Hebridean Food: Smokehouse

Gap-fill exercise (Grammar)

Fill in all the gaps, then press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints! If you score highly it shows you have good control over passive verb forms, used frequently when describing a process in which the focus is on the product.
The Hebridean Smokehouse is in Clachan on the Isle of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides. Its main product is salmon, though it also does scallops and sea-trout. These worldwide, with orders coming from as far away as North America and Japan. Although most of its business is done by post, its doors are always open to visitors who wish to see how the work done.

Most of the work is done in two separate sealed rooms. In the Wet Room the fresh salmon are for smoking. This requires various things to done.

Firstly, the fish are and . A sharp knife also to trim the fish. After filleting and trimming the fish is . This reduces the amount of water in the fish and helps to preserve it. After salting the fish carefully and for quality. If it passes it is ready to go for smoking.

Peat has been the natural fuel in Uist for many centuries. Usually it is on the moor in the early spring and to dry for the summer before being brought in. To smoke the fish it is up into small pieces. It is then into the firebox where it burns slowly. It burns with a very characteristic smell, which helps to flavour the fish. The temperature varies between 20 and 28 deg C and the fish is smoked for up to 20 hours.

The fish is placed in the kiln through doors that open from the Wet Room side. After smoking it is removed through doors that open into the Dry Room side. This is where the final stages of the preparation completed. Everything in the Dry Room has to be completely clean.

The smoked fish is generally hand sliced before packaging. Depending on requirements slices can packed in different quantities. Some fish may sliced and then put back together as a sliced side. After vacuum packing the fish is ready for sending off the island to customers elsewhere in the UK and worldwide.