(more than you thought you would ever read about sardines)
A little story: How I got started with Sardines
My mother always thought sardines were disgusting. I think that's the usual attitude. I'll admit they're not particularly pleasant looking. You know how little kids "help" with the grocery shopping...Well one day my little sister slipped a can of sardines into Mom's shopping cart--not having any idea what they were. When we got home, Mom made her eat them. To everyone's surprise, she liked them! If she got something good, then I had to have some, too--that's how kids are, right? So sardines became an occasional snack in our household.
Over the years (oh say 30 or so...) I stopped eating sardines, but I would occasionally see them in the grocery stores and I was always fascinated by the little cans and their labels. Overcome with curiosity and a bit of nostalgia for childhood, I bought a few cans--heck they're so cheap, why not--and started my little survey to figure out what brand should be my brand.
I'm still wondering who really eats these things and how much are consumed every year.
King Oscar, the Norwegian brand, sells 30 million cans a year according to their website. That implies 82,000 cans are consumed every day, of their brand alone. That's 3,500 tons a year. By the way, this brand originates back to a time when King Oscar, the king of Sweden ruled both Norway and Sweden. After Norway got its independence, they kept the Swedish brand name because its recognition was so strong--especially in the export market.
Beach Cliff, the largest American brand, sells 65 million cans a year, or about twice as much as King Oscar.
First of all, "sardines" are not a specific kind of fish. They are a variety of fish of different species, but most often some kind of herring.
Modern canned sardines got their start from France and Portugal. The little fish were plentiful in the fjords of Norway, too, so Norway was another early producer. Canned sardines were imported to America, but one of the European wars reduced the supply around 1870 and that's when the industry began in Maine. California's sardine industry was massive from about 1920 through 1955, when the fishing stocks suddenly vanished, due most likely to a combination of overfishing and a change in oceanic currents.
Ambrose Bierce, famous for Civil War stories, described in "What I saw at Shiloh" the aftermath of a battlefield and mentioned "the omnipresent sardine box" among the litter and debris "...as far as one could see, in every direction". Obviously sardines were one of the soldiers' main staples
The California sardine industry was made famous by John Steinbeck's novel Cannery Row, which was a real place in Monterey, California, which at its peak, called itself the "Sardine Capital of the World". I've heard that Pacific Sardines are beginning to reappear in Monterey Bay due to the lack of fishing and those mysterious current reverting.
Canned sardines are a sensible survival/preparedness food. They're nutritious, compact, have a long shelf life, like 5 years or more, and are very economical.
The sampling procedure became a little ceremony where I and my kids
would each get a small bowl of rice and a cold drink (usually beer or coke
for me and milk or Sprite for the kids). I would ceremoniously pry open
the can and usually someone got a drop or two of sauce splashed on them.
We'd divvy up the fish and enjoy our little meal. Here are the results
(click on the pictures to see larger images):
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Grade |
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Ligo
Product of South Africa 79 cents 5 1/2 ozs |
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Packed in Tomato Sauce and Chili.
Found this brand in a Vietnamese grocery store. Unusual cylindrical can, like a tomato paste can. Fish were larger than average size which made them a little scarier looking than usual. Actually they were quite good: meaty, well prepared and cleaned, nearly boneless. |
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Marock Product of Morocco 79 cents 4 3/8 ozs |
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Packed in Tomato Sauce
Also found in a Vietnamese grocery store. Average to larger than average-sized fish. Tasty, but could have been scaled a little bit better. Good tomato sauce. |
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Beach Cliff
Product of USA 69 cents 3 3/4 ozs |
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Packed in Mustard Sauce.
Found at Kroger's Tasty, average size, tails could have been cut a little shorter, mustard sauce is okay, but doesn't really go as well with rice as other sauces. The company's website is informative and fun to read: http://www.ibgm.com/stinson/ |
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Beach Cliff
Product of USA 69 cents 3 3/4 ozs |
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"Fish Steaks"
Packed in Louisiana Host Sauce. Found at Kroger's Great taste, average size--transversely cut (the label says "fish steaks"), nicely cleaned, great hot sauce, especially good with rice. The company's website is informative and fun to read: http://www.ibgm.com/stinson/ |
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Port Clyde
Product of Canada 99 cents 3.75 ozs |
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Packed in Soybean Oil.
Found at Harris Teeter Small (like a dozen) and mushy, neutral taste--probably due to soybean oil, cleaned well, nothing spectacular. Larger sardines are "meatier". These smaller sardines look nicer, but they're pretty soft. |
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Port Clyde
Product of Canada $1.29 3.75 ozs |
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"Finest" Packed in Soybean Oil.
