Doyle was reminiscing about Peter Rae, the man
who sold him his farm and was introduced to my readers in this previous blog post. Pete's generosity to a young farmer starting out
was fondly recalled but also his less than stellar cooking. While helping to stook his oat crop in the 50's, Peter
served Doyle a meal of cold Chicken Haddie, unbuttered bread and a glass of
water. Others listening to the story remembered
the canned meat but were unsure what it was and hadn't seen it for years. A quick Google search found it is a boneless mixture of white fish including cod, hake and pollock. I suppose the whiteness of the meat is where "chicken" comes from. A website carries a version here that they claim is perfect for seafood chowders and fish cakes. This blog includes a recipe from a 1938 New Brunswick newspaper for fish cakes made with canned Chicken Haddie. 
Talking about that reminded Dad of something called "Finnan Haddie" and that brought about another search. A previous conversation with my husband Randy and his brothers came back to me about this food from their childhood, cooked by their Dad and Uncle Frank. It is described as cold-smoked haddock and what makes it unique is the way it was smoked with green wood and peat. The first part of the name comes from the Scottish town of Findon in north-east Scotland and haddie is of course the slang word for haddock. In the 1800's in Findon, fishwives hung lightly salted haddock in their chimneys to be smoked gently over peat fires. Both of my dad's material grandparents, James Sinclair and Elizabeth Henry, were Scottish immigrants where fish was a staple of their diets.
As a landlocked descendant raised on beef with chicken on Sundays, I can't say either of the Haddies sound very appealing to me. Susan Branch, a food blogger, does a wonderful job in this post of almost convincing me to try it. Almost.
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