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The Wirecutter Show
Tinned Fish is Finally Having the Moment It Deserves
00:34:10
Tinned fish is having a moment. Here’s how to choose cans you’ll like, which ones are worth the money, and the most delicious ways to serve them.
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- [00:00]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
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- [00:38]
Marguerite Preston
I think the best example of that
- [00:40]
Christine Cyrclassette
is the cod liver, which sounds.
- [00:45]
Kyra Blackwell
Which sounds delicious.
- [00:47]
Christine Cyrclassette
It actually sounds like a punishment. But I did read the guide, and it's supposed to be like the foie gras of the sea, right?
- [00:52]
Marguerite Preston
Yes. And I think we were all quite pleasantly surprised by how much we like it.
- [00:59]
Christine Cyrclassette
I'm Christine Cyrclassette.
- [01:01]
Kyra Blackwell
I'm Kyra Blackwell, and you're listening to the Wirecutter Show. Hi.
- [01:17]
Christine Cyrclassette
Hello.
- [01:18]
Kyra Blackwell
Okay, Cristine, today we're talking about tinned fish.
- [01:21]
Christine Cyrclassette
Ooh la la. Tinned fish. Tell me more.
- [01:23]
Kyra Blackwell
Well, I'm really bringing this up to you because I. I just wanna set the stage for you to really hop in your soapbox and talk about how you missed out on making millions in this area.
- [01:31]
Christine Cyrclassette
Oh, Kyra, you heard me. I feel seen. Yes. I feel that I should have jumped on the tinned fish bandwagon a few years ago. It's become so popular. You're seeing tinned fish at a lot of specialty shops at places like Whole Foods. It's becoming much more of, you know, a delicacy that people in the United States are eating. And I come from a commercial fishing family. I grew up here canning tuna at home.
- [01:57]
Marguerite Preston
So cool it.
- [01:57]
Christine Cyrclassette
Yes, it's the best tuna. And I feel like, what the heck? Why didn't I come up with this idea back in the 90s? I could have been selling tinned fish at.
- [02:06]
Kyra Blackwell
But to be fair, you probably had no idea that it would become like, this luxurious item.
- [02:10]
Marguerite Preston
You know, I did.
- [02:11]
Christine Cyrclassette
I did study abroad. I spent a lot of time in Spain. So I did know that parts of the world really appreciate tinned fish, but it really hasn't caught up in the United States until just the last few years, honestly. So I'm excited to talk with someone who knows a lot about tinned fish. Here at Wirecutter, Marguerite Preston is our editorial director who oversees all of our kitchen coverage, and she has written our guide to tinned fish, which is an
- [02:39]
Kyra Blackwell
excellent guide that guide has 24 recommendations.
- [02:42]
Christine Cyrclassette
Yeah, it has a lot of recs.
- [02:44]
Kyra Blackwell
I can't believe that means that the kitchen team had to have tasted a lot of fish to still end up with that many. So they have everything from anchovies and mackerel to things like canned tuna, salmon, canned mussels.
- [02:55]
Christine Cyrclassette
They even just published a separate guide focused just on canned sardines.
- [02:59]
Kyra Blackwell
Yeah.
- [02:59]
Christine Cyrclassette
And because apparently we are completely bonkers for tinned fish over here at Wirecutter, I should also mention that Marguerite was in a really fun YouTube video recently where she tries out a bunch of tinned fish on camera. So you can see some of the cans we actually talk about in this episode on that video. It's part of a new taste test series that Wirecutter just launched on YouTube. After the break, we're getting into the details of what the uninitiated should know about tinned fish, the best ways to serve it, and some of the most delicious cans that our kitchen team found. We'll be right back.
- [03:40]
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- [04:17]
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- [04:58]
Kyra Blackwell
Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?
- [05:01]
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- [05:08]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.
- [05:10]
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- [05:13]
Marguerite Preston
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- [05:24]
Kyra Blackwell
Welcome back with us now is Marguerite Preston, who's an editorial director overseeing our kitchen team. She's had her hand in nearly all of our kitchen guides. And for our tinned fish guide, she tested over a hundred cans of tinned fish to figure out which ones are actually delicious, exciting, or worth gifting.
- [05:42]
Christine Cyrclassette
Welcome to the show, Marguerite.
