One of the more unexpected food trends of recent years has been, believe it or not, tinned fish. We're not talking your bog-standard tins of tuna and salmon here though (so unless my last post goes viral, I can't see Nigel's salmon bake becoming the next big thing). As with most food trends, we're talking the fancy, artisanal posh stuff. And if it comes in a beautiful tin, so much the better.
There seem to be a number of Instagram accounts dedicated purely to tinned fish and seafood from Portugal and Spain - @tinnedfishclub, @tinned_fish_gazette and @tinned_not_canned to name but three - some concentrate solely on the tins themselves, but for others it's more about what's inside.
There's even a company called The Tinned Fish Market, who sell a huge range of products, not just on their website, but at food markets around the country too. You can buy individual tins, selection boxes, a subscription where you get sent a different range of tins each month, and various hampers - there's even one called The Hackney Hamper (pictured above). I haven't worked out quite what Hackney has to do with it, other than being proof of just how trendy tinned fish has become.
There certainly seem to be more tinned fish options available in the supermarkets too, including what appears to be a trend within a trend - tins with clear plastic lids, so you can see what's inside.
Well, can I just say that I DO NOT APPROVE OF THESE. This is not a true tin, just a receptacle where the base happens to be metal - they might as well make the whole thing out of plastic. "Easy peel" the tins might be, but how hard is it to open a normal one? These 'tins' seem also to have a much shorter shelf life, perhaps due to light being able to get to the contents. All very well if you have them in a dark cupboard at home, but on the supermarket shelves they are near enough constantly exposed to light. And when our oceans are heavy polluted with man-made substances, it seems somewhat perverse to seal the fish up behind a plastic screen.
One of the things I like about tins is the fact that the contents is completely sealed away and out of view, providing a slight sense of mystery - yes, the tin will have a label telling you what's inside, but until you actually open it, you never quite know for certain what it is, or rather what it will look like. The contents lie there dormant, undisturbed, almost hibernating - for years, if necessary. If they had feelings they would perfectly happy knowing that they are safely hidden away out of view, like a child in a den.
These see-through tins take away much of that mystery - there the sardines are, behind their plastic window, for all to see. And if we can see in, they can see out too - but they are unable to get out until the consumer decides to open it. What is more cruel - keeping a prisoner in solitary confinement, or giving them a glimpse of the world outside, but the knowledge that they cannot reach it?
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