In today’s brand new episode of ‘Price Points’, we challenged tinned fish expert Charlotte Langley to a blind test–from texture to taste, could she guess which was cheaper and which was a premium product?
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00:00 I'm Charlotte Langley and I am a TINFISHED expert.
00:02 (upbeat music)
00:05 (crunching)
00:06 Doesn't slurp very well.
00:07 (upbeat music)
00:09 (bell dinging)
00:13 We're talking tuna now.
00:15 This looks like albacore tuna specifically.
00:18 There are three species that we consume the most of
00:20 on a global scale.
00:21 Tuna and salmon are the top of the list.
00:23 And guess what?
00:24 Those are the cans that we eat the most of in North America.
00:26 So there is a large difference between A and B visually.
00:31 What I'm seeing here is completely two different worlds
00:34 of canned fish.
00:35 This to me looks very much like grocery store vibes.
00:40 It is one big chunk of meat that's been cut, maybe two,
00:43 kind of put into the can, machine cut.
00:46 They've just chosen an oil, dumped it on top.
00:48 I'm not seeing any flex of like salt or flavor
00:51 or herb or anything.
00:53 I'm getting, this is our entry point of tuna
00:56 into the market.
00:57 B is gonna be the one I'm more attracted to
00:59 because it looks like flower petals of tuna
01:02 have been arranged.
01:03 It could be the belly.
01:04 So which is the ventresca cut, which is very popular,
01:07 especially in Spanish and Portuguese in the region.
01:10 They're taking the best part of the tuna,
01:13 which is the belly part and putting that in smaller pieces
01:16 and canning it specifically on its own.
01:17 This is produced on a large scale, large factories,
01:23 large retorts, less people hand cutting
01:25 and making it artisanal and craft.
01:27 This is mass production.
01:28 B is beautiful.
01:30 B looks like little layers, little textures,
01:33 lots of little pockets hiding in there.
01:35 This is hand cut, this is handcrafted.
01:37 Also the cans, again, looking at the style of the cans,
01:39 larger opening, better presentation, more engagement,
01:43 more surface area to see.
01:45 Means less cooking time because the pieces
01:47 are in there portioned out.
01:49 Starting with A, oh, it's kind of hard to get out of the can,
01:52 which means it's been packed very tightly
01:55 and it's one big piece.
01:56 I'm breaking it up.
01:57 It's not breaking up on itself.
01:58 That's that one.
02:00 Going on to B.
02:01 Oh, okay, they're kind of connected.
02:03 This is definitely albacore tuna.
02:04 You can kind of tell by the size of the flake.
02:06 This is interesting.
02:07 This is like all little flakes.
02:09 That pinky glow, that little rosé glow is still in there.
02:12 It looks like a pile of rose petals.
02:14 I'm gonna start with A.
02:16 This is dry looking. [laughs]
02:20 There's not a lot of oil in the can.
02:21 It's actually quite a light amount of oil,
02:23 which is interesting because that means
02:24 it would be less costly to produce this as well.
02:27 They're not filling up the can with oil,
02:28 so they're using less ingredient.
02:30 I'm going to taste the smallest bit of this.
02:33 It's squeaky.
02:35 Is that dry?
02:37 I don't know if you can hear that.
02:39 It would lend itself well to moisturizing it
02:42 with lots of aioli or creme fraiche or yogurt.
02:45 This is what we're used to getting.
02:46 This is the tuna that we all grew up with.
02:48 Moving on to B, and I'm excited
02:49 because it's aesthetically quite pleasing.
02:51 It's sitting in this lighter oil.
02:53 This looks like a neutral oil.
02:54 There's a little flecks of color throughout it,
02:56 like the lime.
02:57 It's so much better, oh my gosh.
03:00 And so much better flavor.
03:02 It's well seasoned.
03:03 This is great.
03:06 I think that this is a more premium product.
03:08 If I'm wrong about this, I will be absolutely devastated.
03:11 I'm not surprised at all,
03:14 but this is really accessible, right?
03:16 This is a product that you can try
03:18 and get and use regularly.
03:19 This one is more premium, and you can tell why.
03:22 Shape, color, texture, flavor.
03:25 And it's just a great addition to switch it up.
03:28 I'm gonna guess we're going trout today.
03:30 Darker color oils, like an amber color like this one,
03:32 which looks like an olive oil,
03:34 this one suggests more quality on the oil itself.
03:36 This one here, thinner, lighter,
03:38 likely is a more neutral oil,
03:39 something that's a little less expensive
03:41 for larger production or scale of production.
03:43 Looking at the two different cuts of fish,
03:45 we've got two different styles of portioning.
