500 wines and salmon - more news about the super salmon

The salmon I found so melt own the mouth was from Hansen and Lydersen. The family business started in Norway. The grand-daughter has revived it in London. Her son does the smoking. I met a lady - I'm a bit confused, I am not sure whether I met his mother or his wife. Anyway, what is clear is that it's a family business.

The brochure explains everything in exquisite detail. The salmon is smoked in a mixture of beech and juniper wood. It is not frozen. It is wrapped in paper, not plastic. The London smokehouse will send the salmon to you the day that it is ready. Outside London you will get it delivered a day later.

So far, so good. But the really interesting thing for me was that you get different flavours in different parts of the fish. The salty and smokey flavour is more pronounced in the thinner tail. The subtler flavour is in the lower middle. You can follow their guide and choose which parts you prefer. If you order a whole side you get both and can compare.

Names to Remember
How do you remember the names? Norwegian names sound strange to people in London. Sen means son. Like Williamson and Robertson in English-speaking countries. So Hansen sounds like son of Hans. Lydersen sounds like son of Lyder. The family member who started it all was a salmon fisherman called Lyder-Nilsen. (Think of son of Nil or Neil). He was born in 1886 in Norway.

Fish Fit For A King or Queen
If you order the Queen Maud Fillet, named after Noway's Queen Maud, who preferred this, you get the most succulent part of the salmon.

Tasting and Buying
You might be able to taste their smoked salmon at restaurants such as Le Meurice in Paris or The Dorchester and others in London. You can buy and taste it at delicatessens such as La Fromagerie in London (one of my favourites - they have a great cafe cum restaurant. You might also be able to buy from Harrods or Ocado. In addition Hansen-Lydersen also sell at a couple of markets.

I must say that having tried smoked salmon in thick cuts, I much prefer this style. The thin slices you normally get in the plastic wrap packets from supermarkets seem awfully mean and tasteless - except for the ones which are over-salted. If you want to order online, you must order 48 hours in advance.

Keen Tourists and Big Buyers
You can visit their smokehouses in London or the Cotswolds.
Email: contact@hansen-lydersen.com

They have an amusing concertina book about the company with the addresses on the back.

email: orders@hansen-lydersen.com
website: hansen-lydersen.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.