Fishy Delights 49: Brunswick Flavored Sardines

I've liked sardines as long as I can remember, and even though they seem to have fallen out of favor in the past 20 years or so, I still enjoy them and seek them out. There's been a lot of buyouts and consolidations in the sardine business as the years have gone by - that, and the huge decline in the Atlantic herring population, has pretty much killed off the American sardine industry, with the last US cannery closing in 2010. These days, the sardines available in your local supermarkets come from Morocco, Poland, Norway, and - like these Brunswick flavored sardines - Canada.

These are not the million-or-so-sardines-to-a-can tiny fish most of us think of when we think of sardines, but average 3 to 5 largish fish per can. Although they're bigger, the fish are no less tender and delicious as the tiny ones. All three varieties had that in common.

Soybean Oil with Hot Peppers - Packed with slices of hot chili peppers which infused the fish and the oil with noticeable but mild spicy heat. I found the heat level to be rather mild; if you're not into chili spice, you may find it a little more kicky. Very good.

Tomato and Basil Sauce - Sardines have been packed in tomato sauce since forever. The difference here is the savoriness of the sauce. Instead of just some simple unadorned tomato sauce, Brunswick uses a sauce that's heavy on the basil and sprinkled with a few other Italian herbs as well. This results in a surprisingly good (albeit fishy) tomato sauce with a certain hearty character.

Mustard and Dill Sauce - The mustard is very mild - even milder than out-of-the-jar yellow mustard - and is loaded with dill. Too loaded for me, because dill is my least favorite of all herbs (I like it dill pickles and that's about where it stops.) Because I particularly loathe the flavor of fish with dill, I didn't like these at all. Do you like dill? Then you might like these.

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Sardines In A Pouch

Love 'em or hate 'em, there is one thing no one can deny about sardines: they are fragile little things, and don't take well to being indelicately handled. More than once, a little fishy morsel has broken off and tumbled back to the plate when I've tried to lift it whole with my fork.

You'd think that, of all the people familiar with sardines in the world, the people who actually process and package and sell them would know this. Apparently not, because Crown Prince actually has tried selling sardines in pouches.

When I saw these at Big Lots! it was almost mandatory that I buy them.  I couldn't think of a more ridiculous way to pack sardines, and I couldn't wait to find out what they were going to be like when I opened them up at lunchtime.  I could just imagine what they would look like after having been tumbled through the wholesale and retail distribution chain without the traditional exoskeleton of a metal can, and I was sure it wasn't going to be pretty.

I opened the first pouch - sardines in soy oil, lightly smoked - and tipped them out onto a plate.  "Not pretty" was an understatement. These fish had the shit kicked out of them. I think there might have originally been four whole sardines in the package, but without the help of a forensic ichthyologist, there was no way to tell.  I found some fair-sized fish chunks, lots of little pieces, and plenty of tiny fragments and soft-cooked bits of rib bones.  There were also some long, semi-crunchy lengths of spine. I never remove the spines or other bones when I eat whole sardines, so I didn't bother trying to remove them when I ate these.  The fish tasted fine, although the texture was a little dry despite having been packed in oil.  And of course, there was the horrifying presentation.

The second pouch were sardines in mustard sauce.  These fish had successfully retained their shape, probably thanks to the high-viscosity mustard sauce which had the consistency of gear oil and likely provided some shock absorption during shipping. Unfortunately, Crown Prince's mustard sauce isn't the best I've ever had; it is strong and rather harsh and covers, rather than enhances, the flavor of the fish.

The final pouch, containing the sardines in "Louisiana hot sauce" (not pictured) was sort of in between the other two in terms of sardine integrity. The fish were broken but not mangled but I can't really attribute that to the presence of sauce.  As interpreted by Crown Prince, "Louisiana hot sauce" is a quantity of oil colored bright red by the clots of brownish-red pepper sauce which are suspended within it. It adds little to the flavor of the sardines, but does add a mild but irritating back-of-the-throat scratchy heat in the manner of cayenne pepper powder.

It is no surprise to me that the only place I have seen sardines-in-a-pouch offered for sale is at Big Lots. Only a job lot store could possibly sell them with a straight face, and a quick check of Crown Prince's website shows me that they don't even list this packaging option as one of their products.  Hopefully, sardine pouches were a marketing experiment that won't be repeated.

