O
le Hansen runs a business
smoking salmon, just as his
grandfather and great
grandfather did before him.
Nothing too remarkable in
that, perhaps, except you’ll find this
Norwegian’s small, homemade, lean-to
smokehouse in a quiet mews street in
north London.
“
It was about recreating something that
was lost from my childhood,” says Hansen
of his decision, four years ago, to abandon
a career as a sound artist in order to build
a smokehouse in the UK capital.
He started, he says proudly, with a stove
that he got for £25 (NOK215). And his
smokehouse produces a vertical airflow in
which his salmon sway as they smoke for
12
hours, just as they would in the wind
back home in his native Kirkenes, northern
Norway. “It’s like the way Linie Aquavit is
made in barrels that move around the
world,” says Hansen. “The movement gives
that something special to the flavour.”
It’s this detail, according to Hansen, that
helps produce the best-tasting smoked
salmon in the world. He also plays piano
to the salmon as it smokes – he favours
Edvard Grieg – but that’s more for his own
benefit than for the fish.
He only uses local producers for his
ingredients, from the sweet Fleur de Sel
de Guérande used for hand-salting, to the
W o r d s
⁄
T o b y S k i n n e r
P h o t o s
⁄
A l u n C a l l e n d e r
juniper and beech-wood chips procured
from a small German supplier fuelling the
stove – it has to be 70 per cent beech
wood and 30 per cent juniper to get the
perfect blend of sweet and smoky.
The salmon is currently sourced from
a family farm in the Faroe Islands, where
the fish is de-stressed before it’s killed –
though he’s now looking at another farm in
Tromsø to keep things Norwegian. Scottish
salmon is off-limits because, he says, none
of the producers is small scale enough.
Chefs like it, too, from Michelin-starred
Nuno Mendes to the near-ubiquitous
Yotam Ottolenghi. Hansen sells wholesale
for £70 (NOK600) for a whole salmon or
£40 (NOK345) for a 600g fillet, but you can
get 100g for £5 (NOK45) at various times at
east London’s Broadway Market, Camden
Passage in Islington or Borough Market
in south London. You can even visit his
smokehouse on a Thursday or Friday – and
London is closer to Oslo than Kirkenes is.
hansen-lydersen.com
Norwegian flies to new hub London Gatwick
frommore than 20 destinations
Opposite
⁄
Ole
Hansen at work in
his north London
smokehouse
Top
⁄
The salmon is
hand-salted
Left
⁄
Hansen’s
wood-chip blend is
mostly beech wood
mixed with juniper
for perfect flavour
Waste.
“
The top gets
the least smoke,
and is cleaner and
creamier than
other sections.
I’ve found men
often like the tail
and women the
upper section.”
“
The lower-middle part
is the thickest part and
many say the best – it has a
sweeter, milder flavour than
the tail.”
“
Thinner and closer
to the smoke, the tail is
saltier, with a tougher
structure and more
intense flavour.”
Ole Hansen’s smoked
salmon taste guide
“
I’ll turn up to a party
smelling of fish,
but people like it –
they’ll sniff my scarf
and go, ‘Ahhhh’”
“
It’s about integrity – I want to work with
people who have a sustainable business
because their families rely on it.”
After the fastidious salting, the
preparation of the wood and the 12-hour
smoking process, the fish is ready. Once
done, he refuses to chop the fish on
plastic, insisting on using a slab of oak like
his grandfather did. He’s appalled by the
thought of plastic touching the fish. And
don’t even mention vacuum packing.
The result is astonishing – a rich flavour
of sea and woods with a lingering aroma.
“
I’ll turn up to a party smelling of fish,” says
Hansen, “but people like it. They’ll sniff my
scarf and go, ‘Ahhhh’.”
Head
Tail
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