Tinned fish labels driving trend as much as contents
- Scott Daniels: We Ate Well and Cheaply
- July 26, 2021
- 916
Among the several email news digests I receive every morning, similar stories appeared across a bunch of them, a sure sign of a genuine trend. The subject? Tinned fish — as in cans of preserved fish.
My grandfather used to keep a couple of rectangular tins of sardines in the cupboard for lunchtime snacks, and the cans came equipped with a little key for peeling back the top. If ever one were to doubt the influence of adults on a child’s life, this story is a big billboard. Pretty much anything Grandpa liked, I liked, from oyster stew to canned sardines, beer, manhattans, raw garlic and cigar stumps. I drew the line at limburger cheese. How anyone gets that dumpster fungus past their nose is beyond me.
Canned sardines have always been the oddball thing I’ve kept around in the pantry for occasions when there’s just nothing else around to eat, a good fallback, which is a shame because they’re rich in beneficial omega-3 oil, iron and calcium. They’re among the healthiest things one can munch on. Sardines have always been a cheap, quick snack. And now, here we are in the 21st century, and gentrification has reached the canned fish aisle.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed our lives in ways we are only beginning to work out, but in the category of things that can only happen in a robust, inventive America, small businesses sprouted over the past year to create fancy, specialty tinned fish from around the globe. People were stuck at home, running low on toilet paper and in search of nonperishable canned goods and easily prepared lunches, so the iron was hot for a strike. It looks like a whole industry has sprung up with cottage companies offering cans of fish of many varieties in fancy packaging and premium prices.
European suppliers are buying up the best catch they can get their hands on and preparing it especially for canning, securing artists to create interesting and unique packaging for mackerel, anchovies, ruffled mussels and octopus.
In America, companies like Fishwife Tinned Seafood are canning wild-caught rainbow trout, wild albacore tuna and other specialties. While a can of old-school sardines at the grocery store will cost little more than a dollar, these cans run to $24 for three.
Internet “influencers” are stoking the trend, and the term “ultimate hot girl food” is thrown around for people who understand such things. There’s even an online museum at www.conservasdeportugal.com, which shows off the elaborate artwork printed on the cans of tinned fish. The labels, it seems, are driving this business as much as the contents of the cans.
I think any new trend in food is interesting, if only because it expands options and keeps turning the universe of food and cooking as it reinvents itself constantly. This, unlike the trend of swallowing laundry soap, is quite healthy. Seafood, even when processed and canned, packs so much that’s good for you. It is a blessing someone has taken the time to make it actually taste good. I’m planning to order a few samples and see how it goes. Reviews say the end product is mild and delicious, and not the kind of thing that will get you the stink eye from coworkers in the break room.
If you’re the adventurous type, I am not sure where to point you locally to give tinned fish a try, and you’ll probably have to turn to almost exclusively online sources. Amazon, predictably, has many pages of options.
You can get as inventive as you like for serving. I think you’ll be disappointed if you just pull out a box of crackers. Gather up some good, crusty bread, good olive oil and some interesting cheeses. You can have fun experimenting to get the right wine to go with, for example, smoked trout. All this makes a pretty sweet opportunity to invite friends over for a tasting party. Just withhold the “what are we tasting?” part until they arrive.