19 Tinned Fish Options That Will Transport You to Portugal, Alaska, and Beyond

By Megan Spurrell

Tinned fish has officially become a cornerstone of the modern American palette. Gorgeous, artful cans of anchovies, razor clams, octopus, and more are on display in grocery stories from Los Angeles to New York; retro-style tins covered in Portuguese or Spanish are making regular appearances at restaurants and wine bars.

But for as long as cans of tuna have filled American supermarkets, this new interest is largely borrowed from long-standing traditions overseas, many of which Americans have picked up and brought home from their travels. "Experiencing conservas [the Spanish word for preserved food] while immersed in the culture of Spain and Portugal is how the addiction begins for most of us," says Gretchen Thomas, the co-founder of Conserva, a marketplace dedicated to the very best of these canned goods. And while Western European conserva culture has guided the bulk of U.S. interest, you'll also find great tinned seafood coming out of Asia, much of it from Korea and Japan; Nordic countries, where herring reigns supreme; and just about everywhere in between.

Whether you're well-versed in the reasons to love tinned fish—in addition to being super tasty, it's also packed with nutrition—or ready to be initiated into the club of canned seafood lovers, we've got the best tinned fish options to try below, with tips from chefs, cookbook authors, and our own Condé Nast Traveler editors on how to eat them. Consider these cans the perfect elevated snack to throw into your beach bag or picnic basket, or in some cases throw a bow on and give as a gift (the packaging only seems to get better)—there is plenty to explore in the world of canned seafood below.

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"I love all tinned fish but I have a special spot in my heart for sardines," says Rebekah Peppler, author of the French cookbook À Table. "Quality tins—sardines especially—improve with time, so I like to think of them as an investment in future apéro and thus have an ever-growing collection in my pantry." Paris-based Peppler says she is partial to Nuri sardines packed in olive oil from Portugal, which she eats with a mix of vegetables and a nice aioli during apéro hour—the snack-and-drink hour before dinner in France. (Stop by the Conserveira de Lisboa the next time you're in the city, where Pepplar tends to blow her entire vacation budget on special tins.)

"I flocked to the delights of tinned fish only early this summer, which is to say, unfashionably late," says Arati Menon, Condé Nast Traveler's global digital director. "My favorite new brand is the California-born Siesta Co., which was started by a Spanish couple who wanted to bring conservas into American casual food culture. Also, as someone who is interested in design, it's virtually impossible to ignore Siesta's vintage-styled packaging—reminiscent of collectible retro matchbooks." Menon says the variety pack of five is an excellent way to sample the entire range, but she always finds herself reaching for the mussels in pickled oil which are "perfectly seasoned" and pair nicely with some sourdough and a bottle of white wine.

A "craft seafood cannery," female-run Scout is focused on reviving the tradition of preserved seafood in North America. The brand's line of products range from Ontario trout with dill to organic Prince Edward Island mussels in a smoked paprika and fennel tomato sauce, but the standout for me is the Atlantic Canadian lobster. When summer is over and I'm still dreaming about the lobster rolls from my annual Maine road trip, this tin has me covered. Inside, claw and knuckle meat is preserved in a lemon-infused olive oil and ready to be stuffed into a buttered bun. Simple and perfect.

Patagonia Provisions—yes, that Patagonia—is a tinned fish brand focused on sustainable fishing, with canned products that are easy to take on the go (and tasty enough to crack open at home). Sheldon Simeon, chef and author of Cook Real Hawai’i, loves the brand's tender, meaty mackerel, which comes back in garlic-perfumed extra-virgin olive oil. "My favorite way to prepare this is Pupu Style (think Hawaiian-style tapas)," Simeon says. "After being gently warmed in a pan, I top them with a good helping of shaved sweet Maui onions, and douse it with mouthwatering Hawaiian chili pepper water."

