Canned sardines & other tinned seafood

[Kerala]

Marks and Spencer's posh line

 

 

Skinless, boneless, but a lovely clean taste and firm texture. As good as any I've ever bought in a UK supermarket.

 

[Kerala]

These on the other hand were a bit disappointing.

 

 

Maybe I just don't like the small sardines. The flesh falls apart too easily, and the taste is a bit processed- not a happy mouthful for me. Average.

[liuzhou]

Here's what we are up against.

 

Sounds good. Right?  Wild, sustainable. Very good from a wild planet. No salt added.

Then turn the box over.

Caught in the North Pacific, flown all the way to Thailand, processed there and shipped all the way back to the US. Then shipped to me in China. Near Thailand.

 

And what's this in the ingredients. Salt!

 

I am however surprised but delighted to learn the can of sardines contains, of all things, fish.  

 

 

Edited May 29 by liuzhou (log)

[Anchobrie]

On 5/28/2025 at 3:57 PM, Kerala said:

These on the other hand were a bit disappointing.

 

 

Maybe I just don't like the small sardines. The flesh falls apart too easily, and the taste is a bit processed- not a happy mouthful for me. Average.

 

The small sardines tend to be different species (Sarsinella sp). 

I avoid them and go for the true pilchards, and the larger, the better; so essentially we are in the same boat. 

 

BTW, I see you are based in UK. I have read in some webs that the cannery industry in morocco are out of fish stock, and no much sardines are landing at its ports, so there may be soon a drop in availability ( sources said ~50% of the sardine tins in UK came from morocco, like for example the ones from your previous post from Marc and Spencer )

 

I found one link

 

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/tinned-sardines-shortages-loom-as-morocco-supply-non-existent/702375.article

 

 

[liuzhou]

4 hours ago, Anchobrie said:

(Sarsinella sp)

 

Sardinella.

[Kerala]

Thanks for that, @Anchobrie

Gloomy reading indeed!

[liuzhou]

When my favourite sardines disappeared from every store in China a week ago, I went in search for an alternative.

 

My favourite sardines

 

My favourite sardines

 

The only Portuguese sardines I could find were these from Porthos, a Portuguese canning company.

 

 

I looked them up and it seemed they have a good reputation with some even suggesting they are among the best in Portugal.

 

So, I ordered one can to sample them, intending to reorder if they were satisfactory.

 

They arrived and I tried them this noon.

 

On opening the can, I could barely make out the fish in their pool of suspiciously dark oil. I drained them and found these tiny little fish-shaped things. That side plate they are sitting on is 6 inches / 12.5 cm in diameter. Each fish was under 3 “/ 17 cm long. Half the size or less than my favourites.

 

 

 

Still I fork mashed them up to have them on sourdough toast. Well, I tried to mash them but their strange texture made that a difficult task. Finally I put half of the resultant ‘mash’ on the sourdough and attempted to eat them. Utterly disgusting.

 

I couldn’t finish it. Since then, I have brushed my teeth about eight times, but can’t shake off the lingering aftertaste.

Never again.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 07:08 AM by liuzhou (log)

[Kerala]

The price of experimentation is failure! I'd like to say no harm done, but it sounds as though you truly suffered, @liuzhou. I hope when you say "Never again," you mean never Porthos again, not never a new brand again.

I've tried Porthos before. My memory is that it was unmemorable, not necessarily disgusting. Quite possibly I'm holding myself up for ridicule, with a review hidden somewhere in this thread.

[liuzhou]

14 minutes ago, Kerala said:

Quite possibly I'm holding myself up for ridicule, with a review hidden somewhere in this thread.

 

I did search this topic for any previous mention of Porthos but there are none.

Yes, I meant "Never Porthos Again".

[Kerala]

My daughter brought a couple of tins for me from a delicatessen in Hackney. 

 

 

£3.50, which is comparable to the price in Portugal! She remembered from one of my Ryanair hauls. I really like these.