I usually eat sardines straight out of the can, or occasionally, on crackers. I buy the ones in oil and also those in mustard. I think I've seen some sold in tomato sauce, as well, although I've never tried them. I have had kippers, and am not sure what the difference was between those and sardines. I liked them both. My dad was in the National Guard, and would occasionally bring home a few of their MREs, and I always loved eating those. I think eating sardines reminds me of the MREs, which makes me feel close to him.
Since they are smoked, that's the taste you get mostly. Different texture. I love oysters in every way. Love the sweeter raw ones on the West Coast as opposed to the East Coast ones. They have gone up in price!! Usually one is $3.50 ....what's one oyster?
Same here Mari, I never liked the taste of salmon, especially the tinned variety, I would never eat the bones either.
I used to like canned salmon but haven't been able to get into it lately. It's okay, but not something I buy. I do like smoked salmon, and buy it sometimes when my wife isn't with me. I don't know if she thinks it's gross or it's just the fact that it's kind of on the expensive side. Smoked salmon and smoked trout, for that matter, are very good. I go through periods where I eat a lot of sardines and I especially like the kippers. For the past couple of years, I haven't had a taste for either, although I'm not sure why. Growing up, my dad always had jars of pickled herring in the refrigerator, or at least the Swedish kind, known as gaffelbiter. Although it looked sort of gross, I liked the taste of it. We don't have anything in the stores here called gaffelbiter, although we do have pickled herring. I've tried the pickled herring and don't like it much at all, so I don't know if my tastes have changed or if the pickled herring we have is not the same thing as the gaffelbiter my dad used to buy. I can find gaffelbiter for sale online, but it's always in a can, like sardines, while the gaffelbiter I remember was always in jars like pickled herring.
I never liked the salmon in a can, although canned tuna I Like for making tuna salad. Other than canned I like salmon every other way. Also like the smoked trout. Used to like pickled Herring, haven't had it in 30 yrs at least though and have no desire to buy any. I love all seafood and will eat it many different ways. Would probably eat canned salmon if I had no other choice but would have to do something with it.
When I was a litttle girl, we had a local retaurant that had pan-fried oysters served on a bed of shredded lettuce, and that has always been my favorite way to eat oysters. Most of the time, restaurants serve them deep-fried instead of pan-fried, and i really don't like that nearly as well. Of course, mosst of them also deep-fry the chicken and fish, and I prefer that to be pan-fried as well. Smoked oysters don't taste anything like a fried oyster, @Mari North ; but they are delicious. If you like other smoked fish, then you would probably like the smoked oysters, too. One of them on top of a Ritz cracker is pretty darn good !
That sounds good, @Yvonne Smith ... what would pan-fried be fried in to avoid butter? Or... well, maybe it can't be avoided? I know it's probably not as unhealthy as deep frying, but it's still butter. Or... shortening? Maybe lard in the past? Oh my goodness, lard. And we ate that stuff, even in baked goods.
True... but Mari "ain't that brave" I'm afraid. Oysters Rockefeller on ice... Eeeeew! Sliiiiiding down the throat. Oh dear! (Oooops, now the person who said they can't stand "ain't" in a language peeves thread is going to give me a grammar lesson... was it @Ruby Begonia ?)
Mari, the west coast ones are soooooo good. And now they serve them with champagne vinaigrette and other goodies.
Oh yeah, I wanted to ask about that the other time you mentioned it, @Chrissy Page ... about them being sweeter. That sounds delicious. I assume it would be just the fresh offerings from the west coast and that there's not a brand of west coast oysters that might be shipped nationwide that you know of? In any case, I can NOT get them in my stores. There was a time years ago when one store tried it, but apparently it wasn't a big seller. They even stopped carrying them at the seafood places in my area. Long John Silver had them at one time and stopped offering them here. I get them when I'm in Florida and besides that, I have a terrible time finding them.
I just get them in restaurants. And I've learned because the waiter explained the differences between west coast and east coast oysters. On that menu you had a choice. West...sweeter East...more mineral tasting. I don't know if I would eat oysters raw from a supermarket...I don't trust them.
I love Mussels.. however I can buy any amount of fresh or frozen mussels here in the UK(which I do) but not canned, so I stock up when I'm in Spain and bring loads back here at each trip..they are so cheap to buy about 60 cents a can, and I can get them plain or in oil or loads of different flavoured sauces. I dunno why we can't get them here, our supermarkets seem to be fixated on Canned Salmon, sardines, kippers, herrings, Pilchards, and Tuna.. I like canned Tuna in spring water occasionally or oil , but I hate Brine and almost all the canned fish here is in brine, no matter how much I rinse the fish I can still taste it... as for the oily fish..the salmon , sardines etc..Yuk ..I can't stand it..hubs on the other hand is the exact opposite he loves all the oily fish including the bones..
I am sure that the ones we got when I was growing up were probably cooked in either oil or shortening. I only use coconut oil for frying in , and if just lightly sauteing, I will use olive oil. They have now finally come back to saying that lard is actually much healthier for people than procesed shortening or even most oils (especially canola oil) which are turned into carcinogens from the high heat and chemicals used in processing. Both lard and bacon grease are simply extracted either by boiling, or (in the case of bacon grease) from frying the meat. No unnecessarily high heat or chemicals needed. My English mother-in-law made the most delicious and flaky pie cruts that I have ever had in my whole life, and she always bought lard to make them with. I like to get the coconut oil that is for making popcorn. It is yellow-orange in color and has carotene added as a coloring, which gives anything that you cook a beautiful golden color. I buy it on Amazon in the gallon size, and it lasts forever, at least when you don't use it a whole lot, it does.
I buy the canned tuna in spring water also. I don't like the sardines in water though. Prefer them in oil.