Located on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Mersey Point Fish offers a variety of high quality seafood products featuring traditional local and Old World flavours. As a Dutch family who immigrated to Canada in 1981, we are proud to use traditional recipes from both Europe and Canada to produce our marinated herring, smoked fish products and Matjes Herring.
Smoking fish has taken place for generations and came about mainly due to the need to preserve seafood for long periods of time. There are two methods that our ancestors used to smoke fish; hot smoking and cold smoking. Hot smoking is a process where the fish is smoked for several hours at high temperatures. Cold smoking is a process where the fish is smoked at a low temperature. Today smoking is used to help flavour the fish, and various methods or smoking times and temperatures can influence the flavour. Our smoked products include Atlantic Salmon, Mackerel, Herring, Haddock and Trout. All our products are smoked with natural wood and do not contain any added colours or preservatives.
Herring are small fish of the genus Clupea. Herring products are known by various names. Depending on the time of year the herring is caught and on how the herring is prepared the products each have their own distinctive flavour and characteristics making herring the most versatile fish on the market.
Matjes herring, a young fat fish, is lightly salted and has a delicate taste. The omega 3 is derived from the high fat content of this herring. The old saying is “a Matje a day keeps the doctor away”. A favourite in Europe where they have been enjoyed as a staple food for centuries, Matjes herring are gaining in popularity in our local market. Mersey Point Fish Products is the only company in North America that produces the Matjes Herring in the authentic Dutch way.
Another Herring product is Kippers, long known as a British breakfast food and now appreciated as a great choice for dinner. An interesting fact about Bismarck herring is that it gained its name from the German chancellor, Bismarck, who loved herring pickled in vinegar and salt!
We are proud of our Dutch history, for more on the history of herring and its important in Dutch culture, we invite you to visit the official website of Holland.
Nova Scotian Solomon Gundy herring is indeed the most popular of all our marinated products. The one question that is asked over and over again is “Where does this name come from?” (Read More)
