Why Everyone Is Obsessed With Tinned Fish and Where You Can Buy It Online

[Celerity]

It’s tinned seafood summer.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/best-tinned-fish-where-to-buy-online



In case you missed it, it’s tinned seafood summer. Sardines, mussels, cockles, and anchovies—they’ve been around forever but Americans have suddenly taken notice and realized that there’s way more to canned seafood than tuna. Becca Millstein, co-founder of Fishwife, grew up eating tuna fish sandwiches but it wasn’t until she studied abroad in Spain that she caught on to conservas, which are fish like sardines or molluscs like clams and mussels are preserved in oil or broth and packaged in tin cans. “It’s part of tapas culture that is very convenient and casual and social, but also a very elevated way of eating,” she says. “You might serve a tin of cockles with a toasted baguette and some olive oil and some olives and a glass of white wine or something like that. It just struck me as sort of the height of elegance.”

When Millstein and her friend Caroline Goldfarb quarantined together during the pandemic, they ate tons of tinned fish and realized that there isn’t a domestic company that was celebrating tinned fish culture. Together they founded Fishwife, a brand that sells smoked trout and tuna —with other versions coming soon. Tinned fish has risen in popularity the past few years. Even chefs at restaurants like Curate in Asheville, North Carolina, feature tinned seafood on their menus. In fact, a recent report found that the canned seafood market is set to grow by $23.7 billion over the next five years. The pandemic also boosted the tinned fish industry by giving home chefs a chance to dig through their cabinets and try something a bit more interesting to the palate than the same old takeout.

So what exactly is tinned seafood?

Humans have been preserving food forever. But, in the late 1700s, the French realized they needed a way to safely get food to soldiers and sailors fighting around the world. Nicolas Appert, a chef in Champagne, got to work and eventually realized you could preserve food in cans. In Spain and Portugal, fish and molluscs caught in the Atlantic and Mediterranean are typically grilled or fried before being packaged in a tin with oil. Sometimes there are other ingredients like tomatoes, piquillo peppers, and lemon juice. In northern regions, like Alaska and Scandinavia, the fish might be smoked before being canned.

What to look for when choosing your fish

Some of the items might sound familiar—most of us know what mussels and clams are—but others might be new to you. Cockles, for instance, are smaller cousins to clams but just as tender and sardines aren’t actually a type of fish, but a category of small fish. Sardines come in varying sizes from baby whole fish to larger sardines divided into fillets. When Millstein wants to snack on tinned seafood, one of the key things she looks for is how the fish was sourced. “I didn't understand seafood sustainability before I started Fishwife. It’s really nuanced,” she says. “You really have to take a lot of time to parse through and check various resources. The Monterey Bay Seafood Watch List examines each species of fish and where it’s being caught.”





How to best enjoy tinned fish.................

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[EYESORE 9001]

1. I do not recommend surstromming

YouTube has an infinite selection of gag-worthy videos with internet tough guys reduced to sniveling pantywaists when confronted by the odor of the world’s smelliest canned fish.

[Celerity]

2. well aware of it (I am half Swedish and live in Stockholm)

I do not care for it, my wife eats it on occasion, if we go to a party or a fest that has it (always outside, NEVER open it indoors, or even serve it indoors). Many (not all) of those videos btw, use bad, spoiled tins, and serve it incorrectly. with no garnishes.

[Croney]

3. Tinned fish sounds fancier than just my cans of tuna and sardines.

I have sardines in water, sardines in Louisiana hot sauce, and just yesterday found sardines that call themselves Mediterranean style and have black olives mixed in. I stock up when they're $1.00.

We recently found low-sodium tuna for my husband's new needs.

I think I will explore new tinned fishes. (A sentence I should brush my hair and put on make-up before saying.)

[Celerity]

4. some of it is simply our British English (tinned) versus American English (canned)

I see 'tinned' used more and more online by Americans now.

[Tadpole Raisin]

5. Hah, 'canned' sounds like something

you did in your cellar. Tinned sounds better doesn’t it?

I love sardines. Glad I don’t have to worry about gout.

[multigraincracker]

6. canned sardines are the lowest ocean fish in the amount of

mercury. I bought a couple of cases at the beginning of the COVID out break. I've always ate them. I use to buy lots of them at the Eastern Market in Detroit.

Have also ate a lot of home canned salmon. My friend smokes the fish for about an hour and then cans it. Great taste. Mom use to can dads catch and she would add a tablespoon of ketchup to it.

[Wolf Frankula]

7. Are you sure a lot of the people buying tinned fish online don't look like this?

Wolf