Isabella J or the May Isle. Haddock comes from the same boats when the mackerel aren't running. Salmon is the one exception: it travels from a small independent farm on the west coast, since there's none to be had on this side of Fife.
We smoke to order in small batches rather than holding stock, which is why the shop sometimes sells out of kippers by Saturday lunchtime.
Who's smoking
The people behind the counter
Isla Guthrie
Smokehouse & kilnsSandy's granddaughter. Trained in marine biology at St Andrews before coming home to run the kilns in 2003.
Tom Guthrie
Shop & ordersRuns the counter, the post orders and the sampler boxes — and keeps the accounts Sandy never bothered with.