Cooking with Tinned Sardines: Uses Worth Learning
A tin of sardines is already cooked. That single fact shapes every good use of it. The fish went into the tin raw, the tin was sealed and heated, and what comes out is tender, seasoned and ready to eat. Cooking with sardines is less about cooking them than about deciding how much more heat they can take: none at all, a minute in a warm pan, or a few minutes under a broiler. Get that right and a tin becomes a dinner in the time it takes to boil pasta.
Eating sardines straight from the tin, with bread and a squeeze of lemon, has its own guide in how to serve sardines straight from the tin. This piece is about the next step: what to make with them.
What a tin of sardines actually holds
In the European Union, the word sardine on a tin is regulated. Under the EU's common marketing standard for preserved sardines, a product may be sold as preserved sardines when it is made from one species and no other, Sardina pilchardus, packed in a sealed container with a covering medium and sterilized. The rule lists the media: olive oil; other refined vegetable oils; tomato sauce; natural juice, salt water or water; a marinade; or another medium clearly named on the label. Olive oil may not be mixed with other oils.
The same regulation sets how much of the tin must be fish. After sterilization, the sardines must make up at least 70 percent of the net weight in oil, water or marinade, and at least 65 percent in tomato sauce. That small difference is the first thing to know in the kitchen: a tomato tin brings more sauce with it, and an oil tin brings more fat.
The bones come along too. Small and soft, they are eaten with the fish, and they are where the calcium is. The National Institutes of Health lists three ounces of sardines canned in oil, with bones, at 325 milligrams of calcium, a quarter of the daily value.
Oil, tomato, smoke or no bones: how each tin cooks
Oil-packed sardines are the all-rounders. The oil has sat sealed in the tin with the fish, and it carries the fish's flavor. Use it as the cooking fat. José Gourmet, a Portuguese conservas house launched in 2008 and based in Lisbon, packs sardines in extra virgin olive oil and suggests lemon, paprika and even the grill (shop José Gourmet sardines in extra virgin olive oil). Its lemon and olive oil tin adds citrus from the start (shop José Gourmet sardines with lemon).
Tomato and sauce-packed sardines arrive with a sauce already made. Nice Cans packs sardines with a pepperonata of smoked roasted peppers, onions, garlic, oregano, vinegar and tomato (shop Nice Cans sardines in tomato and peppers). José Gourmet's small sardines come in a brava sauce of red pepper, garlic, chili and olive oil, and the maker suggests boiled potatoes alongside (shop José Gourmet small sardines in brava sauce). These tins want to be spooned over something starchy, sauce and all.
Smoked sardines bring a flavor that carries through anything they touch. Nice Cans smokes its sardines over hardwood before packing them in organic olive oil (shop Nice Cans smoked sardines). A little goes a long way in a salad or a mash.
Skinless, boneless sardines are the easiest to blend. Ramón Peña, from Galicia, debones and fillets its sardines before cooking them gently (shop Ramón Peña skinless, boneless sardines). They are the tin for sardine butter and for anyone still deciding about bones.
The tin-style table
| Tin style | Strongest use | How much heat |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil, whole fish | Pasta, toast, the broiler | 1 to 2 minutes in a pan, or 3 to 4 under a broiler |
| Olive oil with lemon or pepper | Salads, rice, toast | None to 1 minute; the seasoning is done |
| Tomato or pepper sauce | Over potatoes, rice or pasta, sauce and all | Warm through gently, 2 to 3 minutes |
| Smoked | Salads, mashed onto toast, potato salad | None; heat dulls the smoke |
| Skinless and boneless | Sardine butter, spreads, sandwiches | None |
The pattern across the table is simple. The more a tin has already been seasoned, smoked or sauced, the less it needs from the stove. Plain oil-packed fish are the ones that reward a little heat.
The uses
On toast. The fastest dinner a tin can make, and the one with the most room to play. The sardine toast recipe works through five versions.
In pasta. Warm a sliced garlic clove and a pinch of chile in the oil from the tin, add the sardines for a minute, breaking them into large pieces, then toss with hot spaghetti, lemon zest, parsley and a splash of pasta water. Toasted breadcrumbs on top add crunch. The Sicilian-style version, with fennel and raisins, has its own recipe in sardine pasta with fennel and raisins.
Sardine butter. Mash one tin of skinless, boneless sardines, drained, into about 115 grams (one stick) of soft unsalted butter with the zest of half a lemon, a squeeze of its juice, black pepper and chopped chives. Taste before salting; the fish brings its own. It spreads on toast or crackers, melts over a steak or a baked potato, and keeps covered in the refrigerator for a few days.
Under the broiler. Tip a tin of oil-packed sardines, oil and all, into a small oven-safe dish, scatter on thin lemon slices and a little paprika or chile, and slide it under a hot broiler for 3 to 4 minutes, until the oil sizzles and the edges of the fish crisp. José Gourmet suggests firing up the grill for its sardines; this is the indoor version.
With potatoes. Boiled potatoes, still warm, crushed with a fork and dressed with the sauce from a tomato or brava tin, then topped with the fish. The starch soaks up everything in the tin.
In a salad. White beans or chickpeas, thin-sliced red onion, parsley and lemon, with flaked sardines folded in at the end. Smoked sardines are especially good here. Les Mouettes d'Arvor, a Breton house, packs whole sardines with Espelette pepper, a red pepper from the French Basque country, which seasons a bean salad on its own (shop Les Mouettes d'Arvor sardines with Espelette pepper).
With rice. Spoon a tomato-packed tin over hot rice and let the sauce run into it, or fold oil-packed sardines into rice fried with garlic and a fried egg on top. A tin feeds one generously, two with enough rice.
What to do with the oil
The oil in a sardine tin is part of the food. It can start the pasta, dress the salad or brush the toast before it goes under the broiler. Pour it off when a recipe wants the fish dry, as sardine butter does, and otherwise keep it.
Once a tin is open, it behaves like any cooked fish: into the refrigerator, covered, and eaten within a few days. The guide to how long tinned fish lasts after opening has the details.
Where to start
For a first tin to cook with, choose plain sardines in olive oil and make the pasta. It teaches the one habit that matters, using the tin's oil and giving the fish no more than a minute of heat, and every other use builds on it. The tinned sardines collection gathers tins from Portugal, Spain, France and beyond, and the wider tinned fish collection covers mackerel, tuna and shellfish.
A tin of sardines rewards restraint. It has already been salted, cooked and sealed in its own oil, and the cook's job is mostly to warm, brighten and stand back. The cannery did the slow work; a weeknight dinner needs about ten minutes more.
