Brunswick sardines in soybean oil

[torakris]

My MIL gave me 5 tins of these. I have never used tinned sardines in any type of oil before and am unsure what to do with them...

help...

[MarketStEl]

They're not really an ingredient used in cooking. They're most commonly eaten as snacks. The fish are packed whole in oil, water or some variety of sauce (mustard, hot sauce...). They can be eaten whole, as they are very small and their tiny bones are digestible.

I generally like to either splash hot sauce on them or cover them with Dijon mustard before scarfing them down.

If you've used canned sardines in water or sauce before, you'd do the same things you did with those with these sardines in oil.

Edited April 29, 2005 by MarketStEl (log)

[Jeffy Boy]

put a half a sardine on a cracker, add a little squirt of ketchup, and eat. Goes great with a bloody mary.

[prasantrin]

I like them on saltine crackers. Yum! Sardines and crackers were my favourite snack as a child--those and roasted peanuts still in the shell (to be accompanied by a can of Hires root beer).

I do know some Filipinos who eat them with rice...

[petite tête de chou]

I eat at least two tins of sardines a week as a tasty, non-dairy calcium source.

Though I usually eat them right from the tin with lots of black pepper and mustard or sriracha, I've also enjoyed them stuffed into halved avocados or tomatoes and vinegar marinated onions. They're good mixed with cream cheese and spread on celery.

I like them over rice with a sprinkle of curry, too. But I usually have them with some type of fresh vegetable and pickle.

[eje]

Don't have much to add, aside from they make a fine sandwich with some nice coarse rye. I grew up in a Norwegian immigrant family here in the US. Along with pickled herring, they were a pretty common snack food.

If they aren't to your liking, I'm sure you won't have a hard time finding a cat that enjoys them!

;-)

[NulloModo]

Sardines are tasty as a snack, as noted above, but they also play a key role when I make a 'smelly things' pizza. Sardines, anchovies, limburger (or morbier), lots of garlic, and and asian chili sauce.

[Carlovski]

I usually try and have a tin handy for an emergency storecupboard pasta sauce - sardines, garlic, chilli, a little tomato and white wine/vermouth (The last is optional when it's a real emergency meal!). Some fennel seeds are good here too if you have them, or some fresh basil at the end - I wouldn't use both though. Good with linguini.

[Tepee]

Add some ketchup, onions and lemon juice to the sardines. Mash. Use as a sandwich filling.

[HungryChris]

I like them spread on rye bread with a little mayo. A trick my mother taught me is to cut a bermuda onion in half and scrape a butter knife kind of digging into the cut part of the onion so that the onion juice lands on the sandwich just before it is closed up and eaten. They are also good with chopped onion on a saltine.

Cheers,

HC

[touaregsand]

A little mayo, dijon mustard and crusty bread. Snack.

or

Doused with lemon juice, salad with dijon mustard vinaigrette and crusty bread. Light meal.

[Kokh Leffle]

I’m a purist. I like them in a sandwich with a slice of Vidalia onion , a little salt and lots of fresh ground pepper. Soak some of the oil onto the bread or use a good butter.

[touaregsand]

I also like them with lemon juice, olive oil, thinly sliced preserved lemons, chopped tomatoes, finely chopped parsley and some cumin.

My sister in law braised them in kimchi once when she ran out of mackeral.

[k43]

The paradigm sardine packing is olive oil. Anything else is ho-hum or worse.

Sardines in water are inedible. Drain them and cover with olive oil, but even then they're chokingly dry.

IMHO, everything else (mustard, tomato sauce, other oil) covers up the taste. I've tried them in soybean oil and found that the taste of the oil is thick and cloying. Therefore, it's best to go with the suggestions with strong tastes, like ketchup or sriracha.

Sorry about that. Buy yourself some King Oscars.

[Ben Hong]

This thread shows how global everything is. In my work, I deal with the company that makes Brunswick brand sardines. They are the largest producers of canned fish products in the world, located here in New Brunswick, Canada.

