Whilst trawlers no longer line Grimsby’s fish docks, its processing operations are alive, well, and nationally renowned… and its reputation for producing smoked fish is particularly well-earned. This month, we meet one of the town’s oldest and most highly regarded smokeries, Alfred Enderby Ltd.

For Richard and George Enderby, owners of Alfred Enderby’s smoke house since 1989, producing their smoked fish is not just a matter of producing quality food, it’s a matter of keeping the family business and the town’s fish dock culture alive and well.

In the 21st century, Grimsby’s fish dock is no longer the home of many smaller smoke houses standing alongside the bases for trawlermen’s pontoons, but rather a smaller number of more consolidated smoke houses competing with large kiln-smoking operations supplying the supermarkets and larger retailers with fresh smoked fish in massive quantities.

It’s an industry with a rapid turnaround, and Alfred Enderby’s 24 hour period from removing their fish from their houses to its arrival at the wholesalers and to their customers is no exception, but the process of smoking their fish is altogether more patient and considered than the large smoke-injecting operations supplying the supermarkets, not to mention a process which begins punishingly early in the morning on a cold, bustling fish dock.

“We buy around 25-30 boxes each morning.” Says George Enderby, the main buyer for the company. “Each box weighs about 50kg, we’ve three fishmongers who prepare the fillets and soak each one in brine for around ten minutes.”

The company produces around 150 boxes comprising 6-7 fillets each day, using around six tonnes of fresh fish to produce three tonnes of finished smoked fish, predominantly working with haddock but also producing dry salted smoked salmon.

The company’s products are markedly different from today’s rapidly cured fish, and command a premium in terms of price, but there’s no substitute for the expertise that has gone into ensuring the very best flavour and texture from each fillet.

Alfred Enderby’s premises comprise two storey smoke building dating back over a hundred years – the original purpose of the building is undocumented, but it was converted into a smoke house before the Second World War after which Alfred Enderby, Richard and George’s