About Chesil Smokery

The hottest little smokery in the west…

Chesil Smokery was founded in 2011 when my wife and I rescued and restored Bridport’s Smokery. 2020 marks our tenth Christmas. We’ve learnt a lot in the meantime, but our enthusiasm for what we do grows ever stronger. We take the finest British produce and gently smoke it over oak, apple and peat. To be honest, we’re utterly addicted to smoking delicious things.

But we are no longer just smokers. Covid 19 has meant that, to support local fishermen we now sell the freshest fish and shellfish, as well as other excellent local specials. You’ll notice the occasional exception, but only where the product can’t be found here – grouse breasts and yellowfin tuna (sashimi grade) spring to mind.

Thankfully, you’ve warmly received this development – not least because it helps keeps Dorset people in employment but also you can’t find posh fish (Turbot, Dover Sole etc) in your local supermarket, nor indeed top quality lobster, crab, oysters etc. As for proper fishmongers away from the Coast? they’re now rarer than rocking horse poo. 

We don’t just mouth the concept of doing the right thing – we practice what we preach.

We’ve all sworn an oath here at the Chesil Smokery. And, that oath is “to do the right thing”. What that actually means is we want to create delicious smoked fish, meat and poultry using traditional methods that do justice to the ingredients we’re brought by our suppliers. All our wonderful goodies are made from animals, fish and birds that have lived the right kind of life (as far as humanely and practically possible).

So, forgetting all the marketing twaddle for a minute, if you buy our goodies and you believe in doing the right thing then you’re one of us – good lifers who’ll always give you an honest opinion and try their hardest to make everything just right.

Here’s a list of what we will do and what we won’t :

  • We won’t sell smoked wild salmon – they’re better off in our rivers than being under pressure from commercial netsmen. And anyway, we’ve conducted taste-tests where people can’t tell the difference between our standard product and wild. In fact, ours scored better more often than not.
  • We won’t sell smoked products that we haven’t smoked ourselves, in our own kilns.
  • We won’t drop our standards in order to increase margins or lower prices. Luckily, our customers seem to find our range fairly priced.
  • What’s more, we are so proud of the taste and quality of our smoked goodies, that if you really don’t like what you try, we’ll give you your money back — no ifs, quibbles or buts. That’s called putting our money where your mouth is!

On the other hand :

We do source from the most sustainable and ethical sources. Local is ideal, where practical, but we’ll go further if that means better quality. We’ve found out, through experience, that when producing the best food, you can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse. We only use the best – and we like to think it shows. You can read more about our ingredients and their wonderful producers here.