Tinned seafood recipes from Catalan tomato toast, to pasta with sardines and tuna melts!
All of us have some history with canned (tinned) seafood. Who can forget those inexpensive cans of domestic tuna that helped many of us through college or some low paying time of our lives. When I was growing up in Colorado, my Grandmother insisted that I have a can of tuna or sardines with me when I went fishing or hunting: “survival food” she called it. Very simple food but in recent times tinned fish has become very hip in restaurants as well as with home cooks.
Originally “tinned” seafood was in glass jars probably owing its association to wine in bottles. Food preservation techniques date back to prehistoric times, when humans pickled, salted, and smoked their food to make it last longer. However, the 18th century saw the advent of efficient, effective methods of preservation.
Tinned seafood was one of the greatest inventions in food preservation and it came about in response to a wartime need since it requires no refrigeration. In 1795, the French army offered a 12,000-franc prize (an immense amount then) to anyone who could create a way to store food that could travel to the front without spoiling. In 1810, French chef Nicolas Appert came up with the technique of boiling and sealing in glass bottles. He wasn’t sure why this worked but it was explained later by Louis Pasteur who taught us that the combination of heat-based sterilization and airtight sealing keeps food inside free of spoiling microorganisms.
Chef John Ash 
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