Tricana from Lisbon

In Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, the street of the cod merchants, a few steps behind Praça do Comércio, Conserveira de Lisboa has been located since 1930. A shop where there is nothing except canned fish, stacked up to the ceiling, each individually wrapped in printed paper. Tricana has been the brand of this house since 1942.

It is filled according to the old Portuguese method: The fish goes into the can raw and is cooked inside, along with oil or sauce. The juices thus remain in the fish instead of in the cooking water, the fillets remain juicy. It is packed by hand anyway.

Sardines from the fishing season, mackerel fillets without skin and bones, pollock fillets, desalted cod, whole tuna fillets. There are a dozen ways to pack them: in pure olive oil, with garlic, lemon, pepper or oregano, in tomato, with piri-piri, with curry or in mustard sauce.

A note for everyone who looks at the label: The oil cans are packed in olive oil. Where a sauce is involved, with tomato and mustard, Tricana usually works with sunflower oil. Both are listed in the ingredients list of each product.

The best way to open a can is how they do it in Lisbon: open it, on toasted bread, a squeeze of lemon, some coriander and a glass of Vinho Verde on the side.

The oil does not remain in the can, it is part of the product.