Vintage Tinned Fish Gift Box

Nearly every great traditional food involves some amount of controlled decay. Wine, beer and cheese are the examples we’re perhaps most familiar with. These are foods whose raw ingredients have been fermented and curdled—decayed, essentially—under a watchful eye. The controlled rot turns them into something even more delicious. Can the same be done with fish?

The popular myth is that fresher is better no matter the fish, no matter how it’s served. But it’s not true.

While there’s nothing better to fry than a mess of bluegill caught that afternoon, when it comes to preserving fish a certain amount of time makes it taste better. Sushi, traditionally a way to preserve fish in Japan, is not improved by being ultra-fresh. Anyone who’s tried raw tuna right off the boat and thought it was totally bland knows there’s some magic that happens in the time after its caught and gets to the restaurant that expands its flavor.

Controlled decay is a key ingredient in tinned fish too.

Anchovies spend about a year stacked in salt before they’re ready to tin. The salt cures them much the same way it does prosciutto (Italian cured ham). And just as a mild, fresh ham becomes sweeter, richer and way more flavorful when it’s cured, so do anchovies. Trust me on this if you’ve only had bad anchovies—the good ones are amazing. Anchovies don’t improve once they’re tinned, however.

There are many kinds of seafood that get better with age.

The two that we’re working with a lot these days are line-caught tuna and sardines. They’re both wild, fatty fish that are cooked then packed in olive oil, not water. The olive oil interacts with the flesh over time in a way that reminds me of how great wine ages. The changes aren’t drastic, but they’re noticeable, especially over time. The edges of the flavor get softer. The mouthfeel becomes silkier. The experience of eating grows more complex. Try it for yourself – you’ll taste the difference.

Tinned fish might be having its biggest moment since Napoleon held the contest that created it.

Maybe you didn’t hear that tale? Back at the turn of the 1800s Napoleon issued a challenge and the winner was Nicolas Appert. The problem Nicolas solved was an MRE for the military. The winning idea was tinned food.

The first food to find its way into a tin was sardines.

For a couple of hundred years afterward sardines held a similar place of regard that followed most foods invented for military convenience: a source of cheap sustenance. The same went for many other fish that got tinned, like tuna. We never grew up thinking it was special.

But something has changed in the last decade. Tinned fish is popular. Coveted. Desired. There are the breathless headlines. There are restaurants putting it on menus, served straight from the tin. There are social media splurges. There are loads of new tinned fish brands popping up and sending us samples at Zingerman’s. What’s behind all of it?

Certainly flavor is part of it.

Tinned fish, when it’s good, is absolutely delicious. Is it heresy for me to say some fish tastes better in a tin? It’s not a stretch to say ham is better cured than fresh. I think tuna is too—when it’s done right. I’d much rather have a tin of Ortiz tuna than a seared slab of yellowfin.

Tourism has something to do with it too.

There are places where tinned fish has long been held in high regard, made to taste great. The European capitals of tinned fish, Portugal and Spain, are booming with visitors. There, tinned fish flourishes in window displays. It is listed on restaurant menus, often served straight from the can. It fills entire aisles in supermarkets. Many Americans have packed their suitcases with foreign fish finds and come home searching for more. And maybe they found Zingerman’s — I don’t count us out as one source of the surge. We’ve been pushing tinned fish as great eating for years.

But let’s not discount cuteness.

Tinned fish packaging can be adorable. It’s certainly one of the reasons I buy it when I travel. But here’s a little secret. Within the cute boxes, a lot of the different packages hold the same fish. There are not that many tinned fish factories. But there are a lot of tinned fish brands who put their name on the packaging. That’s because most of the factories are happy to let companies rebrand their product. We found out about that years ago and are guilty of it too. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Zingerman’s sardines are not tinned at Zingerman’s Cannery in Ann Arbor along the banks of the mighty Huron River. We work with a century old fish factory near Porto, Portugal. We use both their regular stock, and, once a year, we tin a selection of the fattest, best harvest for our Vintage Sardines.