Mackerel,its whats for dinner

[kyzymurgist]

Love any and all canned fish. Cento boneless skinless sardines are my favorite.

Haven't found a canned mackerel that I love but my family misses the mackerel I smoked every spring when we lived in New Hampshire.

 

[MarieIG]

+1

The other day I almost bought a jar of pesto until I noticed it was made with soybean oil instead of olive oil. Not so good.

+2 - only olive oil

 

[Buckeye]

I love sardines. A toasted sardine sandwich with canned sardines, pepper and some vinegar on it was a staple of my childhood.

We have a Portuguese winery up here that does smoked Portuguese style large sardines on the bbq. That paired with a salad and some vinho verde is fantastic.

I like mackerel the best as sashimi. Great flavor and texture.

I went to a big outdoor sardine festival in Portugal years ago. I had only ever seen sardines in a can and didn't know what to expect when my friend said we were going to the festival. The sardines, and soup, and vinho verde were amazing! Nothing like going to a local festival with locals.

 

[Lakedog]

I am a fan of King Oscar.

+1
I probably consume 6-8 tins per week of the skinless/boneless sardines but sometimes substitute Atlantic mackerel in olive oil. This is often for lunch and sometimes a snack. Guess I have become an old man (per Ha).

 

[scaubie]

I'm not really qualified to speak about canned fish, however, I can attest that canned oysters are among my favorite snacks. I have fond memories of enjoying smoked oysters with hot sauce on crackers on many hiking or fishing trips.

 

[audreyh1]

+1

The other day I almost bought a jar of pesto until I noticed it was made with soybean oil instead of olive oil. Not so good.

This drives me nuts! I’ve been pretty much forced to do my own condiments especially salad dressings due to ubiquitous soybean oil. Mayonnaise - only Primal Kitchen seems to not use it.

 

[haha]

This drives me nuts! I’ve been pretty much forced to do my own condiments especially salad dressings due to ubiquitous soybean oil. Mayonnaise - only Primal Kitchen seems to not use it.

And Primal Kitchen is amazingly expensive! There is a Trader Joe mayonaisse brand that uses canola oil, but not sure this is any better than soybean oil.

I mostly just use vinegar as a condiment. Usually Red Wine vinegar. Something else might be better, but I haven't spent much time checking this since normal red wine vinegar seems good.

Ha

 

[Chuckanut]

This drives me nuts! I’ve been pretty much forced to do my own condiments especially salad dressings due to ubiquitous soybean oil. Mayonnaise - only Primal Kitchen seems to not use it.

Soybeans are loaded with phyto-estrogens. Not the best thing for the men in your life.

It's abominations like the soybean pesto that keep me bare foot and in the kitchen.

 

[euro]

When I was a boy I carried a can or two of sardines in my WW2 surplus rucksack when I went in the woods. Later, when I was married, my wife was a sublime cook, and mostly she was home so I had magnificent meals, and so I ate little canned fish.

I love to eat, but I never had much interest in cooking and I have even less now. A few times in late spring I will buy some of the magnificent fresh halibut that shows up particularly in a Japanese market in our International District. But it is very expensive. Soon fresh salmon will be around for a while, and I am especially fond of sockeye, again from the Japanese market in the ID.

But my daily driver is becoming canned fish. I eat more of this than anything else. It is fairly cheap. (For what it is, but it is expensive compared to a diet with a lot of starch. Overall about $500/mo for everything including veggie,etc) I can eat it all year, and order it online if I want to.

Supposedly too much fish is a bad plan because of mercury, but much of canned fish is low in mercury. (Not tuna, but other smaller fish which mostly are eaten by fish rather than eat other fish). So far I have sampled various high quality sardines, mackerel, and a really good brand of sockeye salmon, Rubenstein's. Salmon probably carry more mercury than sardines etc, but their habit of making suicide runs up the rivers should control that a bit. I'd say that now maybe 1/2 or a bit more of my protein is canned fish. One huge plus is I really don't need to do much else to make a meal. I keep a perpetual cucumber, onion and vinegar salad going, and usually that plus canned fish is all I need for the first meal. Maybe for dinner I substitute some broccoli or cauliflower or a bag of Trader Joe's spinach for the cucumber salad, and perhaps fresh fish or ground meat or lamb chops for the fish if I feel ambitious. I think this diet may improve my health, but even if it does not I think I'll stick with it. It's fairly good and very easy, so as long as I can handle the cans as I age I should be golden. There are even electric can openers so maybe this will never be an issue.

There is quite a bit of information about this way of eating on the web. It seems to appeal to old men.

Ha

You, Sir, appear to eat as close to a perfect diet as I have ever seen (IMHO...). I do eat canned sardines and anchovies, but I can’t handle it every day. I wish I could.

 

[euro]

And Primal Kitchen is amazingly expensive! There is a Trader Joe mayonaisse brand that uses canola oil, but not sure this is any better than soybean oil.

I mostly just use vinegar as a condiment. Usually Red Wine vinegar. Something else might be better, but I haven't spent much time checking this since normal red wine vinegar seems good.

