I went to make a couple of patches of pasta sauce this morning to portion out & freeze, and the cans of anchovies were bulging!!! I opened one ('cause I'm not all that bright), and it spewed out anchovy oil. The Expiry Date is January 2023. I bought a 3 pak of high-quality ones from Amazon: I used one can when I first bought them, and the other two have been sitting in my cupboard. The last can was also bulging. I've not had them but maybe 6 months. I went on King Oscar's website and found this: This sucks. I figured I could have these on hand for when I needed them. I had everything else prepped (onion, garlic, fresh parsley, fresh basil, wine, etc) for both the marinara sauce and the meatball sauce, pulled out the anchovies to get the base started and just had to do without. I was tempted to make a trip to the store, but out here that's almost an hour there & back. Next time I buy them, I'll open the cans immediately, roll up each fillet, and freeze them. I just wonder about this brand going bad so quickly.
That particular batch might have been contaminated. When I was working in Alaska, I listened to a “speech” the superintendent was giving his canners and he had no bones about firing anyone who was caught laying even a single bare finger tip on the cans. Apparently some contaminants might not be destroyed during the heating process of the cans so if one can is found to be bad the whole batch has to be destroyed and the processing plant is responsible for the costs. Love my “chovies and shrooms”.
I was hoping you'd chime in. Your comment made me go dig that can out of the trash so I can report it to the manufacturer. So what do you think of the King Oscar site stating that these are semi-perishable? They're not really "packed in salt" when they're canned. As you know from your restaurant days, packed in salt means they are well-preserved. Of course, you gotta get rid of the salt while not washing away the flavor. And submerging in oil is the ideal environment for botulism (as some who have tried to infuse olive oil with garlic found out.) That's why I figured freezing would be best. Texture is a non-issue, since they'll be used in cooking. And I agree: I, too, love my “chovies and shrooms” in other dishes, but I've never had a dish of just those two ingredients. Interesting...
Freezing might be a way to prevent this entire thing from happening, but it seems that the expiration date should have been shortened at the very least. I think you can report this to the Federal Trade Commission and perhaps the FDA. Garlic can be infused into olive oil if it is refrigerated (which makes it a solid mess) or if the garlic is removed before it is stored.
Individually frozen is best when you want to freeze anchovies then you can just pull out 2 or 3 or whatever whenever you wish. I do not recommend aluminum foil for just about anything but using waxed paper or even better, parchment paper is great to lay them out on whilst freezing. That said, I think the average storage time for freezing is about the same as storing them in oil and in the fridge…about 3 months so if you have a coin handy just flip it and go for it. If ya want to try something a little fun: wrap a clove of garlic with an oiled anchovy or two then freeze. Everything I use anchovies with has garlic especially those wonderful Caesar salads with muddled garlic, anchovy and coddled egg. The freezing partially cooks the garlic so when you’re muddling the garlic with the anchovy you get a much better consistency which spreads easily throughout whatever you’re preparing instead of your cheeks exploding with one taste and wondering where the taste is the next bite. Note: And yeah, do report the lot number on the anchovies. Some folks just do not know good from bad and will indiscriminately use whatever is in the can. Unless it’s a can of K rations from WWII or C rations from the Vietnam war era which, like cockroaches will be around after a nuclear war, everything has to be looked at no matter how it’s stored.
I'll notify the business first and see what they say, then decide if I want to run to mom & dad I find King Oscar's statement rather interesting, since I've always heard I could safely eat WW2 rations if the can were still intact.
Thanks for the garlic tip. I don't worry too much about freezer longevity because I use vacuum seal bags. Regarding WWII and C rations...funny I just referenced those in my reply to Don. I was shocked to read the King Oscar site. Who woulda thunk? Although I once had an issue with cans of tomato product exploding at 3AM. Those were probably 20 years old. That'll learn me to rotate my inventory.
I'm not sure how you'd tell when them thar thangs have gone over or not. LIttle dead hairy stinky minners that they are to begin with. Kidding aside, I love anchovies. I'd probably put 'em on ice cream if I didn't think I'd get kicked out of the house.
How would ya like to hand fillet those little critters? Thank goodness for machinery but they still have to be hand packed…..
LOL!!! You forgot to include "[spits on ground]" I've mentioned I've been on a quest to test my legacy food dislikes. I bought a jar of quality anchovies and made an anchovy pizza with them...I may have included black olives, but I kept it minimalist. They were quality anchovies that came with their own little fork: I honestly could not taste the little fishies. They were very mild. That's when I bought that 3 pak of canned I showed above, thinking cheaper might be stronger. And I made another pizza with them. Same thing...hardly any taste, much less anything overpowering. I do like the background flavor ("umami" if you're a food hipster) they add to pasta sauces. But I'll admit, I did not have the guts to shove one in my mouth all by itself.
I wonder if all brands are done that way. How can they sell them for $2/can at the grocery store??? The mid-quality ones I bought online are $3/can, which is still cheap for all that labor. (Those jarred ones were $10.) The YouTube text for your vid said "Artisanally cleaned and packed one by one, including a label with the name of the person who made each tin." I could not find a price online for them.
Curious. I too will do a little checking. https://www.translatetheweb.com/?from=es&to=en&ref=SERP&dl=en&rr=UC&a=https://pujadosolano.com/ check the store box and I guess ya have to fill out the email part and they will apparently write back with information where you can buy their products. Some prices… https://tiendapujadosolano.com/en/product-category/anchovies/
Thanks! Those converted prices for the 100g jar seem to be in line with what I paid for that jar of Ortiz. I have no idea what's going on with that $16 box of 12 anchovies. I gotta think that they aren't meant to be buried in a batch of pasta sauce. At that price, they better sing Puccini when I open the box! I went on line earlier and sent Agostino Recca (in Italy) an email about those bloated cans along with the numbers stamped on the can and a link to the Amazon product page, just to give them the data points. We'll see what they say when they get in to work tomorrow. It took me a while to use the entire jar of Ortiz. After each use I topped it off with olive oil and kept it in the fridge. That meant either getting it out in time to warm up (liquefy) or putting it in a dish of warm water. The little fork means "Eat from the jar" quality. I might do just as well buying the $1.89 cans from my local grocery store. I'll not be able to tell the difference.
I bought some fish sauce last week, which is anchovies, sea salt, water and sugar. I've been splashing some on a lot of food items, which is delicious, but the salt content would melt the polar ice cap. I'm supposed to be cutting down on salt. Sigh.
I like fish sauce. I just looked at the bottle I have in the fridge. A single tablespoon of it provides 2/3 of your recommended daily sodium intake. Welcome to the world of everything that tastes good, huh?