Raw sardines?

[spitfiredd1]

Does anyone know where to get raw sardines?  I love sardines but they only come canned.  Has anyone ever ate them raw?

[jessica]

coincidental that you mention sardines! although its not raw raw, i do have an uncooked but frozen whole sardine in my freezer that i was considering today, had to finish up some shrimps tho... i got it at whole foods about a month ago and its traveled with me ha!

[sabertooth]

I have occasionally seen them at whole foods.

I bought 3 good sized one last week for about three dollars a pound.

[TylerDurden]

I get them all the time from my local  fishmonger's. They are dirt-cheap, but go out the other end very fast, as they don't seem to be too easily absorbed. I would rather have raw swordfish or raw kingfish.

[CitrusHigh]

We have smelt at our local supermarket. Goes for $5USD/lb. The vary in size from 3-4 inches or so. They can be pretty fat sometimes, they are delicious greek style with lemon and other toppings.

[raw-al]

Don't remember where I read it, but what they sell for sardines in North America is not sardines..
Apparently only the ones that are labelled as sardines in Europe are sardines.

[PaleoPhil]

my local healthfood market sells raw sardines. I've tried them raw, but I prefer wild salmon and yellowfin tuna for raw fish.

[goodsamaritan]

I ate fresh raw sardines in a fishing town.

http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/05/22/fresh-sea-food-at-the-fishing-town-of-catbalogan/

They were delicious.

You have to eat them really fresh. They spoil easily.

[spitfiredd1]

We have smelt at our local supermarket. Goes for $5USD/lb. The vary in size from 3-4 inches or so. They can be pretty fat sometimes, they are delicious greek style with lemon and other toppings.

What is greek style?  I've put some tapenade on fish before and that's REALLY good.

[CitrusHigh]

http://www.greecefoods.com/meze/index.htm

Scroll down until you see the part about the raw sardines. The dish I believe is called Sardeles Pastes and if you follow the link on the page I think it explains how to make them, But it would be good to learn how to consume the bones as well as they would be an awesome source of nutrients. I found that the small fish are great eaten whole, the larger ones are good to filet or cut in to chunks.

[spitfiredd1]

Man that sounds really good!  I wish America had more traditional styles and culture it would be a lot more interesting here.  There are a few regional differences but not a lot of distinct styles of culture.

[PaleoPhil]

The fresh raw sardines available to me at the market are large enough that the bones need to be softened to be eaten, either by cooking (such as low-slow cooking in a crockpot) or fermenting (as with stinkfish) or perhaps acid breakdown via marinade.

Are the sardines used for sardeles pastes small enough to crunch up the bones, or does the acid marinade soften the bones?

[Iguana]

But it would be good to learn how to consume the bones as well as they would be an awesome source of nutrients. I

Just crush the bones between the teeth. It works fine for small fish such as sardines. 

[PaleoPhil]

Sardines come in various sizes. Are you talking about the tiny ones sold in cans, or also the larger ones that are about five times or so larger?

[CitrusHigh]

I just cut the big ones in to manageable chunks and crunch down the bones, but some will find it unpleasant I expect. The smaller ones are more tender. I never bother to despine/bone them, too much work, and unnecessary and iMO, wasteful.

[PaleoPhil]

If you use the Native American techniques, it's actually quite easy and quick to debone fish, and you can eat the fish more quickly as a result. From what I've seen, they only traditionally ate the bones softened by fermenting and those of very tiny fish.

[Adora]

I'm glad you started this post. I've been thinking about having sardines and smelt. So, it is good info for me too. I eat a few small bones when I feel like it, but I did like Phil's video on native fish cleaning techniques. That was great. I am going to practice asap. 

[PaleoPhil]

BTW, it's more difficult to use that technique on fish with soft flesh, like sardines. It works better on firmer flesh, like perch and salmon.

[CitrusHigh]

If you use the Native American techniques, it's actually quite easy and quick to debone fish, and you can eat the fish more quickly as a result. From what I've seen, they only traditionally ate the bones softened by fermenting and those of very tiny fish.

I eat the bones because I like the idea of getting the minerals and K2 in them. I've never had any reason to suspect that they are not getting digested fully. They are very small in smelt and hcl is calcium seeking so it melts them down pretty fast from what I can tell. I quite like the spine-in smelt for the crunch, but at first found it unpleasant. That was learned behaviour though and due to still being SAD squeamish. Nice not having those limits anymore!

[PaleoPhil]

So you chew up the entire raw smelt? does that include the head?

[CitrusHigh]

May or may not include the heads, depending on source, does not include the innards because ours come gutted since we're here in the midwest.

[spicegirl_0101]

So, you can just eat smelts raw? If I find them, do I have to remove anything or just eat the whole thing?

Thanks!

[raw]

I bought couple of times sardines from whole food market, didn't like it as raw. I also tried raw salmons (wild Alaska), didn't feel that great! The point is, the sea water is contaminated and eating sea food I feel dangerous!

[CitrusHigh]

Can eat as is or remove spinal cord.  Heads are edible too!

True the ocean is contaminated, but so is pretty much everything else!

[PaleoPhil]

I find the cheekbones of large sardines to be too hard to chew, whether raw or cooked, so are you talking about small sardines or do you just swallow the cheekbones or are you actually able to chew them up?