When you want wild salmon from Alaska right at home, Drifters Fish has you covered. The husband-and-wife team packs sustainably harvested sockeye, smoked coho, and smoked keta salmon in tins—I love that they have a canned sockeye that is just gently cooked with sea salt, for when you want a break from smoked flavors (something that can be surprisingly hard to find among tin fish products). But my absolute favorite from the line is the jarred Alaska sockeye, which is smoked over alderwood and packaged in jars you can open and re-seal. Maybe it's the smoky flavor, but this fish feels like it was made to be enjoyed in the outdoors, ideally around a campfire—pack it and serve simply on crackers, maybe with a swipe of cream cheese.

"I’ve been having a secret affair with these Ortiz anchovies for years," says Thomas of Conserva. She'll sneak these anchovies into just about anything she's cooking, sometimes using them as an umami-packed garlic replacement in recipes, or will eat them on pan con tomate. Ambiance is crucial, though. "When I’m eating my favorite tins here in the States, I find myself unconsciously recreating the scenes of when I was first enjoying them in Spain: I need a sunny afternoon, a small glass of vermouth, and I’ll probably eat my little conservas standing up."

When it comes to canned fish, there are brands that have been in the game for over a century, and then there are the newcomers. Fishwife, a brand out of Los Angeles from friends Becca Millstein and Caroline Goldfarb, is one of the latter. Launched in 2020, the brand has grown from just three products—albacore tuna, Alaskan salmon, and rainbow trout—to a line that includes a salmon collaboration with Fly By Jing's Sichuan chili crisp inside (all of their fish is smoked). I love using the recipe page for ideas beyond sandwiches and salads, my usual go-to for smoked tin fish; the smoked salmon and leek croquettes have been a favorite.

The Galicia, Spain-based La Brújula cans everything under the sun—sardines, mussels, even tiny squid in their own ink. Cédric Vongerichten, the executive chef and co-owner of Indonesian restaurant Wayan in New York City, loves the brand's products served on a piece of bread with salted butter, a reminder of his first conservas experience in Spain. "I was working at El Bulli in 2005, and some of the chefs brought me to a restaurant called Quimet y Quimet, an iconic tapas bar in Barcelona famous for serving tinned and jarred food," he remembers. "I was blown away by the quality of the ingredients and how simply they were served."

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Island Creek Oysters is known for just that—fresh oysters from Massachusetts that are harvested daily and shipped overnight to customers who enjoy them at home. But a new collaboration with Galicia-based Mariscadora has resulted in a beautiful line of tinned shellfish. The razor clams in oil are my favorite, a delicate, briny treat that I like to enjoy on hunks of toasted bread. But the splurge-y, hand-packed cockles in brine are also fantastic—just drain them and squeeze lemon on top for a ceviche-esque snack that will impress house guests—as are the scallops in a tomato-and-onion vieira sauce, which make a nice topper for pasta. The colorful, playful package design is an added bonus, especially for gifting.

"This particular tinned fish comes from one of the oldest canned fish factories in Portugal," says George Mendes, chef and partner at the newly-opened Veranda in New York City, whose menu pays homage to his Portuguese roots. "The spice used really gives the sardines another dimension, and since they're drenched in olive oil, I like to eat them on a thick, fresh, toasted, crusty piece of sourdough bread." (Need a gift for a sardine-loving friend? New England-based Portugalia Marketplace sells a set with five flavors of the brand's tinned fish, packed in a wooden crate.)

For anchovies that you'll eat by the tin-ful, Charlie Hobbs, editorial assistant at Condé Nast Traveler, swears by Cento. "I tend to drop at least one or two of these into whatever pasta sauce I'm making," he says. "It's like a fishy prosciutto boullion cube, with so much salt and flavor that do especially well in a butter-based dish. Once the tin is open, I'm eating the rest while cooking. It might be the closest I ever get to being Italian."

The world of tinned fish doesn't end at fillets and shellfish—"there are some rare and tasty conservas to enjoy," says Conserva's Thomas. Imported from Spain's northwestern coast, this sea urchin roe from Conservas de Gambados comes packed in a simple brine of water and salt, to be pulled straight from the tin. (For sushi eaters, this is the same as salty uni, by a different name.) The Conserva team suggests using it as a garnish on pasta, eating on its own or atop a slice of toasted bread, or mixing into fluffy scrambled eggs, just as the Spanish do. Personally, I save it for special occasions—even as gifts—as the packaging itself, with a delicate net wrapped around the tin, is as special as the seafood inside.