Fishy Delights 32: Riga Sprats

These days, it's hard to find sardines that are both inexpensive and tiny and delicate.  Riga Sprats, packed in Latvia and found in many international-style markets, fit the bill nicely.  

Lightly smoked and packed in sunflower oil, Riga Sprats are the kind of high-quality delicious little fishies we grew up with.  Each tin contains a generous 5.6-ounce portion of fish, carefully laid in layers - ready for lunch, snacking, or canapes and recipes.  And they're very inexpensive - the local markets here carry them for $1.79 - $1.99 a can, and you can even find them on Amazon for $1.79 each.

The tiny fish are quite wonderful - scaleless and perfect, mildly fishy and with a hint of smokiness.  They're great on crackers with some thinkly-shaved sharp onion and some Turkish beyaz peynir (white farmer's cheese.)

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Fishy Delights 31: Beach Cliff Sardines

 As you probably know by now, Bumble Bee Foods has decided to close their Prospect Harbor ME sardine cannery - the last sardine cannery left in the United States and the home of Beach Cliff brand sardines.  I thought that I had reviewed Beach Cliff sardines at some point, but I found that I was mistaken.  I'm sorry I never got around to it, because this post - number 31 in my "fishy delights" series - is going to be more of eulogy than a review.  Once that factory is closed and remaining stock "in the pipeline" is sold off, whatever Bumble Bee brings out afterwards isn't going to be "Beach Cliff" any more.  That's really too bad, because the sardines Bumble Bee sells under it's own name are less than spectacular.

I wasn't able to try every variety of sardine produced by Beach Cliff because the stores in my area never carried every single kind.  But I was able to enjoy five flavors, and I've written up reviews for them.  Act quickly if you want to try them for yourself - the last cans will be rolling off the packing lines soon.

Sardines in Soybean Oil - Usually three or four sardine cuts in each can, in a decent-quality light soybean oil.  Flavorful without being too "fishy," the sardines were of excellent quality despite their larger size. And they were certainly fairly priced at about a dollar a can on sale (or about $1.25 a can at full price.)

Sardines in Tomato Sauce - Larger size sardines, as with the plain ones packed in soybean oil.  I liked the tomato sauce they were packed in - there were notes of garlic and horseradish and some herbs; the sauce was tangy and flavorful.

Sardines in Mustard Sauce - Plain and simple mustard sauce with no adornments.  There is something about the sharp flavor of mustard that is very complimentary to sardines, and this variety was excellent - the same high-quality wild-caught Gulf of Maine sardines as in the others.

Sardines in Louisiana Hot Sauce - Nothing packed in "hot sauce" or advertised to a mass market as being "extra spicy" is ever very spicy, and this variety was no exception.  That being said, however, this was my favorite of the five flavors I was able to find.  The hot sauce, despite its shortcomings, delivered a decent kick with a good pepper flavor behind it.  I'll miss this flavor most of all.

Sardines in Soybean Oil with Hot Green Chilies - Another flavor that didn't actually deliver the promised spice level (although there was indeed a little boost.)  But there's something about sardines and chilis that have a natural affinity, and because this was the hardest kind of Beach Cliff sardines for me to find, they were always a treat when I got ahold of them.

So there you have it.  A day late and a buck short, as my douchebag junior high gym coach used to say, but at least it can stand as a farewell to yet another bit of vanishing New England.

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Fishy Delights 25: Roland Canned Sprats

Roland Sprats are lightly smoked little fishies packed in soybean oil, so similar to sardines that the difference hardly matters. As canned fish go, they're very good - the smoke flavor is subtle but distinct and the fish are scaleless, tender, and quite delicious.

These probably would have been better if they were packed in olive oil, but they would have been a lot more expensive as well. (These were $1.60 at Ocean State Job Lot.)

Fishy Delights 22: Dubay Sardines in Soybean Oil

Dubay Sardines in Soybean Oil are great. In fact, they're pretty much the blueprint of what an inexpensive, yet high-quality, sardine can be.

Each can contains a single layer of medium-sized dressed sardines (no heads, tails, or guts.) There are no scales or nasty surprises - just delicious, tender little fish in a small amount of soybean oil. I was very pleased with these, and it's going to be tough to find another inexpensive brand that will measure up to them. Not surprisingly, Dubay is an ALDI brand, so many of you will be able to find them easily.

