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Foodies | South Africa
Everyday Food, Fresh Produce 7

What Happened To Haddock?

By Pat Elk · On 20 January 2014

“What happened to haddock?” I asked myself out loud the other day. I never see it in recipe books or magazines anymore. And it’s never shown in any of the popular TV cooking shows these days. So what happened? Has it just fallen from foodie grace?

I remember as a child having haddock on a weekly basis and our family sure knew how to try and disguise it. We would have it, in one of its forms, as steamed haddock in milk with a mustardy, cheesy sauce and mashed potato. In another of its guises it would arrive as a fish pie covered with a white sauce and parsley. But a big bowl of colourful kedgeree was my absolute favourite and I must confess I enjoyed the boiled eggs in the mix. Fish and eggs – not a combination that immediately springs to mind in any other instance, but it works.

So thinking about where haddock had gone to, I wondered if it had become too expensive perhaps. Not so, it appears. According to the online shopping options out there, it seems you can get 500g of prime wood smoked, frozen haddock fillets for a mere R52.99. That’s enough to feed a family of four, so it’s not a bad price. Especially considering that fish is such a healthy protein option, being lean and containing vital omega 3 oils and other much needed vitamins. So it doesn’t appear to be the price that has affected the popularity and there’s no shortage of smoked haddock in South Africa either.

So then, what is the reason for haddock’s recent obscurity?

I decided to dig a bit more to find some facts about haddock and imagine my surprise when I discovered that what we call haddock in South Africa is not haddock at all, but hake that has been smoked and coloured with annatto, a natural food colourant. Real haddock is a white-fleshed fish of the cod family, and North Sea Haddock, which is available in the United Kingdom, is not imported into the South African market. In SA there is only one product sold as ‘haddock’ by all processors and that’s the smoked and coloured South African hake, which is specified in accordance with the SABS requirements on all local producers’ packaging. Imagine that.

But with international TV shows and recipe books choosing not to focus on haddock at all anymore, the mysterious disappearance of the ingredient is not just a South African phenomenon. It’s just something that’s fallen out of favour with consumers and chefs alike. Haddock is just not a fashionable food any longer.

fishfish piefrozen fishhaddockhakekedgeree
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Pat Elk

I've always loved cooking, especially with freshly picked ingredients. Between my herb and veggie patch, and sprawling collection of cookbooks and kitchen tools, I'm proud to admit that I'm a food adventurer, kitchen garden ecologist, gadget collector, and insatiable recipe enthusiast.

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7 Comments

  • Amelia white says: 9 August 2014 at 1:39 pm

    Thanks for info about haddock. I use the frozen smoked haddock for a recipe with asparagus and cheese sauce, it has never occurred to me to question the product. I will tell any guest in future that the fish is hake in fancy dress..

    Reply
    • Pat Elk says: 9 August 2014 at 4:35 pm

      Thanks for sharing Amelia. Please would you share your recipe with us, I am sure many would like to try it out

      Regards
      Pat

      Reply
  • Gioula Chelten says: 6 December 2014 at 2:14 pm

    Well, can you imagine my surprise when I, a native South African, moved to the USA and could not find the haddock I knew. I found the real haddock but it was of course not at all what I remembered. I spent weeks looking online and offline and gave up, only to find out recently that we have been duped all this time. So now, in the USA, I’m getting a smoker and smoking my own fish to try to get that flavor I so love.

    Reply
    • Pat Elk says: 6 December 2014 at 2:27 pm

      Wow! You found us in the USA, amazing. Hope you have fantastic success with your smoker and you can then once again enjoy that haddock flavour :) Let us know how it turns out.

      Reply
  • Lynn Gray says: 17 January 2016 at 11:04 am

    Imagine my surprise when I found ” South African” haddock in the frozen freeze aisle of my local supermarket in Perth Australia. I recall my Cape Town family’s yummy recipes for haddock and I now make the same for my family Down Under. That familiar yellow tinge and the characteristic aroma when poached in milk and butter is a nostalgic reminder of the De Kaap.

    Lynn Gray

    Reply
    • Pat Elk says: 26 February 2017 at 6:57 pm

      Wow! Great to hear the Cape haddock is making its mark around the world. Thanks for letting us know

      Reply
  • Bernie says: 26 February 2017 at 5:17 pm

    I am South African living in the USA for many years and just yesterday my hubby tried smoking haddock…lol..now I know why it did not taste like the ‘haddock’ back home. Thanks for his info. Going to try smoking hake now.

    Reply
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