A beginner’s guide to sardines

 

Sardines are an oily fish – like mackerel, anchovies and salmon. They’re a kind of herring and belong to the Clupeidae family. Sardines are a forage fish (food for larger fish) and they’re epipelagic which means they live in the ocean’s 4000m-deep pelagic zone, in the 200m-deep illuminated part close to the surface. They’re fished purse-seine or by net, mostly during the night when they come to the surface to feed on plankton. 

Sardines and pilchards are the same thing. Pilchards are larger, older, adult sardines. The name sardine (possibly) comes from Sardinia where the fish were once very abundant. 

Sardines are sustainable in many ways. They have a very low carbon footprint. They are a forage fish. Larger fish feed on them and in this way access the vital nutrition in the plankton that the sardines have consumed. As forage fish sardines play an essential role in the survival of marine ecosystems. Sardines are fished purse seine (where a large net is lowered into the water and closed around the fish). There is no damage to the sea bed as with bottom trawling, and smaller sardines can swim through the net and replenish ocean stocks. As with all tinned fish, there is no waste either - you can eat everything in the tin including the bones. And there is no time pressure to eat the fish as there is with fresh fish, which also means less waste. The sardines we stock are caught at their best and all the goodness is preserved in the tin - they just get tastier with time.

Sardines in olive oil taste better than the ones in water we think. Sardines in water have roughly half as much fat, but the amount of saturated fat isn’t a lot higher in olive oil-packed sardines. In other words sardines in olive oil have more fat, but it’s the good stuff. Oily fish like sardines contain omega-3 fatty acids. Our bodies do not produce this so we need to get it from our diet. Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats - a good fat that helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure and protect against heart disease. Oily fish might also help combat anxiety and depression, they may be good for joint and eye health too and prevent hardening of the arteries. 

A healthy diet should include two portions (a portion is around 140g or a tin and a half) of fish each week and one of them should be oily, the NHS says. There is different advice for different groups – but this applies to everyone. 

Here’s a roundup of some of the sardines stocked at The Tinned Fish Market. We have bone-in Cornish sardines by British tinned fish brand Rockfish which have a gentle, rounded flavour. We have meaty Cornish sardine fillets in extra virgin olive oil by Plymouth-based Sound Seafood. And there are Nordic sardines - technically sprats or brisling but they taste a lot like sardines - by Copenhagen's Fangst.

The majority of our sardines, however, come from Spain and Portugal. There are regular-sized sardines where you will find three to four in the tin from Portuguese brands Pinhais, Nuri and Berthe. Papa Anzóis in the Algarve cans larger sardines. There are two in its tins, though the weight is the same as Nuri, Pinhais etc. There are sardinillas (small sardines) by Galicia's Los Peperetes, Real Conservera Española and Ramón Peña. Real Conservera also produces a limited edition tin of very small sardines. The sardines are not sold at the fish auctions but found by chance amongst the regular catch of sardines and sorted and canned in-house by Real Conservera. There are boneless sardines or fillets by Berthe, Sound Seafood and Los Peperetes. Bear in mind that the small sardines mentioned earlier are as good as boneless. The bones are so tiny they are undetectable.

Then there are sardines in different olive oils and sauces. Spicy sardines are a Portuguese and Spanish staple. In ascending order of heat we have Pinhais, Papa Anzóis sardines with malagueta chilli, Carmelo very spicy sardines and Nuri extra spicy sardines. For Portuguese sardines canned with lemon - a great foil for the oily fish - try Cântara, Nuri and Papa Anzóis. For the classic combination of sardines in tomato sauce or spicy tomato sauce there is Nuri, Pinhais, Carmelo and Papa Anzóis. If you're not sure where to start, the Sardinero box or the sardine subscription is a good way to get acquainted with our sardines.

Serving tips

•Tinned sardines smashed on toast with sea salt and cracked black pepper and chopped herbs is a fail-safe. 

•Try topping a rocket and red onion salad with sardines.

•Sardines with scrambled eggs and chopped tomatoes on toast again. Sardines are protein-rich and carb-light so pairing them with carbs makes for a more balanced dish. 

•In colder months try sardines in a piperade, a Basque dish with green pepper, onion, tomatoes and garlic sautéed in olive oil. Piper means pepper in Basque. 

•Sardine and roasted vegetable traybake. Add the sardines 10 minutes before the vegetables come out of the oven and the sardine skin will crisp up without the fish drying out.

•Two rules of thumb: some kind of acid, like lemon juice or white wine vinegar, will cut through the sardine’s fattiness and work well. Tinned sardines are already cooked so just heat them through towards the end of the cooking time. If you heap them onto just-boiled rice the steam heats the sardines through. The same goes for pasta.