- [05:43]
Marguerite Preston
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
- [05:45]
Christine Cyrclassette
I am going to just start this episode with a total diatribe of how mad I am that I did not create a tinned fish empire because there seem to be all of these amazing little companies that have cropped up over the last few years. Why has the popularity of these just exploded recently?
- [06:02]
Marguerite Preston
I mean, first of all, I should say the popularity has exploded in America. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Many other countries across the world. The popularity never went away. It's been a big part of the culture to, like, go to a bar in Spain or Portugal and just get tinned fish with your drink and that's it. But in America, I can only theorize. I don't have any, like, clear answers, but I think it sort of started picking up steam in the pandemic. And I think you could theorize away about the sort of, like, sudden coveting of canned goods that happened early in the pandemic. But I do think there's probably a little element of that where suddenly were like, oh, it's nice to have shelf stable things. There's also, I think, the sort of social media aspect of it where, like, a lot of these fancy tinned fish just look really beautiful. They come in really beautiful packages. You open them up even, and they're like these beautiful little silver jewels in a container. TikTok honestly, probably did a lot for kind of popularizing tinned fish at a time when we were at home and kind of, like, looking for entertainment. And, you know, I think a number of companies in the United States really capitalized on that.
- [07:18]
Christine Cyrclassette
Like, Fish Wife is one of the big ones.
- [07:20]
Marguerite Preston
The really big one. Yeah. But, you know, again, a lot of this stuff is, like, actually from Spain and Portugal, and the packaging is beautiful, but it's been around for decades.
- [07:28]
Christine Cyrclassette
Right, right.
- [07:29]
Kyra Blackwell
My TikTok was just full of these beautiful women in these beautiful marble kitchens, and they had tinned fish and, like, caviar and chips, and it looked so luxurious. I could totally see the hype.
- [07:39]
Marguerite Preston
And it's like, good for you, too. You know, a fish is good for you. Good for your skin. Your nails, your ha.
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Christine Cyrclassette
Brain, high protein, all of that.
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Kyra Blackwell
Yeah. So to be clear, for this particular guide, you guys weren't just testing your quote unquote boring tin fish, right?
- [07:55]
Marguerite Preston
No.
- [07:55]
Kyra Blackwell
Like tuna in water or anchovies just to slap on top of a pizza. These are the ones that are kind of more fancy, but there's still so many to pick from. So how did you guys manage to narrow it down?
- [08:07]
Marguerite Preston
Okay, so first of all, I object to anything being boring.
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Kyra Blackwell
Object? I think canned tuna is pretty boring.
- [08:13]
Marguerite Preston
Okay. Like your basic bumblebee, whatever, sure. Kind of boring. But there is really lovely, like, plain sardines. Really lovely, plain tune out there. We just didn't test those because we were like, that's its own world and that could be its own guide. For this guide, I think for the sort of, like, first covers that we did of tin fish, I did want to kind of capture that moment where people were interested in the kind of, like, fun, fancy stuff that you could have at a party or whatever. So I did really focus on that. But outside of that, I really wanted to kind of. You know, there's a gazillion things out there and I had to narrow it down, but I wanted to sort of capture variety both in sort of the types of fish and also the country of origin. Then I spent a lot of time looking at. There are, like, retailers that sell just hundreds of different kinds of tinned fish.
- [09:02]
Kyra Blackwell
Wow.
- [09:02]
Marguerite Preston
So I spent a lot of time just kind of looking at those, getting a sense of what the big brands were from other countries, getting a sense of sort of like what the ranges of types of fish. Like, you know, the big ones are your sardines, your tuna, your mackerel, even salmon.
- [09:16]
Kyra Blackwell
But then you guys also tested things
- [09:18]
Marguerite Preston
like mussels or trout is another one that's like very common things like octopus and squid.
- [09:25]
Kyra Blackwell
Yum. You guys were also kind of testing for, I don't know, the beautification of these cans too.
- [09:31]
Marguerite Preston
Right.
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Kyra Blackwell
Because you want to be able to maybe gift them or have something that's just nice and it doesn't feel boring when you're eating it at home.
- [09:37]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah. I almost thought of and approached this guide as kind of like one of our gift guides. You know, most of our taste tests were actually comparing apples to apples, basically, and we're doing these really close side by side comparisons. This one, I was just more looking for variety and delight and something that you would want to, like, bring as a host gift or open up and serve as a pretty spread. So that meant looking at the Packaging, paying attention to how it looks when you open it up, how easy it is to eat on its own. Not all of these are easy to eat on their own.
