Trying to expand my horizons with fish....

msnucerity

Hi All,

so I'm not a huge fan of fish- I'll eat it if I have to but outside of plain ole Sole, Tilapia or Mahi Mahi (you know, fish filets that take on other flavours easily) I don't enjoy eating fish very much. A can of tuna or salmon makes my face crinkle with disgust.

But in my scholarly pass-time of googling nutrition and food info, it appears that canned sardines are an awesome food to make part of your diet, boasting low carb, high protein/potassium/iron/calcium content, they're sustainable and some text even indicates they are delicious. (I don't agree with that last statement- I haven't been able to stomach eating a sardine, something about that fishy taste...)

So my question to you is how do you prepare/eat sardines so that they are actually palatable? My brother suggested opening a tin, letting them sit in malt vinegar for a bit and then eating them- this effectively pickles the fish and what you taste is the vinegar and less of their "fishiness".

Any suggestions/recipes?

Thanks everyone

animalldy

In for answers, have been wondering the same thing about sardines!

HMM1025

I bought a can that were packed in mustard and they were much more tolerable, not delicious by any means but not quite as bad.

msnucerity

So with more scholarly googling, I'm going to try pickling/marinading some plain sardines that were packed in olive oil in the following recipe...
- 1 tin of drained sardines
- 1/4 cup of vinegar (2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar, 2 tbsp white vinegar)
- 2 cloves crushed/minced garlic
- 2 tbsp ginger (fresh/frozen, not powdered)
- 2 tbsp tamari
- 1/2 to 1 sliced red chili

I'm going to let the sardines sit in this marinade in the fridge overnight and see if they are palatable or at least tolerable.

cindytw

I used to make homemade dog food and that was one thing I used! The smell alone puts me off I can't imagine eating them! I love seafood too...of all kinds!

Let me know how it works! I am low on calcium and want to get it naturally!

msnucerity

I'm hitting up the grocery store today for some provisions. If this doesn't work, the remainder of the unpickled sardines will become cat food

msnucerity

Bleh!!! So gross- that did not cover up the cat-food smell or nasty taste. Maybe others will find this method makes sardines palatable but not for me.

The remainder of non-pickled sardines will be used as cat treats...

Sumiblue

Ha! I love fish of all kinds but am put off by finding bones in it. I bought a tin of mackerel a while ago and haven't been able to make myself try it. I guess if I don't like it I can always feed it to our cats & dog. I love raw mackerel thatnive had at Japanese restaurants. I know that there are a few Italian recipes that use sardines. I think one is with pasta & sardines. I like them on pizza but they are very salty, perhaps smoked, too. Caesar salad uses sardines in the dressing, just a bit.