Sardines are often seen as a "poor man's" food. That impression is erroneous.
Canned sardines, by far the most common form, are really not all that cheap. A single 84 grammes portion, one of those rare foods aimed at single people, can easily set you back 2.0 or 2.5 CAD or more in the stores in my neck of the woods and even at 2.0 CAD that boils down to 23.8 CAD for a kilo. That is about the price of frozen salmon, more expensive than most other frozen fish and about four times the price asked for chicken hearts (which I also love) at my neighbourhood Loblaws and Metro stores.
On top of that, even if the impression were right, it is an irrelevant one. Fashion comes and goes, and what is now considered a luxury food was once not even seen as fit for consumption by the poorest of the poor. I do not allow myself to be led by what someone else thinks is acceptable for me, unless that someone is a non-television doctor and her/his reasoning would be based on health consideration, not fashion, which is also a good reason not to pay any attention to television doctors and other assorted alternologists and quacks.
I happen to love sardines and for more reason than one. The main reason is that they just taste great. I may be all about convenience and saving time, that does not turn me into someone without taste buds. I sometimes think life would be easier without them, but it would definitely also be less enjoyable.
Always curious about what there is on offer at the store, I like to browse around when I think I have the time, which is not often, I recently became aware that they were selling frozen sardines at our local Metro store. I could not let that pass and snapped them up. Needless to say, their taste was far above that of the canned variety, not to mention that they are even more convenient to prepare than canned sardines.
The nutrition facts label on the package fortunately uses a standard 100 grammes as its basis and not one of those ridiculous serving sizes that only lead to large rounding errors:
I like to normalise protein foods to 15 grammes of protein, and I also like to select a weight or volume that is convenient with respect to the contents of the package. Although it is visible, it is very hard to see in the picture, but the bag contains 750 grammes of sardines.
In this case, it turned out that 84 grammes yields 15 grammes of protein and that 75 grammes gives 10 portions, while 84 grammes yields just shy of 9 portions. So, I figured that anything between 75 and 84 grammes would be a convenient size. That explains the 75 grammes in the first picture. Since these fish are relatively large, it will not always work out that perfectly, but there is some wiggle room, so it won't be a problem.
These are the nutrition facts for 75 grammes:
There are numerous ways in which frozen sardines can be used, but I am also looking for convenience and wasting as little time as I can. In my opinion, that makes soup the best option and here is a video clip on Youtube that shows exactly what I do:
*****
Please note that I make no health claims and no nutritional claims. There are enough alternologists and quacks on the Internet already and I have no intention of joining them.
I sincerely encourage you to talk to an actual medical doctor or registered dietitian before making any health- or nutrition-related decisions.
If I made any mistakes in this post, please *do* feel free to point them out to me.
| Ferma frozen sardines | Nutrition facts | |
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On top of that, even if the impression were right, it is an irrelevant one. Fashion comes and goes, and what is now considered a luxury food was once not even seen as fit for consumption by the poorest of the poor. I do not allow myself to be led by what someone else thinks is acceptable for me, unless that someone is a non-television doctor and her/his reasoning would be based on health consideration, not fashion, which is also a good reason not to pay any attention to television doctors and other assorted alternologists and quacks.
I happen to love sardines and for more reason than one. The main reason is that they just taste great. I may be all about convenience and saving time, that does not turn me into someone without taste buds. I sometimes think life would be easier without them, but it would definitely also be less enjoyable.
Always curious about what there is on offer at the store, I like to browse around when I think I have the time, which is not often, I recently became aware that they were selling frozen sardines at our local Metro store. I could not let that pass and snapped them up. Needless to say, their taste was far above that of the canned variety, not to mention that they are even more convenient to prepare than canned sardines.
The nutrition facts label on the package fortunately uses a standard 100 grammes as its basis and not one of those ridiculous serving sizes that only lead to large rounding errors:
| Weight | 100 g |
| Calories | 160 |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g |
| Fibre | 0 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Sodium | 65 mg |
I like to normalise protein foods to 15 grammes of protein, and I also like to select a weight or volume that is convenient with respect to the contents of the package. Although it is visible, it is very hard to see in the picture, but the bag contains 750 grammes of sardines.
In this case, it turned out that 84 grammes yields 15 grammes of protein and that 75 grammes gives 10 portions, while 84 grammes yields just shy of 9 portions. So, I figured that anything between 75 and 84 grammes would be a convenient size. That explains the 75 grammes in the first picture. Since these fish are relatively large, it will not always work out that perfectly, but there is some wiggle room, so it won't be a problem.
These are the nutrition facts for 75 grammes:
| Weight | 100/100*75=75 g |
| Calories | 160/100*75=120 kcal |
| Net carbohydrate | (0-0)/100*75=0 g |
| Fibre | 0/100*75=0 g |
| Protein | 19/100*75= 14.25 g |
| Sodium | 65/100/75=48.75 mg |
There are numerous ways in which frozen sardines can be used, but I am also looking for convenience and wasting as little time as I can. In my opinion, that makes soup the best option and here is a video clip on Youtube that shows exactly what I do:
*****
Please note that I make no health claims and no nutritional claims. There are enough alternologists and quacks on the Internet already and I have no intention of joining them.
I sincerely encourage you to talk to an actual medical doctor or registered dietitian before making any health- or nutrition-related decisions.
If I made any mistakes in this post, please *do* feel free to point them out to me.
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