Cullen Skink

Name: Cullen Skink
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: British (Scottish)
Ingredients: 400 g Undyed smoked haddock; 500 ml Whole milk; 400 g Floury potatoes, diced; 1 Onion, finely chopped; 30 g Butter; 1 Bay leaf; 300 ml Water; Chives, chopped; Black pepper

A thick Scottish soup of smoked haddock, potato, onion and milk from the fishing town of Cullen. Smokier and heartier than a chowder, thickened with some of its own potato and finished with chives.

Fonte

Ricetta di Scottish home kitchens · 🏺 Tradizionale · Traditional cooking of Scotland — coastal, thrifty and built around smoked fish, oats and root vegetables

Cullen, Moray (Scotland) · regional soup — An ownerless regional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article places it in the town of Cullen in Moray, north-east Scotland; explains that 'skink' is a Scots word for a shin or knuckle of beef that came to mean a soup; confirms the defining ingredients as smoked haddock (ideally Finnan haddie), potatoes, onions and milk; describes it as a thick soup; and notes it is traditionally served with bread or oatcakes crumbled through. Quantities and method here are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

What's For Tea?Granny's Scottish Kitchen Bienvenu Chef

⏱ 40 min🍽 4 porzioni🔥 320 kcal🇬🇧 Regno Unito

HalalPescetarianoSenza glutineSenza frutta a guscio

Passaggi

Lay the haddock in a wide pan, pour over the milk, add the bay leaf and bring it to a bare simmer. Poach gently for 4–5 minutes until the fish flakes, then lift it out onto a plate and keep the smoky milk.
💡 Never let the milk boil hard — it will catch and split. Small bubbles at the edge are all you want.
In another pot, melt the butter and soften the onion for 6–8 minutes without colouring it. Add the diced potato and the reserved milk plus the water, and simmer for 12–15 minutes until the potato is soft.
Lift out about a third of the potato and mash it, then stir it back in to thicken the soup. This is how cullen skink gets its body — no flour, just its own potato.
💡 For a smoother soup, blend a ladleful and stir it back; for a rustic one, just mash by hand. Either way keep plenty of whole potato pieces so it stays a soup you can chew.
Flake the haddock into large pieces, checking for any stray bones, and fold it gently through the hot soup. Warm it for a minute — do not boil — then season with pepper and, only if it needs it, a little salt.
Ladle into bowls and scatter with chopped chives. Serve with crusty bread or oatcakes to crumble in.

💡 Consigli

Undyed smoked haddock is the single thing that makes or breaks this soup. The cheap, bright-yellow dyed fillets are coloured, not more smoked, and give a harsh, artificial edge — seek out the pale, genuinely smoked kind.
It is halal and pescatarian as it stands — smoked fish, potato, onion and milk, no alcohol. It thickens as it sits, so loosen leftovers with a splash more milk when you reheat.
'Skink' is an old Scots word for a shin or knuckle of beef, and by extension a soup made from it — so the name literally means 'Cullen soup', even though this version has no beef in it at all.