As for use and consumption, we always have a dozen or so cans of various flavours in the pantry. Great for snacks and for meeting the weekly omega-3 quotient. My favourite quick lunch is a can of sardines, scallions, sriracha over cold rice, warmed up in the microwave, a few drops of nuoc mam and some pickle vegs. Ohhhh Yeahhhh.

Edited April 29, 2005 by Ben Hong (log)

[torakris]

all I can say is wow!

I didn't realize they were eaten all over the world....

I eat the Japanese versions a lot and actually have two tins each of iwashi (sardines), saba (mackeral) and sanma (saury pike). The difference is the Japanese one are filleted and seasoned in a soy based sauce. I just open a can and eat them with rice.

I hadn't even thought about eating these sardines that way, I even have the sriracha and lemons, unfortunately I don't have any sandwich worthy bread but I do have lots of rice...

I really like the pasta idea as well, I will eat anything that has fennel seeds in it.

[Feedbag]

I second the sandwich way, but definitely toasted

with mayo and mustard and of course a thick slab of

sweet onion. If you want to get really fancy, throw on

some tomato and cuke slices. Yum.

[ludja]

Toasted rye bread, mayo, sardines, sliced hard-boiled eggs, black pepper: yum

Similar to what other people mentioned above, sometimes I'll just make a sardine spread (Scandinavian roots) to put on crackers: Mash drained sardines with Dijon mustar, minced onion and a little lemon juice.

Also, I've had great banh mi (Vietnamese) sandwiches with sardines. Since I finally tasted a sardine version, I can never decide between sardine, pate or roasted pork...

For each sandwich:

1 small baguette roll (or 6 inch section from regular baguette)

Mayonnaise

Soy sauce

2-3 cilantro sprigs, chopped

3-4 thin strips of seeded cucumber

10 or more thin slices of jalapeno

some marinated vegetable salad

marinated salad:

1 carrot

5 inch piece of daikon radish (~ 2 inch diameter)

½ tsp salt

1 Tbs plus 1 tsp sugar

3 Tbs white vinegar

2 Tbs water

Edited April 30, 2005 by ludja (log)

[torakris]

I LOVE banh mi!

I have just decided Monday's lunch....

[ludja]

...

If they aren't to your liking, I'm sure you won't have a hard time finding a cat that enjoys them!

;-)

←

I just had some sardines last week and my finicky Tonkinese who eats only cat food came and started attacking my sandwich when I left it on a side table in the living room for a second.

[Behemoth]

A typical Lebanese snack would be to toss the drained sardines with lemon juice, a mashed garlic clove, a little salt and olive oil, and eat with pita bread. Very nice with a cold beer on a hot summer night.

[mizducky]

My favorite school-lunch sandwich when I was a kid was sardines on white bread. No fancy extras--didn't even toast the bread. By the time lunch rolled around, the sardines would have drained a bunch of their fishy goodness into the surrounding bread--yum! Perhaps other kids thought my smelly fish sandwiches were weird, but I loved them so much that I never even noticed.

[Carlovski]

Probably only of use to my fellow Brits, but I'd like to put in a recommendation for the tinned sardines sold in Waitrose. They do one in an attractively packaged box (Just a plain tin inside though) packed with chilli (Sardine Piccante), I think they are packed in Portugal. They also do a lemon one. Damned good for the price, plump, moist whole fillets. As good as fancy tinned spanish and french ones I have bought. I had a tin for lunch last night on some garlic rubbed toasted country bread, the chilli inside mushed up and spread on as well, little bit of evoo and a sprinkle of paprika. Perfect sunny day lunch.

But I do love my tinned fish!

[jayt90]

I miss Millionaires Norwegian sardines "The fish she is very small" which have been replaced by a Canadian product here, larger and coarser fish.

Sometimes I can find Sprats from the Baltic, though they are much more smoky than the delicate Norwegians.

I never liked the sardines from Spain or Portugal; not the same intense flavour as those from northern waters.

[k43]

I like the Season brand cross-packed sardines in olive oil, which are tiny and quite good, with a distinct sardine taste. They may have a different brand name in Canada where jayt90 is. Here's what the tin looks like: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...447206?v=glance