I believe Philippe mentioned smoked sardines were good for aging. I thought these might be a good candidate, but after reading A23's thoughts on the matter, and the fact that the pantry is crowded with tins right now, I changed my mind.
Donated to SF Food Bank. Someone, somewhere, will be stoked, in a "Two-Buck-Chuck way".
Well there's nothing best than a sardine to be donated to a food bank. I remember visiting a cannery in South of France once, they were canning a fish very similar to mediterranean sardines but bigger and full of hard bones that no body would like to eat in oil. In front of my surprise, the boss told me "We have to catch them, they feed on the same fields as sardines, and as long as they hang around, sardines stay away. So we catch them as much as possible. And we can them for a special brand of mute customers: Resto du Coeur, France biggest food bank !" Sure you've got to be charitable to sardines and to people also ! Double paradise income…
ReplyDeleteMy wife bought me some of those Trader Joes magenta cans and some TJs boneless & skinless cans as well. Both were awful for different reasons. The boneless & skinless ones were like eating olive oil soup. The fish were drenched through and had no firmness. Question for you experts: Does aging sardines a few years change the texture and firmness of the fish? Or does it simply improve the flavor?
ReplyDeleteHello King
ReplyDeleteaging sardines is interesting only with bonefull fish. The aim is to get the calcium dissolved into the flesh. Aged boneless just lead to a soaked oily fish as you mentionned. And then, sardines should be fried and not steam cooked as they are most of the time if frying is not mentionned. Aging a steam cooked sardine is just like changing it into a spongy oily piece of unidentified corpse…