From Harris Teeter Small and mushy, neutral or average taste, cleaned well, practically the same as Port Clyde's regular brand, but more expensive |
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Beach Cliff
Product of Canada 65 cents 3 3/4 ozs |
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"Best before Dec. 2005"
Packed in Water. From Food Lion Excellent price! Large (only 4 pieces), meaty, slightly boney, no extra scales, light and clean taste. |
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Bela
Product of Portugal $1.99 4-1/4 oz |
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"Freshly caught by our own fleet"
Lightly Smoked sardines in Lemon Sauce. From Food Lion Excellent!!! Larger than average, meaty, no "fishy" taste, the smoked and lemony flavoring make these among the best sardines we've tried, yet. Also the most expensive, too. |
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King Oscar
Spirit of Norway Product of Norway $1.79 3 3/4 oz. |
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16-22 "small fish", in Soybean Oil, Slightly Smoked.
From Food Lion Very good! Smoked sardines seem to be better in general than non-smoked. This is a "King Oscar" brand which has a very informative and very interesting website: http://www.kingoscar.no/ I sent them e-mail asking a few questions about their smoking process and immediately got a friendly, detailed response. |
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Beach Cliff
Product of USA 65 cents 3 3/4 ozs |
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In soybean oil with hot green chilies.
From Food Lion Delicious! Larger than average size, meaty fish with a light taste, enhanced by slices of green peppers--mild--not really hot Excellent value, too! |
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Beach Cliff
Product of USA 55 cents 3 3/4 ozs |
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"Fish Steaks - bite size herring"
With Jalapeno peppers From Food Lion Excellent. Large "fish steaks", light taste, medium texture, no "fishy" smell, no boney stuff (like many of the larger fish), not too hot, but a little hotter than Beach Cliff with hot green chilies. Excellent value, too! |
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Orleans
Product of Thailand 99 cents 4.2 oz. |
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"In oil lightly smoked"
From Krogers Redder than average meat, texture is denser than average, "fishier" than usual, overall not quite as tasty as the others. |
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Underwood
Product of Scotland $1.75 3.75 oz. |
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"Fancy Sardines in Soybean Oil, One layer, lightly smoked"
Distributed by the Pillsbury Co. Ingredients include acetic acid, which I haven't noticed on any other brands. From Krogers Delicious! These were small but had a texture land taste reminicent of tuna. This is a smoked brand, which,tend to be tastier, and pricier, than non-smoked. |
Conclusion: The biggest determining factors are the fish size, the sauce they're packed in, and whether they were smoked during processing or not. I personally prefer the larger size fish because the texture is "meatier" and the taste is lighter (less "fishy"), but they often contain more "crunchy" parts (bones, I think, which are edible). The smaller fish tend to be softer, "mushier", and "fishier".
The sauce they're packed in makes a bigger difference than the price, so buy the cheapest in whatever sauce will be most compatible with what you're going to eat them with. Personally I prefer water and hot sauce to soybean oil or mustard--but that's because I usually eat my sardines with rice. They're also good with crackers, bread, or vegetables. Maybe my next study will be how best to serve sardines!
North American brands are usually cooked first in a large batch, drained, cleaned, packed and sealed into cans, and then cooked once more--inside the cans--before shipping. Many European brands follow the same process, but instead of cooking them the first time, they smoke them for 1 or 2 hours. Not only does smoking add flavor, but it retains some of the original flavor and nurtients since they don't have to be drained after smoking. Given all other things equal, smoked sardines tend to taste better than non-smoked, but they cost more--2 or 3 times more.
My favorite smoked [expensive] brands are: Bela (from Portugal), King Oscar's Spirit of Norway, and Underwood (from Scotland).
My favorite non-smoked [cheap] brands are: Beach Cliff with hot green chilies or jalapenos and Beach Cliff in water.
I've sampled
other brands since publishing this survey, but I've gotten tired of scanning
all their labels and making entries in the table. I can say this, however:
You can't go wrong with any of the
King Oscar products. They are among the
very best though they're pricey--for sardines! Underwood is also very good
and a little cheaper and
Beach Cliff has the best among the cheap brands--but
watch out because they have a few crummy ones, too.
Questionaire: I'll be glad to hear from you because it's so hard to find someone to talk to about sardines! Please fill out this questionaire (all fields are optional, but hopefully you'll answer all of them) or send me e-mail. Thanks!
Oops! Don't do this: I accidently bought a can of smoked "fancy" oyters from China in cottonseed oil. I love fresh oysters, but these little guys were nasty! Ugggh! Avoid them--mine cost $2.49 for 3.66 oz. OUCH!
This
cute little can of King Oscar anchovies didn't go over very well, either.
Strips of fish were rolled up around "capers", which reminded me of olives,
and packed in soybean oil. They were extremely salty and left the kids
speechless--until they started spitting them out all over the house!
Comments? Please send me e-mail--I'll be most interested in hearing from you!
