Tinned sardines have become a staple of my diet – they are high in protein, full of healthy fats, and easy to prepare! In this post, I put together my favorite reasonably-priced tinned sardine options. These aren’t the fanciest sardines, but they are reliably good quality.
Some sardines come in oil, and some come in water. Which you want is a matter of taste. Sardines in oil tend to be tastier, but sardines in water can offer more flexibility with flavor / using them in recipes. I prefer to order sardines in water because 1) I can add my own oils and flavorings to the sardines, and 2) I am a little hesitant about the quality of olive oil used in packed sardines at times. I also prefer the sardine to not be smoked, because there are some vague concerns about the carcinogens from smoking small fish specifically – but these are all personal preferences!
King Oscar Wild-Caught Sardines
King Oscar’s wild-caught brisling sardines are a great option for beginners. These sardines are caught in Norwegian fjords and coastal waters. According to their site, they are the only distributors of Norwegian sardines in the USA. These are whole sardines, with skin and bones. My favorites are the sardines in zesty tomato sauce – the main pro with King Oscar sardines is the wide variety of flavors.
I like King Oscar sardines as a basic starting point – they’re available in almost every grocery store – and they might be a bit more palatable because these Norwegian sardines are a bit smaller than other brands.
Wild Planet Sardines (My favorite!!)
Wild Planet sardines are caught using a “free school” purse seine method, and they come from fisheries in Japan and Morocco. You can read more about their sourcing on their website. Wild Planet has a very basic offering – no fancy flavors – but I’ve found that they are reliably high quality compared to other tinned fish brands available on Amazon. The Wild Planet sardines are firm, well packed, and tasty. The skin is always intact, and these sardines are a bit larger than the smaller Baltic / Norwegian sardines – which I really like.
I order the pack of 12 every other month, so with the added Subscribe & Save bonus I think these are the best bang for your buck on Amazon.
Season Sardines
Season sardines are sourced in Morocco. These are also available on Amazon in packs of 24 tins if bulk ordering is your thing, and they’re just a little cheaper than Wild Planet sardines. Season has a wider selection of boneless & skinless sardines than the other brands on this list, so if that’s your preference then you should check out Season’s offerings! I personally stick to whole sardines, because they have more calcium & healthy fats than boneless and skinless sardine fillets.
I choose Wild Planet over Season because I’ve found that Wild Planet sardines are usually more intact & firmer, with a better texture than the Season Sardines – but they are pretty comparable.
Skin & Bone Sardines
Skin & Bone sardines area bit more premium, but very much worth it. These are Portuguese sardines, and they only do one thing – whole sardines in extra virgin olive oil. These sardines are caught and hand packed in Portugal. This is reminiscent of one of the famous sardine brands, Nuri – I haven’t included Nuri sardines in this list because they’re a bit pricey, but here’s a wonderful video about Nuri’s canning method. I imagine Skin & Bone does something similar. I like their product – this isn’t my staple because they only do sardines in olive oil, but it’s a very nice treat.
Polar Brisling
Brisling sardines are a smaller type of sardine found in Baltic / Northern European waters. For a small fish with a great smoky flavor, the polar brand brisling sardines are delicious – these were an accidental find at Costco, and it was a very happy accident! These fish are wild-caught in Latvia, then smoked and packed in olive oil. I thoroughly enjoyed these fish, and I also liked that they came in glass jars as opposed to the usual fish tin.
A Word of Caution
Before embarking on your sardine tasting journey, one brief word of caution – as with any seafood product, there is some amount of mercury in sardines. Sardines are about as low in mercury as fish get, because they are at the bottom of the food chain. In fact, they are the lowest-mercury fish. However, as with most things, moderation is best – as Joe Rogan found out, it’s probably best to limited sardine consumption to 3-4 cans a week.