Ha

You can make you own mayo with Olive Oil / Avocado Oil mixtures. Unfortunately, pure olive oil mayo doesn’t taste good (very bitter).

 

[MarieIG]

Today, I had a tin of King Oscar Sardines in olive oil, with a boiled egg, and cooked chopped spinach with a little diced onion mixed in for lunch.

When I have them in a salad, the olive oil from the sardines is enough oil for me. I add a little red wine vinegar, spices, and some raw vegetables. When in the mood, I'll add a dash of spicy brown mustard.

 

[haha]

You can make you own mayo with Olive Oil / Avocado Oil mixtures. Unfortunately, pure olive oil mayo doesn’t taste good (very bitter).

Yes, olive oil is bitter!

Ha

 

[misshathaway]

You can make you own mayo with Olive Oil / Avocado Oil mixtures. Unfortunately, pure olive oil mayo doesn’t taste good (very bitter).

Extra lite taste olive oil isn't bitter, for instance Berio Extra Light tasting in the US. Some people write that the process to refine it takes out all the benefits of olive oil, but you can make good mayo with it. I don't know how it stacks up nutritionally to the other "bad" oils.

 

[audreyh1]

And Primal Kitchen is amazingly expensive! There is a Trader Joe mayonaisse brand that uses canola oil, but not sure this is any better than soybean oil.

I mostly just use vinegar as a condiment. Usually Red Wine vinegar. Something else might be better, but I haven't spent much time checking this since normal red wine vinegar seems good.

Ha

No, canola oil is not any better than soybean oil.

 

[audreyh1]

And Primal Kitchen is amazingly expensive! There is a Trader Joe mayonaisse brand that uses canola oil, but not sure this is any better than soybean oil.

I mostly just use vinegar as a condiment. Usually Red Wine vinegar. Something else might be better, but I haven't spent much time checking this since normal red wine vinegar seems good.

Ha

You can make you own mayo with Olive Oil / Avocado Oil mixtures. Unfortunately, pure olive oil mayo doesn’t taste good (very bitter).

I made my own homemade mayonnaise today! Watched a couple of videos. Super easy with an immersion blender. I used mostly avocado oil, but whisked in some olive oil by hand afterwards. I “coddled” the egg, immersing it in boiling water for one minute then in an ice bath for one minute.

Fun. https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonnaise.html

 

[HFWR]

Hellman’s has soybean/olive oil mayo.

 

[tmm99]

Recently I branched out and bought canned cod livers. Let me tell you, these definitely can be addictive.

Ha

Thank you for starting this thread and posting your experience. I can only eat canned mackerel every once in a while as it has a pretty strong flavour, and I get tired of it very quickly, but I have started to eat sardines in olive oil because of this thread, and I'm loving it so far. I also bought a canned cod liver paste for the first time yesterday, and I cannot believe how tasty it is!

Thanks again,

tmm

 

[audreyh1]

Hellman’s has soybean/olive oil mayo.

Yeah. Mostly soybean oil. Why bother?

 

[tmm99]

Strange as it may sound, Hellman's olive oil mayo sold in Canada has no soybean oil, but instead, canola oil and olive oil.

 

[audreyh1]

Strange as it may sound, Hellman's olive oil mayo sold in Canada has no soybean oil, but instead, canola oil and olive oil.

Not that surprising because I think Canada produces a lot of Canola oil.

Personally I’m sticking to butter, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil and some nut oils used sparingly.

Thus I’m making my own dressings, etc.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I made my own homemade mayonnaise today! Watched a couple of videos. Super easy with an immersion blender. I used mostly avocado oil, but whisked in some olive oil by hand afterwards. I “coddled” the egg, immersing it in boiling water for one minute then in an ice bath for one minute.

Fun. https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonnaise.html

The best part is that you control your choice of oil and salt.

I do a similar recipe, but use 1/2 tsp powdered mustard, scat 1/2 tsp salt, a little white pepper, Just over a cup of oil, 1egg plus 1egg yolk, 2tbsp lemon juice and 1tbsp apple cider vinegar. The recipe is from The Joy of Cooking.

I pasteurize my eggs in a sous vide bath-135 degrees for 1hr 15 minutes per Douglas Baldwin’s book, use them at room temperature. I use a mix of olive oil and a little canola oil. have not tried light olive oil-will check on that. A 1-qt mason jar works very well and keeps it neat.

Also I found it doesn’t matter what order the ingredients are added, as long as the oil settles at the top.

A tip: never make immersion blender mayo during a thunderstorm. The stuff never thickens and stays a liquid.

In Italy, they either use no salad dressing, or olive oil and basalmic or red wine vinegar.

 

[audreyh1]

I used half teaspoon Dijon mustard, a small crushed garlic, tablespoon of lemon juice - it might have been a bit more. The garlic ended up being pretty subtle.

Next time - tarragon!

 

[HFWR]

If the occasional slather of mayo on a sandwich kills me, so be it...

 

[tuckeverlasting]

Sir Kensington makes a delicious avocado oil mayo, but alas, it also is very expensive.

 

[davebarnes]

I want to thank all of you who raved about canned fish.
I am now eating sardines.
Yummy.