This house is REALLY Smokin'!

But then, what else would you expect from a salmon smokehouse?

To be more precise, the Miramichi Smokehouse, in Doaktown, N.B.

Just a few minutes' drive down the road from the Atlantic Salmon Museum, it's a natural fit to pop in for a visit to the smokehouse if you're in the neighborhood, checking out the museum.( Especially if you've just sampled some of their delicious smoked salmon the night before!)

Let's go smoke some salmon!

Now I'm not a huge fan of smoked salmon; however, this was the best I've ever tasted.

Most of the time, this particular food has an overpowering smoky taste, which I don't care for.

However, this salmon is cold-smoked (smoked longer at a cooler temperature) as opposed to hot-smoked (smoked faster at a higher temperature), and it does make a difference. And for the smoking process, they use hickory wood chips.

The flavor of this salmon is much more delicate than any other I've ever tasted, it's not nearly as strong.

The other aspect of this business I found to be really cool is the fact the owner also builds and sells cedar strip canoes through Oak Ledge Canoes.

One of them - a beautifully crafted red canvas cedar strip canoe - is on display in the front office of the smokehouse. Just looking at it made me want to pick it up, portage it across the road and go for a paddle in the Miramichi River.


Anyone for a paddle?

At first glance, that seems like a bit of an odd combination of businesses to be involved in. 

But if you give it a little bit of thought, it makes sense, really...you do have to fish for the salmon to smoke it, and it does help to have a boat to fish in. (Not that they really do it that way, but it has a nice ring to it.)

The business just opened in December 2011, and they are already exporting their product to Montreal and Toronto. Down the road, they are working at exporting to India and China.

While visiting, I took a tour of the facility, being shown the various steps and machines used to create the end product.

Now while I don't know much more about how they smoke salmon than what I've described here, I do know the salmon from the Miramichi Smokehouse tastes awfully good, especially when it's served up on crackers with cream cheese

And I also know that these are crackers I do not intend to share with Polly - or any other parrot, for that matter ...

Yum-my!