- [10:10]
Christine Cyrclassette
So you have these different categories in the guide. I think you have three main categories of the tinned fish. I think there's the sardines and mackerel. Right. Then you have the tuna, the salmon, the trout. And then you have the ones you just mentioned, the sort of the mollusks, the oysters, the clams, the dreaded squid. For me, are there some that are more approachable for the uninitiated? I guess. For beginner level, where would you point people to start?
- [10:39]
Marguerite Preston
I would start with the trout, the tuna, the salmon. Compared to, like, sardines and mackerel, they're a little less oily. You're also getting a filet in the tin. You're not, you know, when you get a sardine, it's like the whole fish minus the head. The bones are in there. The guts, you know, not all the
- [10:57]
Christine Cyrclassette
guts, but just some of the guts.
- [10:58]
Marguerite Preston
Just a little bit of the guts,
- [10:59]
Kyra Blackwell
a little bit of the bones. I never know.
- [11:01]
Marguerite Preston
Yes, you can eat the bones. Some people pick them out, but you can totally eat. They get pretty soft in the canning process. They're just a little bit. Bit crunchy. Trout, I think, is. Is maybe one of the best. It's like a really nice, mild, light fish. We have some really great trout options. If you're like, fish wary, that's where I would start.
- [11:19]
Christine Cyrclassette
And then from there, if somebody knows that they are cool with something a little fishier, like, they don't mind those flavors. Would you point them? Mackerel can be pretty fishy.
- [11:29]
Marguerite Preston
Yep. Yeah.
- [11:30]
Christine Cyrclassette
So these oilier fish, the. The sardines and the. And the mackerel.
- [11:33]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah. Which can be really lovely and like, fresh tasting. And then kind of like the mussels, octopus and stuff like that can be more texturally challenging, I think, to people and visually challenging.
- [11:47]
Christine Cyrclassette
Is it fair to say that if you have a hard time with the texture of mussels or oysters fresh, you might not like them canned?
- [11:57]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, it's a different texture, but some might even describe it as worse. Like, chewier clams can be a little chewy in the can, but it's still. It is like this, you know, creature with this one really does have all its organs inside of it. Like, it's a. It's a funny bite.
- [12:20]
Kyra Blackwell
So a lot of the tin fish that we recommend in this guide are kind of expensive. Some can be over $30 for a can, which is a lot. You also recommend a few that are more like in the $6 range, which to me still sounds like a lot for canned fish. Can you explain why these options are so expensive?
- [12:38]
Marguerite Preston
I think they're more expensive for all the sort of usual reasons that food can be more expensive. Like there's the quality of the ingredients, like it's high quality fish. If you think about, you know, you go to a fishmonger, you go to like a nice grocery store and you buy a fresh fish, like they're expensive. So there's that. Also a lot of these are being hand packed. It's not just some factory kind of like pumping fish into a can. It's these little like really old school canneries where there are people that are individually cutting the fish and carefully placing them into the can so they look really beautiful. You can look this up. There's like really cool videos on YouTube of like really old school, like Portuguese factories or whatever that are doing this, where they're even like wrapping it in paper by hand. Like it's, you know, so all of that manual labor adds to the cost too. And it's. These are also like smaller production, you know, it's like, not like they're producing hundreds of thousands of these. Yeah. You know, and I should say too, like, I. I definitely like thought about price and these recommendations, but I didn't weight it so heavily again, because they're like a gifty, It's a special occasion thing. It's not like you're buying this for your lunch every day.
- [13:44]
Christine Cyrclassette
We're gonna talk a lot more about some of the recommendations which are really for eating straight out of the can or, you know, these kind of elevated options. In the guide, you also have some recommendations for tinned fish that didn't quite make it to that level, but that were good for cooking. What's the dividing line between tinned fish that's good for integrating into a recipe versus that is great for serving as an appetizer or just on its own partially.
