Canned Sardines

A tin of sardines is the most complete small can on the shelf: protein, fat, calcium from the soft bones, vitamin D and the omega-3 fats that stored food otherwise lacks, in a package that keeps 5 to 10 years and opens with a key. They are in the bug-out bag for the same reasons. The only argument against them is that some people will not eat them, and the end of this page is about that.

Sardines in olive oil for calories and flavor, in water for a lighter can; both keep the same. Skinless and boneless versions give up the calcium. Brisling sardines are smaller and milder. Mackerel, kippers and canned salmon are the same idea in a bigger can. Check the tins for dents at the key edge, which is the weak point, and buy a case when they are cheap.

Cool, dry, dark and off the floor, between 50 and 70°F if you can manage it; twenty degrees cooler, 70 down to 50°F, roughly doubles how long the contents stay at full quality. Never let cans freeze (the seams can fail) and never store them over a furnace, in a garage or in a vehicle. Rotate first in, first out, with the buy date written on the lid. A dented can is fine if the dent is small and not on a seam; a deep dent, a dent on a seam, rust that pits the metal, or any bulge means the can goes unopened.

Turn oil-packed tins over every few months so the oil keeps every fish coated; it's an old canner's habit that keeps the top layer from drying.

Look before you open: bulging ends, a leak, rust that has eaten into the metal, or a seam dent. Listen and look as you open: spurting liquid, a hiss outward, cloudy liquid where it should be clear, foam, or a foul smell. Any of those and the whole can goes, unopened if possible, into the trash where nothing can get at it, because the thing you are guarding against is botulism, which has no taste and no cure outside a hospital. A can past its date with a sound seal and a clean smell on opening is food.

Sardines smell strong when they are fine; what you are checking for is a smell that is sour or ammonia-like rather than fishy, and a bulged or spurting tin.

A 3.75 ounce tin in oil is about 190 calories, 22 grams of protein and about a third of a day's calcium with the bones in. On crackers with mustard, mashed into rice with lemon and hot sauce, or simmered into a tomato sauce for pasta, where the people who will not eat a sardine will not notice one. The oil goes into the rice or the pan. Two tins a week per person is a sensible rotation.

Open and eat, no heat, no water. The first day's protein in an outage, with the crackers.

Shelf-life figures are from the Survival Foods field guide; fridge, freezer and pantry times are from the USDA cold and pantry storage charts. Run the look, smell, taste check before eating anything past its date.