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When you’re hankering for tinned sardines, nothing else will do. While canned tuna is lean and mean, sardines are delightfully rich. Beef of the sea! Sardines are caught and enjoyed all over the world, and, like many of its tinned fish brethren, canned sardines have seen an uptick in popularity since 2020.
However, the term sardine doesn’t refer to a specific species of fish. As Anna Hezel, author of Tin to Table, explains, “There are a handful of species allowed to be packaged as ‘sardines,’” such as sprat, herring, and other small fish that exist toward the bottom of the food chain. Sardines aren’t predators, but that’s a good thing; because they eat heaps of plankton, they’re particularly low in mercury, unlike many other fish.
Sardines are typically packed in water, olive oil, or soybean oil. They’re also available flavored, often with lemon, tomato, or chiles; and sometimes lightly smoked. Some sardines are deboned and skinned before packaging; others are not. Your choices are a matter of taste, of course.
Generally, sardines packed in olive oil will have more flavor than those packed in a more neutral liquid, and sardines packed bone-in and skin-on will be more firm. Sardine bones don’t provide any significant crunch, according to Hezel. “I prefer to buy sardines with skin and bones,” she says, “Partially, because the skin and bones have a lot of good nutritional benefits. Also, it’s an aesthetic experience to open the can see all these perfectly tiled sardines.” Since the sardines are canned at high pressure and temperature, she says, the bones all but dissolve during the process.
To find the best canned sardines—ones with strong flavor, a meaty flake, and oceany brine—we set up a blind taste test for a panel of Bon Appétit staffers. After a pungent and opinionated 45 minutes, we came away with three tins we’d be thrilled to buy again.
How we set up our blind taste test
Before tasters took their first bites, I asked them to share how they most often enjoyed tinned sardines. Many said they appreciate the bold flavor a sardine can bring to a dish, without requiring a lot of effort—just open the can and you’re set. Others said they relied on sardines as a pantry powerplayer; a shelf-stable protein that can add heft to pantry pastas and juiced-up toasts alike.
To make sure our editors tasted an uncompromised bite of each contender, they sampled the sardines one by one, with no accompaniment but plain saltine crackers. And to ensure each sample tasted distinct from the next, our testers cleansed their palates with apple slices (honeycrisp, if you must know). We began by tasting each of our 10 sardines, then narrowed down to our favorites for a second round, after which we determined our winners.
How we picked the products
For many of our taste tests, we focus on items available in grocery stores across the country. But many grocery stores carry only a small selection of tinned sardines; other brands are sold exclusively in specialty stores or online retailers. To get a broad sample of the sardine market, we sourced several tins commonly available in supermarkets, as well as a few more niche brands.
Just like in our canned tuna taste test, we created consistency in our sardine taste test by minimizing variables. We tasted sardines packed in olive oil, without any additional flavorings except salt. Olive oil is the most flavorful option in sardine packaging—plus, you can use that umami oil in sauces and dressings (we love a double-duty pantry staple). We also excluded brands labeled “small sardines,” which have a distinct taste and texture.
How we evaluated
Our tasting panel ranged from casual sardine-enjoyers to full-blown sardine-heads. Everyone agreed that a sardine should be robustly flavored and not fishy. When it comes to texture, senior service editor Kelsey Jane Youngman noted that the best canned sardines should be flaky and tender but never "mealy or mushy." Senior SEO editor Joe Sevier said that all the elements of a tinned sardine should work together—sardine synergy, you might even call it. “Olive oil and any seasonings,” Joe said, “should be there to enhance the flavor of the sardine.” It’s a lot to ask of a simple tinned fish, but three brands emerged from our taste test as favorites.
Best Boneless: Season Brand Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Many sardines are packed mostly intact: headless, with skin and spines still in place. Some prefer this style since it gives the sardine more structure. (Sardine bones are so delicate you can chomp through them, often without realizing they’re even there.) Other tins, like Season’s, remove the skin and bones for you. This style has the same ingredients as the rest of the sardines we tasted (sardines, olive oil, and salt), but it’s easier to flake and melt or blend into other ingredients in a recipe.