- [14:10]
Marguerite Preston
It's just a vibe. Plenty of the things that you could serve on your own would also be delicious in a recipe. Like especially the simpler sardines or something like in a pasta would be lovely. But I think what it came down to for us was could I open up this tin at a dinner party and put it on the table and people would eat it or would I have to like add a bunch of stuff to it to make it kind of a appealing for the average person to eat? So like, some examples from the cooking category were, like, this smoked herring from a company in Alaska Wild Fish Cannery, which was really delicious. Had a very strong smoke flavor. It was very salty, quite. It was just like, strong, strong flavors. And the flavors were delicious, but on their own, they were a little overpowering. It was just like a little too much. Like, you kind of needed to. It would have been really incredible if you had made it into like a. A dip, you know, like mixed it with some mayonnaise, sour cream, herbs, lemon, etc. Same with, like, there you can buy like, tin cod. And what we found was most of the cod. The tin cod that we bought was actually salt cod. And again, it was like a very salty.
- [15:18]
Kyra Blackwell
Sounds good.
- [15:19]
Marguerite Preston
Some people, I think, liked some of them. Okay. But like, to me, it was just like, not something you could really eat on its own, but again, would be delicious if you could cook it into a dish, like mix it with potatoes or something like that.
- [15:32]
Kyra Blackwell
I have seen these videos again that I mentioned on TikTok of these people putting their tinned fish, and they're making these gorgeous spreads to go with it. Sometimes somebody be like, oh, I'll just put like a bump of caviar to top it off. It's not really. So do you have any, like, quote unquote recipes for people who do want to make a meal out of it? Maybe they don't want to cook a whole pasta dish, but they might have like a thin cracker of some sort, maybe something to garnish it. Do you have anything like that?
- [15:58]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah. So I think the main thing you want is just kind of like flavor and textural contrast. So, like, the fish, because they're canned, even if it's like a, you know, a mackerel with lemon or something like that, which we tried and recommend, like, the lemon flavor is gonna be more of the floral, rindy lemon flavor than that kind of like bright, acidic thing. Fish is always good with lemon. So like a nice little like, squeeze of like fresh lemon or some kind of acid little hot sauce. That kind of thing is great. And then freshness. They tast delicious, but they've been sitting in a can so like chopped up fine herbs like to add a little green, like visual contrast, the green and then also the kind of like fresh flavor. Also for some of these, some of these come in like a nice creamy sauce and, like, really don't need anything. But for other ones, you might want to add a little kind of creaminess to it. I really like just mayonnaise the spread
- [16:52]
Christine Cyrclassette
you're describing to me sounds a little bit like you're having friends over and you have an appetizer.
- [16:57]
Marguerite Preston
You would traditionally put out a cheese
- [16:58]
Christine Cyrclassette
board with maybe some salami and olives and stuff. Is this something you would actually, like, tuck into that spread? Like, would you put a canned fish in with your other items on the cheese board?
- [17:11]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't. I think I would make my own little fishboard. Like, I don't know if I'd have fish and cheese commingling together on the plate, but yeah. And it can be really nice. Again, the acidic, tart things. So, like some nice pickled peppers or olives, a few different open tins of fish, plus that, plus some lemon wedges, plus crackers, like some nice, like, crunch to offset the fish.
- [17:38]
Christine Cyrclassette
And are you serving them directly in the cans or are you decanting them into something else?
- [17:42]
Marguerite Preston
It depends. I did look for ones that were you could serve right out of the cans. And a lot of them look really beautiful. At least when you first open it. As soon as you dig in, it's gonna start to not look as beautiful. But some of them are really stunning when you open them up. There are some that I would not serve out of the can. Cause it's just a little too much. Visually, I think the best example of that is the cod liver on Christine's
- [18:11]
Kyra Blackwell
face, which sounds delicious.
- [18:13]
Christine Cyrclassette
It actually sounds like a punishment. But I did read the guide and it's supposed to be like the foie gras of the sea, right?
- [18:18]
Marguerite Preston
Yes. And I think we were all quite pleasantly surprised by how much we like it. It is this very kind of like fatty liver. Texturally, it's very soft. It looks God awful when you open the can. But the flavor, like, I would describe the flavor as like anchovies and butter. Like, it's this salty, very savory, fishy flavor. It's a very clean flavor. Highly recommend it. But if you put a little on toast, you do a little squeeze of lemon, you chop some herbs. The herbs kind of COVID up whatever kind of funky looks there are.
- [18:58]
Kyra Blackwell
The nightmare going on in your mouth
- [19:00]
Marguerite Preston
would be a really beautiful appetizer. Yeah.
