Tinned fish has come a long way from being something you kept at the back of the cupboard for emergencies.
From beautifully packed British fish and seafood to the colourful conservas of Portugal and Spain, a really good tin can be lunch in five minutes, the start of dinner, or the easiest thing to put on the table when people come over.
At Peak & The Pantry, we're particularly fond of food that does a lot of the work for you - and tinned fish does exactly that. Open a tin, add good bread, a few pickles and something cold to drink and you're pretty much there.
Browse our Tinned Fish & Pickles collection
Why Tinned Fish Belongs in Every Pantry
There are very few ingredients that can sit patiently in the cupboard and then become something genuinely delicious within minutes.
Tinned fish is one of them.
It can be as simple as sardines on hot buttered toast for lunch, or you can open a few different tins, add olives, pickles, crisps and bread and call it dinner with friends.
And today's tinned fish goes far beyond the tuna sandwich. You'll find beautifully preserved sardines, delicate hake, tuna fillets, squid, scallops and all sorts of seafood packed in good olive oil, sauces and marinades.
It's convenient food without feeling like convenience food.
That's exactly why we think it deserves a permanent place in the modern pantry.
Sardines
Sardines might be the poster child of the tinned fish revival - and there is a whole world beyond the standard supermarket tin.
In the Pantry you'll find British sardines from Sea Sisters, alongside some of our favourite European producers including Berthe, Pinhais and La Naval.
Sea Sisters play with brilliant flavour combinations - from sardines simply preserved in extra virgin olive oil to chilli oil, rosemary & capers and harissa - while the Portuguese and Spanish tins bring their own long traditions of preserving fish simply and beautifully.
The easiest way to eat them? Open a tin, add good bread and something sharp or pickled. Or use the flavour of the tin as your starting point: chilli-oil sardines on toast, rosemary & capers with warm potatoes, or harissa sardines alongside a tomato salad.
Add a few pickles, crisps and something cold to drink and you've got one of our favourite no-cook suppers.
Hake
Hake might not be the first fish you think of when it comes to tins - which is precisely why we love it.
Sea Sisters preserve British hake in small batches, pairing its delicate flavour with combinations such as seaweed butter or rosemary & capers. It's milder than sardines, making it a brilliant place to start if you're new to tinned fish or prefer something a little more subtle.
And it needs very little doing to it. The hake in seaweed butter is wonderful with hot toast or spooned over warm potatoes, while rosemary & capers is pretty much ready-made lunch territory - add good bread and a simple salad and you're done.
It's the kind of thing we always want in the pantry: a tin that can turn into a really good meal in five minutes.
Trout
Smoked trout is one of those tins that makes lunch feel far more impressive than the effort involved.
Sea Sisters' British smoked rainbow trout is rich and delicate, with that lovely smokiness doing most of the work for you. You'll also find it paired with chilli oil for a little extra heat.
Flake it over a salad, serve it with warm potatoes and a sharp dressing, or pile it onto toast with crème fraîche, lemon and plenty of black pepper.
It's also brilliant for an easy lunch when you want something substantial without actually cooking - open the tin, add a few good things from the fridge, done.
Tuna
Forget the dry tuna of packed lunches. A really good tin of tuna is something else entirely.
We stock Berthe tuna fillets in olive oil - beautifully simple, meaty and substantial enough to make the main event rather than disappearing into a sandwich.
Keep it simple with tomatoes, capers and good olive oil, add it to a Niçoise-style salad, toss it through pasta, or serve it straight from the tin with bread, mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon.
It's also a great starting point if you're curious about better tinned fish but aren't quite ready to dive into sardines, squid or cockles.
Cockles, Scallops & Squid
If sardines and tuna are your gateway into tinned fish, this is where things get a little more interesting.
Sea Sisters cockles with chilli & garlic are brilliant for opening with drinks - salty, punchy and needing very little else alongside them.
Then there are Pepus scallops in Galician sauce and diced squid, bringing a little taste of the Spanish conserva tradition to the pantry. They're exactly the sort of tins to open when people come over: add good bread, crisps, olives and a few pickles and suddenly you've got a spread.
No elaborate cooking. Just really good things, opened and put on the table.
So, Where Do You Start?
The joy of tinned fish is that there really aren't many rules.
If you're new to it, start with something familiar - a beautiful tuna fillet or delicate hake. If you already love sardines, try a different producer or one packed with chilli, harissa or capers. And if you're feeling more adventurous, that's when the cockles, squid and scallops come out.
Part of the fun is finding the tins you love and then working out what you want alongside them.
And that's where the pantry comes in.
How to Eat Tinned Fish
The best thing about good tinned fish? You really don't need to do very much to it.
Sardines on hot buttered toast with lemon. Hake with warm potatoes and herbs. Smoked trout with crème fraîche and something sharp. Tuna with tomatoes, capers and olive oil.
Or simply open a couple of tins and put them on the table. The tin is part of the charm - no decanting required.
Build a Tinned Fish Supper
This is probably our favourite way to eat tinned fish - particularly when people are coming over and you want dinner to feel generous without spending the evening in the kitchen.
Pick two or three tins, then add good bread, crisps, olives, something pickled, a punchy sauce or dressing and plenty of lemon.
Put everything in the middle of the table, open something cold and let everyone help themselves.
Dinner, sorted.
Ready to Raid the Pantry?
We've brought together some of our favourite British and European tinned fish, alongside the pickles, olives and pantry bits we'd actually serve with them.
Whether you're building a five-minute lunch, stocking the cupboard or putting together a tinned-fish supper for friends, we've done the hunting so you can do the eating.