Fishy Delights 21: Yankee Clipper Sardines

Yankee Clipper All Natural Lightly Smoked Sardines in Soybean Oil.

Decent-quality sardines packed by a manufacturer who doesn't give a damn about quality control. In other words, once again I find a brand of sardines that packs the fish without scaling them first.

The can contained three rather large fish torsos. Two of them were fine - delicious, hint of salt, hint of smoke, no scales. The third - the one in the center - needed to be raked off with my fork. That's the deal-breaker: These are off my list.

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Fishy Delights 19: Sunny Sea Sardines in Tomato Sauce

Sunny Sea sardines are yet another in a long line of substandard tinned fish products I inexplicably continue to purchase at job lot stores.

We can start with the can. I just don't understand why companies stopped putting "keys" on sardine tins so they can open easily. Pull tabs are messy, and standard square cans have these small-radius rounded corners that can openers just aren't able to navigate well. It's messy and frustrating.

The fish inside are thick-bodied but short; the ends of the sardines don't come anywhere near the ends of the can, and there are only four of them, swimming in a salty but otherwise very bland tomato sauce. Oh well, I've had big sardines before and the size isn't necessarily an indicator of quality, so I was still willing to give them a fair try.

But then I popped a piece into my mouth and that was STRIKE THREE. The goddamn company left the scales on the fish. I don't have words for how much I hate that.

Sunny Sea sardines are little better than dog food.

Link:
Golden Beach, Inc. is the company responsible for this crap. Click here to go to their website, where you can see photos of other products of theirs you can avoid.

Fishy Delights 18: Ocean Prince Skinless & Boneless Sardines in Oil

I got an email a little while ago. The sender wanted to know why I have so many reviews of sardines and other canned fish. There are two reasons: First of all, sardines are really very good for you. Lots of protein, lots of beneficial fish oils, lots of Omega-3 fatty acids. And secondly, I like them. I've eaten fish all my life and sardines are a convenient and delicious way to have fish for lunch. So, whenever I see a brand or type of sardine I haven't tried before, I buy at least one can to give it a chance. Especially when they're cheap, like these Ocean Prince ones were in the local Big Lots! store.

As sardines go, these are pretty good - they really are skinless, and the backbone has been pulled out, and all the nasty intestinal stuff has been removed from them too. What's left is four or five medium-sized sardines and some oil.

Despite the fact that Ocean Prince labels these as "premium" they don't have the lovely smooth-yet-firm texture of the really nice, tiny, two-layered smoked sardines in olive oil that really are premium. They're packed more roughly, and the texture is more coarse. But they were also 85 cents a can, and that's a trade-off I can live with.

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Fishy Delights 11: Brunswick Holmes Sardines

Sometimes when I buy a product, my expectations and the actual experience are so widely at odds with one another that it's like I've been the victim of a "bait and switch" scam. These Brunswick sardines are a pretty good example.

Normally, when I buy canned sardines, I expect the tins to contain several small fish. Expensive "premium" brands might pack twenty delicate little fish (in two layers) into the tin, while some of the deep-discount cheap brands will use bigger and coarser fish (maybe four or five) to fill the tin. On occasion, I've had a few really unpleasant surprises, where there might be two or three fish packed with the scales still intact. Bleeurgh.

But even finding three or four really big sardines in the can would have been less startling than what I actually found when I pulled the ring on these tins, each of which contained two gigantic segments of pilchard.

That picture on the left shows what was in the can labeled as packed in "Louisiana Hot Sauce." The "sardines" are sitting on the plate - two massive cuts from the body of a good-sized fish.

Now, as disconcerting as that photo may be, I have to say that the fish itself was of very good quality, mild-flavored and tender, with no scales or nasty "intestinal surprises" lurking within the body cavities. Unfortunately for those who enjoy a spicy lunch, the "Louisiana Hot Sauce" wasn't much of anything - kind of a mildly-paprika-flavored thin sauce without much body or kick that certainly didn't have much in common with any hot sauce I've ever tasted.

Still, I couldn't complain. At 65 cents per can at the local Big Lots! job lot store, the Brunswick sardines were a bargain, and there are plenty of fishy recipes calling for sardines as a "mix in" ingredient where they'd be perfectly adequate.

Relevant link: Brunswick Sardines and Seafood

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