- [19:03]
Christine Cyrclassette
I am picturing the spread I'm gonna make. But I'm curious, what kind of crackers do you serve with tinned fish? Because I would imagine you wouldn't want to go too crunchy. I would probably want to go low brow and do a saltine. But is that okay? Is that okay, Marguerite?
- [19:21]
Marguerite Preston
I say yes. That's what we had in Our tasting, I think a saltine is great because it has a certain level of like salt, but it's pretty bland. But, you know, you could also do like a. I'm imagining kind of like a long, thin, delicate, flatbread Y type thing. Yeah. But also bread, Just some nice sliced bread. Some of these that come with these really lovely sauces that you actually might want to mop up with the bread a little bit.
- [19:48]
Christine Cyrclassette
I love that.
- [19:50]
Kyra Blackwell
Okay, so if you're a beginner and you're not really sure if you're really into the whole tinned fish thing, you should probably start out with something that's mild, like a tuna or a salmon or a trout. And then if you think you know that you like this and you can dive into the deep end and go for something more experienced, like a mackerel is more oily, might be fishier, might be a little bit more pungent or sardine. And then if you want to kind of make a little meal out of it, make a spread for a party or just for yourself when you're dressing up, girl. Dinner at night, you can add an acid like lemon. Always goes great with fish. Or a fat or a cream like creme fraiche or mayonnaise even, which I don't, I can't. But if you want to, go ahead.
- [20:28]
Marguerite Preston
If you like tuna salad, you will like mayonnaise with fish.
- [20:31]
Christine Cyrclassette
I sure love it. And don't forget the heat. The hot sauce.
- [20:34]
Marguerite Preston
Yes, the hot sauce. The hot sauce. Always the hot sauce. Yes.
- [20:37]
Kyra Blackwell
This sounds great. After the break, we're going to talk to Marguerite about a few of her personal favorite picks from the guide and what to look for on a label when you're browsing the canned seafood aisle. And. And a quick lightning round about some of her hottest tinned fish takes.
- [20:51]
Marguerite Preston
Be right back.
- [20:59]
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- [21:08]
Kyra Blackwell
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- [21:12]
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- [21:19]
Marguerite Preston
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- [21:20]
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- [21:24]
Marguerite Preston
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- [21:27]
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- [22:06]
Christine Cyrclassette
Welcome back, Marguerite. Before the break, you told us how you test tin fish and we talked a little bit about how to serve these things. But now we wanna talk about some of the recommendations because you have 24 recommendations in this guide. So I am curious if you could just maybe pick the top four for you. What are your favorites from this guide?
- [22:27]
Marguerite Preston
It's so hard cause I could start listing and then just eventually list like
- [22:30]
Christine Cyrclassette
all, all 24 of them.
- [22:33]
Marguerite Preston
One of my all time favorites is this one. It's from a company, abc, which is Portuguese and they make this trout and curry sauce. Ooh. The trout is really nice. It tastes really fresh. It's just like a beautiful trout. But then the curry sauce is like this thick, creamy sauce. And the curry flavor is like so vibrant and fresh. Like it's a little bit spicy. Like all the spices taste really fresh and bright. It is so good. You could easily just eat the whole can. I would put it over rice for lunch. The challenge is that it's a very expensive. It's one of the more expensive.
- [23:14]
Kyra Blackwell
Come on, give it to us.
- [23:14]
Marguerite Preston
How much is it expensive? Is it? I would have to look up.
- [23:16]
Christine Cyrclassette
Exactly. I think it's like $18.
- [23:19]
Marguerite Preston
It's like something like in the $20 range. Yeah.
- [23:21]
Kyra Blackwell
Dang.
- [23:22]
Marguerite Preston
So it's not. You want to be like, this is like a perfect lunch. I'll just tote it to the office and like. Sure, but. But it's like a little piece of fish.
- [23:32]
Kyra Blackwell
So what's your experience with this fish? Why would you buy it for yourself?
- [23:38]
Marguerite Preston
As a treat for myself to eat the whole thing for lunch. But yeah, at a party. I think it's also like, it is a good sort of entry level one because the trout is mild and fresh and also because the curry flavor does so much. You know, if you like curry, even if you're not a big fish person, like this would be really delicious. So it's good for a party. It's kind of a crowd pleaser. Another favorite that is also a crowd pleaser is the smoked mackerel with chili flakes from Fishwife.
- [24:09]
Kyra Blackwell
Ooh.