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"My favorite tinned fish product is definitely Korean tinned mackerel," says Andrea Xu, the founder of Umamicart, an online marketplace for Asian groceries. "I grew up in Spain so tinned fish has been part of my diet since I was a kid. But in college my roommate was from South Korea, and she introduced me to Korean tinned fish, which she often used for cooking soups and stews. I was mind-blown—it's such a convenient way to elevate the flavor of the soup and bring depth to it." Xu says Korean canned fish has been part of her cooking repertoire ever since. Her go-to recipe? Kimchi jjigae, with a nice hit of that tinned mackerel.

To really transport yourself to the pintxos bars of Spain, there are few dishes easier than flakes of tuna in olive oil forked onto a cracker or toast. Donostia-San Sebastián does to-the-point tinned fish (no flashy packaging here) from northern Spain, with a line of products that includes the niche (see the baby eels in olive oil) to elevated takes on classics, like anchovy fillets and octopus. The tuna in olive oil is really the standout to me though—it's nothing like the dry tuna most Americans are used to, and the oil is so fantastic I find myself dipping bread in it long after the fish is gone.

"Right now, my favorite [tinned fish] is Olasagasti's anchovies—they're caught in the Cantabrian Sea when they’re in peak condition, and canned and cured over 12 months in the Spanish Basque Country," says Patrick Martinez, the Madrid-raised founder of U.K.-based The Tinned Fish Market. "I love [these anchovies] because when you open the tin it's so clean and clear, the olive oil has this ochre, golden hue; you can see the labor behind it. And they have this quality that cured products have, like Serrano ham, that cooked foods don't." Good news: The Tinned Fish Market ships these flavorful swimmers stateside; the site is one of Peppler's favorite spots for sourcing tins online.

Cockles have become a new favorite tinned seafood for me. The simple, salty flavor is always bright and instantly transports me to a beach somewhere—you can almost feel the ocean breeze when you spoon them into your mouth. I love these Matiz cockles because the price point is relatively affordable—just $10 for a four-ounce tin—and they're always fresh and tasty. I often eat them straight out of the tin with lemon (though it doesn't hurt to rinse them first as there is sometimes a little grit inside; to be expected with cockles), though they make a nice substitute for little neck clams on pasta.

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For a piece of Roman history, look no further than Pollastrini Di Anzio sardines, which come packed in olive oil and hot pepper. The brand's founder began packing sardines in 1889 just outside of Rome, and, today, the wild-caught swimmers are among the tastiest you'll find. Ayesha Nurdjaja, chef and partner of New York's Shuka and Shukette says they're her favorite, often eaten as part of a no-frills lunch of salad, hard-boiled eggs, and sardines on crackers, or in a last-minute pasta con sarde, like her mom used to make: "Just add fennel and onions," she says.

Jonah Miller, the chef and owner of Huertas in New York City, which serves many conservas as a part of its menu, has a thing for Cantabrian anchovies like Don Bocarte's. "These seasonal anchovies are painstakingly cured and packed by hand, and they use less salt than other brands," says Miller, who was first introduced to tinned fish while studying abroad in Madrid. Spread them on toast with sliced radish, throw them in pasta with red sauce, or do as they do in Spain's bars, where "the bartender simply cracks the tin open and hands you a toothpick and some bread."

José Gourmet, a modern Portuguese brand with playful packaging, pays homage to the everyman-identity of a José—from the many fishermen whose traditions they build on, to a wide world of tin fish-eating customers. José Gourmet has a wide array of tinned seafood from stuffed squid in ink to hake roes in olive oil, but start simple with the tasty anchovies in olive oil—the perfect topping to an open-faced sandwich—then work your way through their offerings. (And yes, the four-piece box set, with the name José carved out of cardboard, makes a great gift.)

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