Tinned seafood: a buying guide

In Spain a tin of fish is not a lesser version of the fresh thing. For some preparations it is the preferred one and it is priced accordingly. Our tinned range comes from three houses, all on the Asturian coast. Each works in a different way. Knowing which is which is most of what you need.

The three houses

• Agromar: Conservas Agromar has been making tinned fish and seafood in Gijón, Asturias, since 1926. Classic preparations in olive oil and escabeche. Their best pieces are sold as a Limited Production range.
• Gueyumar: Conservas Braseadas Gueyumar, in Ribadesella, grew out of Güeyu Mar, chef Abel Álvarez's grill restaurant on Playa de Vega. Everything is cooked over embers before it is tinned, so it arrives smoky.
• La Mar de Tazones: the gourmet line of Cetárea Tazones, a shellfish company at the port of El Musel in Gijón. Shellfish al natural, in nothing but water and salt.

Tuna: bonito del norte and which cut

Bonito del norte is albacore (Thunnus alalunga), paler and finer in texture than the skipjack in supermarket tins. Two cuts are worth knowing. They are not interchangeable.

• Ventresca is the belly: the most tender and most marbled part of the fish. There is only a small amount of it per fish, which is why it is treated as the prize cut and made in limited quantity. 115 g tin, €12.00.
• Cogote is the neck, just behind the head. Firmer than the belly and considerably cheaper, cut and packed by hand. 115 g tin, €5.00. It is the best first tin to buy.

Anchovies

Cantabrian anchovies from the spring season, matured slowly and filleted by hand: 7 to 9 large fillets in extra virgin olive oil, 55 g, €9.70. There is also a larger tin of 10–12 fillets.

Anchovies of this kind are a different product from the salt-cured fillets sold cheaply: firmer, less aggressive and meant to be eaten on their own on bread rather than used as a seasoning.

Shellfish

This is where La Mar de Tazones concentrates. The choice here needs a word of explanation, because spider crab comes two ways.

• White meat, premium: picked by hand from the claws and body, the finest part. Clean and delicate. 120 g, €17.80.
• Meat with coral: body and leg meat combined with the roe of the females, which makes it noticeably fuller and more intense. 120 g, €15.70.

The white meat is the one for a plain toast. The coral version is the one for a sauce or a stuffed shell. We sell the shells separately for exactly that. Also worth knowing: snow crab, smoked razor clams and Agromar's mussels in cider vinegar escabeche, which at €6.00 is the cheapest way into the escabeche style.

The chargrilled tins

Gueyumar's range is the one to reach for when you want the tin to taste cooked rather than preserved. The squid in its own ink is grilled over embers and packed in a sauce of its own ink. The octopus is grilled over flames and packed in Arbequina extra virgin olive oil. There are also cockles with habanero and razor clams.

The unusual end of the range

Worth knowing these exist, though none is a first purchase: sea urchin caviar, sea cucumbers (espardeñas), elvers in olive oil with chilli and culinary plankton, which is sold to order.

How to serve tins

• Room temperature, not fridge-cold. Take the tin out a while beforehand.
• The oil is part of what you bought. Use it on the toast, over the fish or in the salad, rather than pouring it away.
• Open, tip onto a plate, add bread. Most of these need nothing else.
• Once opened, move anything you do not finish into a covered container in the fridge and eat it within a couple of days. Do not store it in the open tin.

Where to start

• One tin to understand the category: cogote, at €5.00.
• One tin to impress someone: ventresca.
• Something completely unlike a supermarket tin: any of the chargrilled Gueyumar range.

For the spreadable tins see the pâté and foie gras guide. For the cured meat, see the Ibérico guide.