- [24:10]
Marguerite Preston
We tested a lot of Fishwife's fish and this was I think, sort of far and away the consensus favorite. And really like one of the sort of consensus favorites of the whole tasting. The Smoke on the mackerel. It's pretty heavily smoked. Like, you open the can and it's this beautiful kind of like, dark, burnished brown color. The smoke flavor is really nice. It's balanced and woody. What we found with some of these fish is that the smoke flavor can taste a little kind of acrid or artificial on some of them, and this was not the case at all. But it's very smoky and then has a little bit of spice. They also kind of do it in this sauce that's garlic, sugar, olive oil. So, like, the sugar and the garlic kind of add a little extra. They really round out the flavor. So that's another one that's just, like, really, really delicious. Could eat it on its own. Could eat it over rice on a cracker. Like, it's great. Let's see. Oh, my gosh. This is so hard to do. Just for.
- [25:10]
Kyra Blackwell
You're halfway there.
- [25:14]
Marguerite Preston
I'm. You know, I'm gonna say it. The cod liver, like, ah, okay.
- [25:19]
Kyra Blackwell
That makes sense, though, because you have a very refined past. So this is your top four.
- [25:25]
Marguerite Preston
It's just really. It's different and it's really special. The one that we liked is from this brand, Minnow, which is. They're one of these newer companies. It's American. They're actually based in Brooklyn. It's like a restaurant group, actually, that makes them. But they're sourcing their fish from elsewhere. So I think their cod liver is from. I'm like, actually looking at the box. It's from Iceland, and it's just the cod, but it's really. Yeah, anchovies and butter, which is, like, a thing that I love. That's what it tastes like to me.
- [25:52]
Christine Cyrclassette
That sounds great.
- [25:53]
Kyra Blackwell
How expensive is the cod liver?
- [25:55]
Christine Cyrclassette
It's $10. That is not that bad.
- [25:57]
Marguerite Preston
That's not that bad.
- [25:58]
Christine Cyrclassette
When we're talking about all of these very fancy cans.
- [26:03]
Marguerite Preston
Maybe our.
- [26:03]
Christine Cyrclassette
Our view is skewed now since we know that they go up past 30, but $10 doesn't seem so bad.
- [26:08]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, and it's. It's the kind of thing where a little goes a long way. Like that one. I probably could eat the whole can. I don't know that I would eat. It's like. It's a very rich thing, so you'd get a lot of mileage out of it. Let's see. What is my number four? Oh, I gotta say. And I'm really kind of like, leaning on the American brands here, which we tasted so many, and there are so many, like, cool and interesting things, but Wild Fish Cannery, they make a bunch of stuff now, but they make smoked salmon, and it is just so incredibly beautiful and good. They're beautifully smoked. Again, you can open it up, and it's like this. Just this beautiful kind of glossy brown color on top. The flavor and the texture is just really buttery and meaty. You know, I think some of the tinned smoked fish we tried was kind of dry or, like, some of the salmon was maybe a little mushier or, like, you kind of, like, had more water in it. This is just, like. I don't know, it's like, just, like, dense and buttery and meaty in a really amazing way. And the smoke flavor is, like, really just real. Like, it tastes like being in the woods or something.
- [27:23]
Christine Cyrclassette
I would put all four of those on the table, and maybe I will. Maybe I will try those all together,
- [27:27]
Kyra Blackwell
including the cod liver.
- [27:28]
Christine Cyrclassette
I'm gonna do it. Yeah. It sounds delicious.
- [27:30]
Marguerite Preston
It does sound good.
- [27:34]
Christine Cyrclassette
If someone is. They're looking at our guide, they're like, I don't have any of these things available locally. I don't want to buy anything online. I just want to go to my local store and buy something. If you're just walking down a grocery aisle, is there anything on the label that indicates quality? It sounds like you had to just sort of do a lot of trial and error to find the things that you thought were good. Can someone out in the wild be educated in terms of how they're. They're shopping? Like, are you looking for country of origin? Are there certain things on the label that they should be looking for?
- [28:06]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, and the country of origin thing is really tough. I don't think it really tells you a ton. I mean, there's so many countries with traditions of canning fish, and they can all do it well that it doesn't necessarily tell you much, you know? And the ones I tested for this guide are from everywhere, from China to Norway to Alaska. There are also sustainability certifications that you can look for. And if you can care about that, that's something you might want to look out for. There's the msc, which is the Marine Stewardship Council, and then there's the asc, which is the Aquaculture Stewardship. It's the equivalent for farmed fish. What we found in the sardine testing was that those really didn't correlate at all to, like, actual flavor quality. Right.
