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"There are only so many ways you can eat fresh salmon," jokes Joseph, "so I started looking at ways to smoke it."
He knew he wanted to cold smoke, but he bought a hot smoker--the only smoker he could find in the area. It was a struggle, but he did find a way to cold smoke in an oven designed to do the opposite. Cold-smoke salmon is served thinly sliced while hot-smoke salmon is normally served in small chunks.
Instead of following a recipe, Joseph was determined to create his own. A "recipe" refers to the salinity of the brine, how long the fish stays in the brine, the type of smoking wood, temperature and length of smoking. He had the expert assistance of executive chef Jim Crouch from nearby St. Andrews.
"I'd take some down to Jim every week and he'd say, 'too much salt, not enough smoke,' until finally he said, 'Whatever you're doing now, don't change a thing,' and in 13 years I haven't," says Joseph.
When Oven Head Salmon Smokers set up shop in a tiny smoke house built next to their home on Oven Head Road in Bethel (southern New Brunswick), both Thornes worked full-time away from home. In the early years they were partners with Laurie and his wife, Anne, and the four of them nurtured the growing company in their spare time. By 1989, Joseph was working full time at Oven Head and two years later he and his wife took it over completely by buying out the Pendletons.
The plant has expanded three times and now includes office space, a processing area and a retail outlet. The small hot smoker was sold and three gleaming smokers now line the walls of the smoking room. The smoking room, whose floor and walls are lined with fibreglass for sanitary purposes, is 10 degrees Celsius to keep the temperature in the smokers consistently low. A large blast freezer sits in an adjoining room to chill the fillets before they are processed. The whole smoking process, from filleting to slicing to taking out the pin bones, is done by hand.
"We accept only the highest quality fish from the farms," says Debbie. "We want the best of the best--no bruises, no old or mature fish." Joseph does all the filleting and trims the fatty belly tissue and dark flesh. What is left is the highly prized pink fillet that, when smoked, is sold for $22 a pound sliced or $18 unsliced with the skin left on.
Trying to utilize as much of the flesh as possible, the meat next to the backbone is saved for making salmon jerky. The meat is soaked in a marinade, baked in large trays, sliced into small strips and baked again. The result is a tasty dried product that kids can't resist. They also produce a smoked salmon pate from a recipe perfected by Anne and Debbie in the early years.
At first the Thornes produced two to six fillets a week; now they can smoke more than 300. Their busiest time of year is Christmas. Thirteen years into the business, they have a full-time staff of five as well as Debbie doing payroll, taking orders off the computer, ordering supplies and doing some of the retail sales.
The couple does little advertising. "We have a brochure that we put in with our orders going out, but our business comes mostly through word of mouth," says Joseph. "We've never gone looking for a market. They come to us." Their client list is impressive: Loblaws, Sobey's and SuperStores as well as upscale restaurants, resorts and fish markets. Sixty per cent of their market is mail order, with customers in Japan, Germany, Austria, the . and Canada.
The Thornes are looking at using more of the meat they currently discard from the fish. A customer from Tokyo touring their operation was horrified as she watched Joseph throwing away the fatty belly tissue. "She told us this part of the fish is highly prized in sushi bars," says Joseph. Debbie is now on the lookout for a sushi bar that might be interested.
Lessons learned
"You must enjoy always being available to your customers if you are to succeed as a home-based business," says Debbie. "We're married to the job. When the business is in your home, you have people stopping in at all hours, day and night." She remembers one customer from Nova Scotia stopping in one night on his drive through to the United States. He had called ahead and said he wanted to stop in and pick up some salmon, but that it would be late. I told him I'd leave my bedroom window open and I'd hear him. It was 1:30 in the morning when he arrived. The kids were all asleep in the back of his van," laughs Debbie, "but I didn't mind getting up for him." He has remained a loyal customer every since.
For more information about Oven Head Salmon Smokers, visit their Web page at <.com>.
sandy Morgan is a freelance Writer living in beautiful St Andrews-by-the-Sea.
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