Sardines are always being sold at BigLots, a store that sells close-out items. Any idea why?
I used to eat lots of sardine sandwiches as a kid – they were a favorite of my dad’s, who made them for me. I liked them OK. Nowadays I rarely have them except when my dad is visiting, for nostalgia’s sake.
I bought a single can of sardines once, just to see. The ones I bought were “Cajun” or something, as in the can had sauce packed in it.
I was hoping that I’d love them, because they were really fucking cheap and it would have been easy to just buy a dozen sardine cans every time I went grocery shopping.
But I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I put them on a plate and popped 'em in the microwave for a minute. Ate 'em but it didn’t taste too good. It was probably a combination of my poor preparation and a nasty sauce flavor, but I’ve shied away from sardines in general ever since.
If you want to try them again, skip the flavored versions and just get the kind packed in water. That way, you’ll know if you like them. Also, I have never heard of heating them unless in a recipe. They’re more like canned tuna. I like them best just in chunks on crackers or toast with hot sauce, but I’ll also break them up with a fork and mix them with mayo and a little Worcestershire sauce and eat that spread on bread as a sandwich.
What’s wrong with eating a fish head?
What made you do that?
Fish heads are great; especially the rolly-polly kind.
You’re not supposed to heat them up. They’re already cooked. Microwaving them is going o ruin them.
There really isn’t any kind of preparation required. You eat them right out of the can, or on toast or crackers, or as a sandwich.
You should probably just try the plain ones in water too. No sauces. You can squirt your own hot sauce or mustard on them.
They really are good for you, since they contain those beneficial omega acids, plus they’re small so they haven’t had a chance to accumulate much mercury, etc.
I make this sort of Italian sauce with lemon juice, mayo and skinless, bonelsss sardines. Great for dipping veggies, crackers.
[qout]You’re not supposed to heat them up. They’re already cooked. Microwaving them is going o ruin them.
[/quote]
“Bad hobbitses shouldn’t microwave tasty fisssshhhh!”
Oh. Oops. Dunno. They were fish. I’d certainly eaten tuna before, but at the time it seemed logical to me: “Fish. I eat fish cooked. Cook the fish.”
Oh well.
Canned food is cooked. Otherwise it would be rotten when you opened it.
Thank Og this is MPSIMS. Old story.
Aww, that’s sad. I like sardines. I haven’t had any in years, though, maybe I should go out and buy a few cans for nostalgia’s sake. I actually think I saw a Good Eats episode with a yummy-sounding sardines recipe, I’ll have to look that up.
There’s plenty of food that you buy that’s already cooked that you then reheat. It all made sense in my mind at the time. 
So, the sardines that are caught in the US, then shipped out of country, processed, then sent back to the US? 
Thanks for the info - although to be honest, I don’t think I have even seen a can of sardines since about 1957…they used to be quite popular in the Midwest when I was growing up, but most kids (like myself) would rather have eaten worms than get near sardines. I don’t think I knew a single person my age or younger who ate them.
I would never have noticed, and if you had told me they stopped making them 20 years ago, would have believed that as well.
Oh man, just had a can of something called Kippered Herring Snacks the other day. They are in a larger tin than sardines and smoked… delicious! Still 2 for a buck at Dollar General. I swear these were almost as good as smoked salmon, no more sardines for me… I’m moving on up to Kipper snacks.
Huh, I just bought a can of sardines at Safeway the other day, and made a sandwich out of them. Pretty good.
I read this thread, then went out for groceries and bought some mustard sardines and some Kippered Herring snacks. I had the sardines on buttered toast for dinner and they were defrickinlicious. I don’t know how to eat the Kippered Herring snacks though.
Just in case anyone misunderstands the import of the OP … Sardines are widely available all over the United States. The OP reflects not the declining popularity of sardines, but rather the operation of global economics and the relative economic disadvantages of operating a sardine cannery in the United States.