Cullen skink
A soup from the fishing village of Cullen with no flour and no cream to thicken it — the body comes from crushed potatoes. The second rule concerns the fish: it is poached in milk, not water, and that milk then becomes the soup. Nothing is wasted and nothing is accidental, as in many good fishing-village recipes.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Fish in milk 12 min
- Onion and butter 10 min
- Potatoes 18 min
- Combining 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePoach the fish in milk, not boiling water
Put the fish in a shallow pan, cover with the milk and bay and heat for 10 minutes — the milk should barely tremble. Boiling milk sets the fish hard and boils over. Lift the fish out and keep all the milk; it is the base of the soup.
Ingredients: 500 g smoked haddock · 600 ml milk · 1 pcs bay leaf
The milk trembles, it never boils.Flake the fish and check for bones
Break the fish into large flakes, discarding the skin and running your fingers over the flesh to find bones. Keep the flakes big — the finished soup should have clear pieces of fish, not shreds dissolved into the milk.
Ingredients: 500 g smoked haddock · 600 ml milk · 1 pcs bay leaf
Soften the onion and leek in butter
Sweat the onion and the white of the leek in butter for 10 minutes over low heat, until soft and translucent but not coloured. This soup wants no browned flavour — it should read milky and smoky, not caramelised.
Ingredients: 50 g butter · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs leek · 500 g potatoes · 300 ml water · ½ tsp pepper
Translucent, without a trace of colour.Cook the potatoes in water, not milk
Add the diced potatoes and cover with water alone, simmering 18 minutes until tender. In milk the potatoes would soften more slowly, and milk simmered for long catches and scorches easily — which is why the milk goes in only at the end, after the potatoes are done.
Ingredients: 50 g butter · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs leek · 500 g potatoes · 300 ml water · ½ tsp pepper
Crush half the potatoes against the pan
Crush roughly half the potatoes against the side of the pot with a fork, leaving the rest in cubes. This is the only thickener in the soup — there is no flour and no roux. Blended smooth, it would lose its character entirely.
Ingredients: 50 g butter · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs leek · 500 g potatoes · 300 ml water · ½ tsp pepper
Half crushed, half left in cubes.Add the poaching milk and heat gently
Strain the poaching milk into the pot, add the fish and warm through without letting it boil. Milk with potatoes in it catches on the base and scorches easily, and scorched milk taints the whole pot. Season with pepper — salt is usually unnecessary, the smoked fish brings enough.
Ingredients: 50 g butter · 1 pcs onion · 1 pcs leek · 500 g potatoes · 300 ml water · ½ tsp pepper
Serve with plenty of chives
Stir in the cream if using and scatter generously with chives and parsley. This soup is creamy, milky and smoky — it needs a fresh, bright note, and that is what the herbs provide; they are not decoration.
Ingredients: 80 ml whipping cream (30%) · ½ bunch chives · ¼ bunch parsley
Before you start
Which fish
The original is finnan haddie — cold-smoked, undyed haddock. Smoked cod or pollock come closest elsewhere. Avoid bright yellow dyed fish: the colouring tints the entire soup an unnatural shade.
Do not reheat at a boil
A milk and potato soup reheated hard separates and catches. Warm it gently, stirring, and loosen with a little milk if needed.
Without the cream
The purist version has none — whole milk and potato are enough. Cream makes it smoother and heavier; if you are using semi-skimmed milk, add it, or the soup turns watery.