- [28:53]
Christine Cyrclassette
It's more about your sort of ethics around what you're eating. The quality of what's in the can.
- [29:00]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah. I think the one Thing actually is oil versus water. Is it packed in oil or is it packed in water?
- [29:05]
Kyra Blackwell
Yeah, that. That leads directly into my next question. I'm always looking at those labels when I'm just buying my regular canned tuna. I'm like, do I have to care about this? Does it make a difference if you
- [29:15]
Marguerite Preston
were to ask me or if you were to ask experts?
- [29:19]
Kyra Blackwell
Oil is better because.
- [29:21]
Marguerite Preston
Because it better preserves the shape and texture of the fish and also, I think, better preserves the flavor and mouth feel. Fat is generally better than not fat.
- [29:34]
Kyra Blackwell
Yeah.
- [29:35]
Marguerite Preston
So for all of the reasons that, like, toast is better with butter, like, like it's just. Fish is better with oil. Like, it just makes it a little more unctuous, a little more tender.
- [29:49]
Christine Cyrclassette
So back to my question around shopping for. For tinned fish. We've got links in our guide to all of the recommendations. Let's say you don't. You don't have a grocery store that has a lot of these tinned fishes. You want to try them out? Are there online sources? What are some of those that you would recommend people go to if they want to kind of peruse and also maybe capture ordering a number of things from the same retailer? So you're not paying for shipping from a bunch of different places?
- [30:16]
Marguerite Preston
Yes. One of the big ones is Rainbow Tomatoes Garden. They carry the widest selection of tinned fish of any retailer in the world. They just have a ton of stuff. They do a good job, too, of kind of describing what the fish are like and all that stuff. So that's a good source. Another good source is Caputo's, which is. It actually does have retail stores in Utah. It's like a gourmet grocery, but they have a big online store, and they are actually the importer for a lot of mostly European brands. So they carry a huge range. And they also do a very good job of describing, like, what is the deal with this company and like, what. What does this taste like and, you know, what can pair it with that kind of thing. Another one that I like, that it's like a smaller retailer and they have a smaller selection, but could be a good option if you want to try, like, a subscription, which there are subscriptions out there where you can get a box of a few different tin fish once a month, which is a good way to kind of explore and try new stuff. There are a few options out there. One that I've tried is Latte, which is a pretty small company. They again, do mostly kind of Western European fish. I think the founders are Spanish. The Thing I like about them is that even though the selection is small, part of the reason the selection is small is because it's curated. I spoke to one of the founders for the guide and he said that they sort of like they taste everything themselves and they kind of decide what they want to carry. And often it's just like a couple things from any given brand. So that's good. But I think especially good if you want to kind of try the subscription.
- [31:58]
Christine Cyrclassette
Marguerite, we want to get a lightning round in here. We're going to ask you a series of questions about the type of tinned fish you would serve, particularly the recommendation from our guide. And we want you to answer lickety split real quick. Don't, don't overthink it. So I will start. What's the best beginner friendly tin for someone who's nervous about tinned fish?
- [32:21]
Marguerite Preston
I think actually the fishwife smoked mackerel, but also minnow makes a smoked trout that is really lovely. I think it actually kind of tastes like bacon.
- [32:29]
Kyra Blackwell
Okay, if someone only buys one fancy tin this year, which one should it be?
- [32:36]
Marguerite Preston
Ramon Pena is a Spanish brand. Everything we have tried from them is really incredible and delicious. It's definitely fancier. It's like old school. Anything from them?
- [32:47]
Christine Cyrclassette
What's the most underrated type of tinned fish?
- [32:51]
Marguerite Preston
Cod liver.
- [32:54]
Kyra Blackwell
What about the most overrated?
- [32:56]
Marguerite Preston
I like the fishier flavors. So I think like, you know, tuna, there's some really lovely tuna out there, but I want more oily fish.
- [33:05]
Christine Cyrclassette
Would you eat tinned fish that's past its expiration date?
- [33:09]
Marguerite Preston
Yes.
- [33:09]
Christine Cyrclassette
How long after the expiration date?