Why we loved it: Sometimes you want that heady, fishy flavor, and sometimes you want something more subtle. Season’s sardines are gentle, with less of a briny kick. Director of content production Ali Inglese noted that these sardines were “mild,” but still had a respectably robust aroma. Since the fillets were skinless and boneless, each bite was softer than some other contenders, but our tasters agreed that Season sardines were by no means mushy. Associate director of cooking Emma Laperruque called them “the best skinless and boneless sardines we tried.” Staffers agreed these mix-in ready sardines would do well in a recipe where they played a supporting role—flaked into pasta with hearty greens or blended into a creamy dip, for instance.
We’d love it in: Pasta With Sardines and Lemon or Dairy-Free Trout Sardine Dip.
Great for Cooking: Ortiz Sardinas a la Antigua
Ortiz is a big name in tinned fish: They’ve been in the business for over a century. We sampled both the jarred and tinned sardines from Ortiz and found virtually no difference between the two. Generally, sardines are either steamed or, as Ortiz sardines are, quickly fried before canning.
Why we loved it: The first thing our panel of tasters noted was the size of Ortiz’s sardines. “These are large—in a good way,” Emma said, peering at the admittedly large whole sardines in front of her. Though they came with their silvery skins and bones intact, our tasters said these sardines had a rich, buttery flake. Ali noted that the flavors were balanced. She said the fishiness was “mild” and that it was “not too salty” either. Emma enjoyed the “meatiness” of these sardines and said they were “rich but not too fatty.” We’d love to put these toward any recipe that calls for a tin of sardines—or even one that calls for a tin of something else (like swapping them instead of mackerel in this pantry pasta).
We’d love it in: Braised Beans and Sardines With Fennel or Sardines With Roasted Tomatoes, Fennel, and Saffron.
The Flavorful Favorite: Patagonia Sardines in Olive Oil
Patagonia—yes, the company that makes outerwear and outdoor gear—has been selling shelf-stable pantry items like tinned fish, crackers, and pasta since its food division, Patagonia Provisions, was founded in 2012. Patagonia Provisions, as they’ve named their comestibles division, sells several different varieties of tinned fish, and focuses on sustainably caught and processed fish. According to its website, Patagonia sources its sardines from “thriving, well-managed populations in the Bay of Biscay,” which means they avoid overfished populations. Like many of the sardines in our taste test, the ingredients list for Patagonia’s sardines is short and sweet: sardines, organic extra-virgin olive oil, and salt.
Why we loved it: Taster’s reactions were extreme and fast. Kelsey said these sardines were “immediately more flavorful,” while Joe agreed the flavor was “really robust.” Emma noticed the fish was more aesthetically pleasing—iridescent skin, which was just slightly wrinkled and completely intact in the can. Our panel loved the herby quality these sardines had—even though there weren’t any herbs added per the ingredients label. Emma said she tasted hints of rosemary and thyme, and Kelsey loved the sardines’ “brightness and herbaceousness.” Even the oil in the tin received praise: Emma excitedly noted it was “very aromatic!” After a couple rounds of sampling, it was unanimous: Patagonia sardines were our favorites. These sardines are so deliciously complex that our tasters would serve them straight-up as part of a snack spread or even make a tin the center of a solo dinner.
We’d love it in: Spicy Marinated Vegetables and Sardines on Toast, Escarole Caesar With Sardines and Hazelnuts, or with bread and butter
- Bela Sardines in Extra-Virgin Olive Oil: Some sardines are smoked, but Bela’s contain “smoke flavor,” which our tasters found overpowering.
- Brunswick Boneless Butterflied Sardine Fillets Served in Olive Oil: We like some salt in our sardines, but Brunswick’s were too salty for us.
- Cento Skinless & Boneless Sardines in Olive Oil: These fillets didn’t have much structure. They were also drier than we prefer.
- King Oscar Wild Caught Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Bites of King Oscar Sardines were rich and tender, but there was a slight bitterness too.
- Sea Tales Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Though there was a nice texture here, our tasters said the olive oil in this can of sardines tasted a bit off.
- Trader Joe’s Wild Caught Skinless & Boneless Sardines in Olive Oil: Overly fishy and a few editors said these sardines reminded them of canned tuna.
- Wild Planet Wild Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Though we applaud Wild Planet’s commitment to sustainability, these canned sardines collapsed into mush as soon as we got them out of the tin.
Anchovy butter spaghetti, sardines on toast, and a proudly lazy Caesar.
