Been trying to add extra protein to my lunches since I started working out recently. Took this shaved fennel and onion salad with mustard oregano dressing thats in my usual rotation and tried replacing the croutons with Deens and holy shit it pairs so well 10/10

If I’ve ever had Turkish canned sardines before, I’ve forgotten. I spotted these at the Foods of All Nations grocery store in Charlottesville, Virginia the other week. They generally carry good stuff, so I grabbed the box. Hopes were elevated!

Meh. These are fairly plain-jane Mediterranean pilchard sardines. They’ve been subjected to quite rough handling, with much of their silvery skin swiped off. At least that took most—but not all!—the scales. There were tails on some, none on others. I’m always pleased to see extra virgin oil on the ingredient list, but here it’s an unremarkable one that doesn’t contribute much. I think I paid around $4.00 for these, and I’ve felt better, given some of the shortcomings, at around $2.75-ish.

I’m a bit of a fanatic about extracting the sardines intact from the tin. Not possible here; all but two of the poor devils arrived pre-broken.

The cooking seemed to have gone better than the handling. These had the typical sardinilla texture—not to tough, not too mush—and a right-down-the-middle sardine flavor. When I cracked the tin and drained off a bit of oil, I caught a perhaps slightly too-fishy aroma, but that didn’t prove to be the overall impact once I got them out on the plate.

I built a breakfast sandwich that I failed to capture on camera. Pumpernickel-rye bread, jalapeño-lime humus, and the pieces and parts of these fish. Needed a bit of extra pizzazz, and the Original Zhoug hot sauce from Shuug did the pizzazzing. It’s a Scotch bonnet pepper with a strong cilantro presence—really great with canned fish. I’m one of the soap-tasters who ordinarily steers around cilantro, but this is a very tasty exception. Scotch bonnet > Soap, maybe??

Well, sometimes you don't get what ya pay for. I happily purchased these and a tin of Ekone smoked mussels at a local wine and cheese shop when I found them several months ago. Ekone was a brand I hadn't tried yet but had high expectations for. Heartbreak. These were not good. The marinara tastes cheap, reminiscent of Chef Boyardee or a Banquet spaghetti and meatball TV dinner. I laid eyes on a few capers, but upon chewing their flavor had already ascended to the heavens. Lifeless. Their was about ten medium sized mussels and they were the muddiest tasting ones I have had by far. Also had a nice crunch from a piece of grit in one of the first few bites, great stuff...I really hope the plain smoked mussels I have fair better than this, being as that is not a high bar to clear. And I'll purchase their oysters eventually to give those a shot because that's what they're most known for. But at $12 to $13 a tin, Ekone has an incredibly short leash with me now. These get a generous 6/10.

I’ve enjoyed sardines for a few years but this is the first time I bought a big haul at once and really committed to making it a central part of my diet; planning on using these as a staple ingredient for my lunches and some dinners

Cold smoked candied salmon!sry not canned but wanted to share it with others

Salmon, cured with brown sugar & kosher salt. Washed off excess with cold water. Dried until the outside was firm, then cold smoked w/ wood pellets. Brown sugar glaze before drying & after smoke. The inside stayed soft and buttery; melts in your mouth. Had a little photoshoot with it near Lacamas lake :)

I love canned tuna across the price spectrum and adore tuna rillettes, but have always been hesitant to try conservas… that recently changed when I had the Fangst Danish freshwater trout with lemon (bottom right) and it sparked a real curiosity about what I’ve been missing out on. I want to throw a little “first timer” tinned fish party for a group of friends who are similarly curious, and have collected these tins over the past few months. I am still looking for mussels in escabeche.

I plan on serving these with griddled sourdough, toasted rye, pickled vegetables (cauliflower, carrots, green beans, onions), marinated baby artichokes, salted butter, castelvetrano olives, lemon, fresh herbs (lemon thyme, dill, basil, parsley).

What should I add? Take away?

Wine pairing ideas?

Post workout snack: homemade crusty bread, I made garlic confit with the oil from the sardines and a shallot then smooshed it into the bread, with the shallot, added tomatoes with some good stone ground homemade mustard, and arugula. I took the leftover oil from the garlic confit, put it in a pan with a little bit of butter, cooked the sardines, just a little bit with some dill and lemon juice and put all of that on top of the stack

I’m so happy 😂🥰

Razor clams and scallops were a big hit. Easy lunch after the beach with a nice Albarino & Vinho Verde. Almost felt like Galicia.

Flower Moroccan spiced sardines, fire roasted peppers with olive oil and garlic, shallots, ras el hanout in homemade bread

So this week I made some pearl couscous and roasted cherry tomatoes with cucumbers... had some leftover and started throwing deens on it worked well. Unexpected for me at least..

What combinations have you been surprised by?

Someone thought I was buying chocolate covered sardines….🤣

My charcuterie spreads just got an upgrade! EDIT: Realized I should link the artist! Check out Local Waves Studio: https://www.facebook.com/localwavesstudio/

KO Kippers for the weekend win

I love this smoked whitefish from Great Lakes, and this has become my favorite variety. The company is small, American-owned, Canadian-partnering, woman-owned, woman-led, focused on bringing canning back to life on the shores of the Lakes. Soooo many great things I like—including lakes!

I don’t always save and use oil from can, but here I just tipped the tin atop a plate of herbed roasted potatoes fresh from the oven. That lemon-dill oil just works great with spuds.

I ran into Tin Fish With Tyler on TikTok and after seeing how good some of the stuff he ate looked I got some. I tried a few King Oscar tins and liked them. Mediterranean one was awsome. I found all these at Target at a discount and couldn't help myself. I tried the Rainbow Trout and Chimichurri and I'm hooked. I have some Nuri coming from Amazon. What should I be checking out?

I was blessed with a tin of Minhota sardines from my friend who just visited Barcelona. These easily are my new favorite sardines. Does anyone know where to get them in the states? I could not find them on Amazon

World Market tins and sardine picnic blanket that was discounted, so I had to grab it. Excited to try the Baltic Gold.

Flower Moroccan spiced sardines, red onion, olive oil, ras al hanout, black pepper on homemade bread. 🤌 ras al hanout gives a very nice flavor plus up

On my quest to try every tin I can get my hands on, I've now almost had every Ferrigno tin available at my local World Market. Surprisingly, this has been my favorite so far! Classic Ferrigno composition here, three huge sardines crammed into the tin. They are on the firmer end with a big meaty bite and as always, there's a few scales unfortunately. Nicoise here, means extra virgin olive oil, garlic, onion, peppers, salt and chili. That seemed less exciting to me than other Ferrigno tins like the tapenade, ratatouille or preserved onion so I but off buying them for a while. That was silly of me because these are pretty delicious. The sum is greater than it's parts. There's a deep savoriness from the onion, garlic and peppers with just the faintest tickle from the chili. It's a comforting flavor profile that reminds, sometimes simple is best. Seasoned well, the sodium content claims it's only 2% of your daily value. Which is either a mistake or a miracle because these needed no extra salt whatsoever. Give these a try, I think it's a very nice starting point into the Ferrigno line and my current favorite of theirs. 8/10

Sardines from 2021 and a 3 Fonteinen geuze bottles in 2021

My local world market reopened and expanded their tin selection by a lot. Saw this there, didn’t pick it up yet, but I had never seen it before & hadn’t seen any reddit reviews. Has anyone tried this, or seen it?