- [33:13]
Marguerite Preston
It might depend on the can and the fish. But I will tell you this vintage. Vintage sardines, tinned fish. You can buy sardines that have a vintage that have the year that they were.
- [33:27]
Kyra Blackwell
Like a wine.
- [33:27]
Marguerite Preston
Yes, exactly. And people collect them, but do they eat them? And they eat them.
- [33:32]
Christine Cyrclassette
What?
- [33:32]
Marguerite Preston
And there is a school of thought that sardines, I think it's especially sardines and tuna canned in oil get better with age, huh?
- [33:42]
Kyra Blackwell
I'm so skeptical.
- [33:43]
Marguerite Preston
The flavor develops, the texture develops, the bones kind of melt away. It's a thing. And you can go online and you can buy like a collection of like vintages of different, you know, sardines from 2020, sardines from 2018.
- [34:01]
Christine Cyrclassette
Are we like, are we okay if it's like sardines from 1996 or from 1990, 40. Like, how far back can you go?
- [34:08]
Marguerite Preston
Good question. I have to do. I have to do a little more research. There into how far back when you open it up? Just.
- [34:18]
Kyra Blackwell
All right, we're down to our final question. What's the last thing you bought that you've really loved?
- [34:22]
Marguerite Preston
Okay. This is a very recent purchase. This was a big purchase. But I just bought a cargo ebike.
- [34:31]
Strayer University Ad Voice
Ah.
- [34:32]
Marguerite Preston
I. So I should back up and say I really rely on biking around Brooklyn. It's how I get my kid everywhere. But I recently moved and where I moved is both farther away from school and at the bottom of a very big hill. And my son is four and a half and I am six months pregnant, so I don't really want to bike him up the hill every day anymore. And then we found this secondhand rad runner that's in very good condition for five hundred dollars.
- [35:05]
Christine Cyrclassette
Oh, nice.
- [35:06]
Kyra Blackwell
That's a great price.
- [35:08]
Marguerite Preston
It's like a fifteen hundred dollar bike. Yeah. Wow.
- [35:12]
Christine Cyrclassette
Well, Marguerite, it was so lovely to talk tinned fish with you and maybe we'll get to taste some with you sometime soon.
- [35:18]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, I would love that.
- [35:19]
Kyra Blackwell
Thank you.
- [35:19]
Christine Cyrclassette
Thanks.
- [35:20]
Marguerite Preston
Thanks for having me.
- [35:27]
Christine Cyrclassette
All right. Tinned fish, Kyra, what are you thinking? What are you, Are you sold?
- [35:32]
Kyra Blackwell
I'm really sold on this fish. I'm like, I like tinned fish, but I'm not really gonna go out and buy it specifically. Like if I pass it in the store and it looks good, maybe I do have to say that fish wife. The mackerel does look good. Looks affordable for my price range and most importantly for me, it looks accessible because I've definitely seen it at my local grocery store.
- [35:53]
Christine Cyrclassette
Yeah, I think it's becoming more and more available. I am feeling pretty pumped and inspired to do some kind of appetizer fish at my next gathering. And so I'm going to think about all the flavors and I'll probably focus on some of the more approachable options that Marguerite talked about and steer clear of the oilier like mackerel and sardines to start with. Just to as a nice entry point, but I'm excited to try. If listeners have any questions about any of the recommendations we talked about today, we have all of those recommendations in our show notes and you can also we'll have a link to our tinned fish guide. That's it for us this week. Thanks so much for listening.
- [36:33]
Kyra Blackwell
Bye.
- [36:34]
Marguerite Preston
Bye.
- [36:38]
Christine Cyrclassette
The Wirecutter show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Kiel. Engineering support from Matty Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Rowan Musteau, Katherine Anderson and Diane Wong. Cliff Levy is Wirecutter's deputy publisher and general manager. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor in chief. I'm Christine Cyrclassette.
- [37:05]
Kyra Blackwell
I'm Kyra Blackwell.
- [37:06]
Christine Cyrclassette
Thanks for listening.
- [37:10]
Marguerite Preston
Yeah, mayonnaise on a cracker.
- [37:12]
Christine Cyrclassette
I mean, our dividing line.
- [37:13]
Kyra Blackwell
Yeah. We've had so many debates about mayonnaise. I'm like, I don't want to eat
- [37:17]
Marguerite Preston
it where I can taste it. Oh my gosh.
- [37:22]
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