🐟 Oil Packed #7

A very royal sardine

King Oscar Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil with Spicy Cracked Pepper

Price: $3.19
Weight: 106g
Texture: Soft
Taste: Bitter / Savory
Pair with: Creamy condiments and crispbread

If there’s one brand name you can always find in my can cabinet, it’s King Oscar. You can find their tins at most grocery stores at very affordable prices. The quality is exceptional for the price, and they produce a wide variety of fish for a wide variety of meals. I’m a big fan of their tins and am excited to share this one with you:

King Oscar Sardines with Spicy Cracked Pepper is a pleasantly spicy¹, fresh fish. There are about 8-12 brisling sardines packed in extra virgin olive oil along with cracked and whole peppercorns. The sardines have a soft texture and have their skin and tails on. There’s a very fruity taste to the fish with a very mild heat. The peppercorns are juicy and divinely fresh from the packing process. The oil is nicely spicy from the pepper, and I’d recommend saving it for a salad dressing or to drizzle over some pasta.

These taste like a spicy counterpart to smoked sprats, and I would pair them similarly. They’re deliciously rich with malty vehicles like crispbread or dark rye bread. A creamy sauce like crema fresca does a great job of balancing the heat from the pepper. Make sure to top your bite with some extra peppercorns! If you’re susceptible to heartburn, I’d also pair these with some Tums. Before I realized it, I had eaten the entire tin in one sitting and I paid for it afterward. They’re delicious, but I’d recommend sharing this tin with a friend.

You can find this fish at your local grocery store. Not every store carries King Oscar, so it may take a couple of tries to find ‘em. My friends at King Oscar sent me some samples of their royal lineup (Thanks Lea!), so I’ll make sure to try them all and share the highlights with you.

Rating: ★★★★

photos by Aaron Barton

1. This is a spicy fish, not spiced. It can be easy to confuse the two when it comes to canned seafood, but generally consider spiced to align with aromatic herbs like clove and anise, and spicy to be more about pepper.