A recent chef-retailer link-up in the United Kingdom has Waitrose launching tea-smoked salmon prepared to a recipe by molecular cuisine maestro Heston Blumenthal.
The upmarket retailer is collaborating with Michelin-starred Blumenthal to roll out a cured salmon product smoked with an oak-chipping — Lapsang Souchong tea mix.
One of a range of product collaborations with the chef, the tea-smoked salmon is actually produced by long-standing Waitrose supplier The Seafood Co., part of UK seafood giant Young’s.
For several years, UK retailers have tapped into the tremendous sales opportunities that popular chefs provide. Reportedly, at Christmas time, Blumental’s Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding for Waitrose sold out in all stores and was even apparently being sold on eBay for up to GBP 120.
According to Waitrose, the Scottish salmon it uses for the product is sourced “from the waters around the north and west coasts and islands of Scotland, where stronger currents make the fish less fatty and ideal for smoking.”
The farmed salmon is left to cure in a sea-salt and sugar mix prior to being smoked for 10 hours in traditional kilns over a mix of oak chippings and the distinctly perfumed black tea, Lapsang Souchong. Lapsang leaves are smoked over pinewood fires, encouraging a smokey taste. The cured salmon is matured for an additional three days before being sliced, packed and sent to Waitrose stores around the UK.
“The Lapsang Souchong Tea Smoked Salmon I have developed with Waitrose is delicious simply served on brown bread and butter with a squeeze of lemon,” said Blumental, who also owns The Fat Duck.
In a recent taste test on sliced smoked salmon carried out by UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph, Waitrose’s 140-gram pack of organic salmon, smoked over oak and sold by Waitrose for GBP 5.99 (USD 9.28, EUR 6.95), and the 200-gram pack of wild Orkney smoked salmon from Marks & Spencer at GBP 7.99 (USD 12.38, EUR 9.27) plucked the top positions, respectively, awarded five stars and four stars.
