Smoked haddock is one of Britain’s classic smoked fish, haddock cured and smoked until firm, flavourful, and often dyed a golden yellow. The traditional colour came from the smoking process itself; much commercial smoked haddock is dyed to meet the expected hue, while undyed versions show the fish’s natural pale flesh. Finnan haddie and Arbroath smokies are the revered regional forms, hot-smoked over wood fires. In the kitchen it stars in kedgeree, Cullen skink, and the simple supper of poached smoked haddock with a poached egg. Like all smoked fish it is salty and perishable, needing refrigeration, and its flavour is assertive enough to carry a dish. It is comfort food with a seafaring past.