Last US Sardine Cannery Closing

[mrjarrell]

What a sad day. The last sardine cannery in the US is shutting down tomorrow. Beach Cliff made some good sardines, too. While I prefer smoked herring, the occasional sardine with mustard and onions was a nice treat. Now we'll be stuck with foreign sardines only. Perhaps they'll be Canadian, Japanese or Moroccan, those I could live with. I avoid Chinese seafood like the plague. It's too bad sardines have fallen out of favour over the years. They're really good for you and, if you're dieting they're a must. Just ask Alton Brown.

via ABC

The intensely fishy smell of herring has been the smell of money for generations of workers in Maine who have snipped, sliced and packed the small, silvery fish into billions of cans of sardines on their way to Americans' lunch buckets and kitchen cabinets.
For the past 135 years, sardine canneries have been as much a part of Maine's small coastal villages as the thick Down East fog. It's been estimated that more than 400 canneries have come and gone along the state's long, jagged coast.
The lone survivor, the Stinson Seafood plant here in this eastern Maine shoreside town, shuts down this week after a century in operation. It is the last sardine cannery not just in Maine, but in the United States.
Lela Anderson, 78, has worked in sardine canneries since the 1940s and was among the fastest in sardine-packing contests that were held back in the day. Her packing days are over; now she's a quality-control inspector looking over the bite-sized morsels in can after can that passes by her.
"It just doesn't seem possible this is the end," Anderson lamented last week while taking a break at the plant where she's worked for 54 years. She and nearly 130 co-workers will lose their jobs.
Once considered an imported delicacy, sardines now have a humble reputation. They aren't one species of fish. Instead, sardines are any of dozens of small, oily, cold-water fish that are part of the herring family that are sold in tightly packed cans.

More at the source.

 

[Dogman]

Sardines in mustard sauce with BBQ Fritos, thats just good eating.

Too bad another American company goes out of business.

 

[Indy500]

I have never tried sardines. I think it a perceived notion that they taste bad without trying them. They could be the best tasting thing ever but I wouldn't know. BTW. I am generally open to trying new food.

 

[tuoder]

I have never tried sardines. I think it a perceived notion that they taste bad without trying them. They could be the best tasting thing ever but I wouldn't know. BTW. I am generally open to trying new food.

I'm with you. I have no idea how they could be good, but somebody must be buying them.

How are they even used in food?

 

[Dogman]

I'm with you. I have no idea how they could be good, but somebody must be buying them.

How are they even used in food?

They are the food, you eat them straight out of the can.

 

[printcraft]

I have never tried sardines. I think it a perceived notion that they taste bad without trying them. They could be the best tasting thing ever but I wouldn't know. BTW. I am generally open to trying new food.

Try them with mustard and a few crackers.

Oil only is kind of bland.

For a real treat try some Kipper snacks. - smokey goodness.

 

[mrjarrell]

I'm with you. I have no idea how they could be good, but somebody must be buying them.

How are they even used in food?

There are multiple ways of using them. Straight out of the can is just one, very basic way. There are numerous recipes online for them. You can add them to noodles or even make a soup from them. They're only limited by your imagination and recipe searching skills.

Google is your friend.

 

[Benny]

There are multiple ways of using them. Straight out of the can is just one, very basic way. There are numerous recipes online for them. You can add them to noodles or even make a soup from them. They're only limited by your imagination and recipe searching skills.

Google is your friend.

I'm sure there are plenty of recipes, but the only way I'm eating them is with mustard sauce smeared on a saltine.

 

[mrjarrell]

I'm sure there are plenty of recipes, but the only way I'm eating them is with mustard sauce smeared on a saltine.

You don't even dice up any onions in it? Heathen!

 

[melensdad]

I like them with mildly spicy tomato sauce on them.

 

[Joe Williams]

They are the food, you eat them straight out of the can.

Eyes, fins, butts and all.

 

[MoparMan]

I remember when i was a younger soldier they were like gold in the field.

 

[Benny]

Eyes, fins, butts and all.

Their heads are cut off.

The only thing that I will pick out of the can if I see it is the spine.

 

[Expat]

I like the ones in oil, on saltines.

 

[jmiller676]

Mustard sauce on ritz...I think I have decided what I'm having for supper.

 

[ihateiraq]

I remember when i was a younger soldier they were like gold in the field.

we must have been in a different army, bc i dont know anyone that eats those filthy little things. the mere thought of them makes me want to vomit.

 

[MoparMan]

we must have been in a different army, bc i dont know anyone that eats those filthy little things. the mere thought of them makes me want to vomit.

At Ft Campbell when we used to do 30-45 day cycles straight in the field you got tired of eating those MRE's. Sardines, tuna, vienna's were small, nutritional and easy to carry.

 

[Expat]

mmm viennas... now you are talking, good eating right there... potted meat too...

 

[ihateiraq]

At Ft Campbell when we used to do 30-45 day cycles straight in the field you got tired of eating those MRE's. Sardines, tuna, vienna's were small, nutritional and easy to carry.

all of the above make me feel ill. including mres. which could be why i used to lose about 10lbs on those field exercises.

 

[hornadylnl]

all of the above make me feel ill. including mres. which could be why i used to lose about 10lbs on those field exercises.

You'd really love Spanish mres then. Tripe, squid, etc. The squid cans actually said squid in it's ink. They were about an inch or so long and whole. I love calamari but I wasn't going to eat that. The Spanish guys loved our mres.