Why the Low Opinion of Sardines?

Commentary

Speaking as a huge fan of canned sardines, I’ve been trying to understand the low opinion of them in the public mind. Could be just the fish, which some people don’t like, but that cannot be the whole of it. Could be the idea of canned fish, which only intensifies the prejudice.

Maybe it is due to the age of the technique and its long history. It predates railroads as a great industrial innovation. We are so used to it that we think it is just how we do things, whereas through most of history a can of sardines would have been the ultimate luxury good.

Regardless, I’m convinced it is one of the greatest foods especially for the value. You can get a can of sardines for $1.50 and make a meal of it. Nothing in the world of fast food compares, and neither does anything at the fish market. As a value meal, you just cannot beat it.

I’m further convinced that I could make you a believer with just 10 minutes in your kitchen using whatever ingredients you happen to have. Carrots, lettuce, eggs, mushrooms, beans, rice, pickles, tomatoes, blueberries, pears, nuts, you name it. It is all useful in making a grand salad, a taco bowl, or even an omelette. You can go wild even if sardines are your only source of protein.

Again, it’s hard for me to understand the reputation that sardines have as a poor-man’s lunch or food-in-a-pinch. So far as I’m concerned, it is a luxury meat filled with vitamins, and all the more so because the bones are so tiny that you don’t notice them at all and hence gain the nutrients from that as well.

The packaging alone might be key. There was a time when canning fish was a miracle of technology. It’s far better than salting fish for preservatives or facing the burden of slogging down to the river in the late afternoon in hopes of getting lucky. With this product, you have a stack of them always in the cupboard.

What a luxury!

But these days, we are precious and want everything to be pretty and appetizing off the shelf. I admit that a can of sardines is not beautiful. It is just ever-so-slightly difficult to get into them, which is one reason why they have a seemingly eternal shelf life.

You start by anchoring the can well and lifting up the lever, which looks like a can of pop. But it does not pull up easily. You roll back the tin and it separates it from the base. It certainly does not come all the way off. There is a catch at the end. You have to rock it back and forth a few times before it comes off.

If you attempt this without experience, there is a predictable result. The can moves around and the juice inside slops out on the counter or on one’s hands. This is where you get the ick factor coming into play. You are looking at dead fish crowded implausibly tight while the juice of the dead is spilling on your hands. Just slightly—not for me but I can imagine for others—one’s stomach might do a bit of a rotation.

That’s it. That’s the reason. So I’m here to say: don’t be a wimp. Get over it. This is a wonderful, thrilling product, right there, wholly adaptable for any purpose. For that matter, you can eat them right out of the can with a side of potato chips.

Indeed, this seems to be a fashionable thing. I was at lunch at a posh Boston restaurant where this was on the menu and people were ordering it. Sure, they charged $20 for the privilege.

Now, one proviso is worth mentioning. If you have ever been to Spain and experienced the thrilling fortune of eating one of those fresh roasted-over-fire sardines, very oversized and delicious, the American canned sardine will disappoint you.

I’ve been over to Spain twice for 4-day trips and only ate these sardines every day for all my meals. So I missed all other Spanish cuisine. I simply could not imagine that there was anything better. This is all I know about Spain.

So that’s a given. Eating canned sardines by comparison is like listening to an opera on your streaming service rather than seeing it live. No, it is not the same but it is something. And you are glad for it.

What to do with them? Let’s start with the conventional salad. Put red wine vinegar in a large bowl with some olive oil and any herbs from the garden. To be sure, your sardines might be packed in oil, in which case, make the adjustment. If not, empty out the water and add them right in there. I like to add some lemon juice and maybe a bit of honey.

Then add your chopped white or purple onions, plus salt and pepper.

That mixture can sit a while while you prepare any lettuce or kale plus tomatoes or cucumbers or shredded carrots. Whatever you have works. Here is where you can pretend to be a cooking genius because whatever you do hereafter will turn out to be wonderful.

Throw in your extra things with nuts or flaky cheese. You can toss while chopping up the sardines into any size you want. Once everything is tossed, you are ready to serve. Trust me, you will be amazed at the richness of the flavor and the joy it brings.

You can tell your guests later that it is nothing but canned sardines! It’s now your secret to a great lunch or dinner.

So as to a taco bowl, make your rice and start a skillet with oil and onions. Add black beans and Mexican spices with the sardines. I have some already soaking in hot sauce so I used those. Put the rice in the bottom and the sardine mixture next topped with shredded lettuce and cheese of whatever sort.

This is pure joy.

You can improvise from there. Boiled eggs are great and so are mushrooms. Or here is an obvious one: pasta mariana with sardines. Yes, I’ve done this and it is extraordinary.

How strange it is that people scramble for tilapia or salmon on salads or white fish or shrimp in a taco bowl or on top of a salad, or slave over a seafood stew all afternoon. No one bats an eye about these choices. But the very same people eschew the canned sardine even though it is arguably more flavorful and vastly cheaper. As in much much cheaper. And just as great or greater.

How often are our food choices determined not by how things taste but rather based on biases we absorb in the cultural firmament? I’m here to tell you that the cultural firmament is not infallible. The canned sardine is exhibit A. For all I know these little magical fish evolved as the perfect food. I could eat them for months as my only source of protein and be happy.

Did I also mention that they are filling without being fattening? There is that too. And far safer than some weird GLP-1 drug. Why do people clamor for a pharmaceutical product but turn up their noses at a humble, healthy can of sardines? Your guess is as good as mine.

I sense that others are catching on because prices are rising. If I’ve converted you, don’t tell anyone else. I want these treasures from the sea to remain cheap, available, and plentiful for as long as possible, maybe even forever. Goodness knows the shelf life can handle it.

Speaking of which, it’s time to stock up. At $1.50 a can, I can afford to feed myself and loved ones for as long as God grants me life, which will surely be longer thanks to sardines.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.