03:47 This looks like it was hand cut, hand canned,
03:49 hand packed with care.
03:51 This one feels a bit more machine cut.
03:53 The fillets go through machine, it's packed,
03:55 we need to weigh the cans,
03:56 it's like exactly 90 grams of protein is going inside.
03:58 That means that they'll add pieces
04:00 or like kind of rough it up
04:01 to make sure there's that exact weight.
04:03 This was designed for this can, like it's stunning.
04:06 So this can has got two thin fillets.
04:09 Oh, and it's very dark in color.
04:11 So this is very flaky,
04:13 much more delicate than the other can.
04:16 B is flaky, like it is overcooked.
04:19 Different time and temperatures
04:20 apply differently to different species.
04:23 This company or whoever made this tin
04:25 may have sort of like a set time and temperature
04:27 for all of their cans,
04:28 which means they are pumping out production.
04:30 They are making a lot of cans.
04:32 This one on the other hand,
04:34 the texture of the fillet is really gorgeous.
04:36 The color is still there, I still see pink.
04:38 This feels like the temperature
04:39 may have been chosen just for this species.
04:41 So I'm gonna go into a little piece of this.
04:44 This is high salinity,
04:47 which means it's like a brine,
04:50 but it also has some sweetness to it.
04:52 It feels so much like a tuna, it's kind of funny,
04:55 which means to me that they've cooked it longer.
04:57 The oil is very light.
04:58 This is like a sunflower or a canola or a safflower,
05:01 something really mild,
05:02 but there is quite a bit of seasoning on here.
05:03 If this has smoke in it, which I'm pretty sure that it does,
05:06 it is ridiculously light.
05:08 Like they just put a kiss of fake smoke in it.
05:10 Still very good.
05:12 I think I'm gonna like this one better.
05:14 So A, you can see the texture of the fish still in here.
05:17 Plus look how shiny the skin is.
05:18 This is gonna be good.
05:20 Oh my God, so, so different.
05:25 Great seasoning, surprisingly delicate.
05:27 It's bringing a moisture content
05:29 that I was not expecting from the skin in here.
05:31 It wasn't smoked for a very long time.
05:33 It's like you had a kiss of smoke
05:34 in the back of your palate.
05:35 This is packing great flavor.
05:37 And I'm very pleased with its texture.
05:40 Like it is very soft.
05:41 But I'm gonna try that little tail piece.
05:44 Which is still very good.
05:48 Higher on the seasoning
05:49 because smaller piece likely brined as well.
05:51 That's sort of a way to ensure consistency
05:55 and seasoning across all of your products.
05:57 Even if you're doing it by hand or by machine,
05:59 highly recommend.
06:00 This is very good.
06:01 I think that letter A is the more premium
06:06 or more expensive product to purchase
06:09 based on many things.
06:11 Color, texture, mouthfeel,
06:13 the quality of the smoke
06:14 and the presentation and the skin on as well
06:16 I think is premium.
06:18 Well thank God I was right.
06:22 That seems like a great value in my opinion for this.
06:24 Great starter, great flavor,
06:27 great integrity of product.
06:28 Like as a chef I'm like chefly kissing this one.
06:31 This one, great for adding to a salad
06:34 or a sandwich to get going.
06:35 And adds great protein and nutrition
06:37 to your daily diet.
06:38 You know, you wanna get it into your life,
06:40 why not try a lower cost one.
06:43 Mussels are great for a myriad of reasons.
06:45 Mussels also are ocean cleaners.
06:48 They filter feed through the oceans.
06:49 These are the most low impact food to grow.
06:52 They don't need to be fed,
06:53 which makes them in my opinion
06:54 some of the most perfect food.
06:56 What I love about them in a tin,
06:57 they kind of just get better.
06:59 They take up more flavor,
07:00 they take up more moisture.
07:01 So looking at the letter A,
07:03 this looks loaded with mussels.
07:05 Like they are coming out of the can.
07:06 Like there's so many in here.
07:08 The oil color is a nice rich color.
07:10 B on the side here,
07:11 it is also very full.
07:12 Not as like orderly as I was maybe even expecting,
07:16 but even consistent size,
07:17 which I like.
07:18 That means I'm gonna get more conformity
07:19 and more uniformity in the consumption.
07:21 And the color of the oil is beautiful,
07:23 like a nice golden color,
07:24 kind of like matches the tin.
07:26 I'm gonna start with letter A here
07:28 and get these on the plate.
07:29 What I love about this is not only
07:31 is it the oil in the can,
07:32 there's also the liquor from the mussels.
07:34 So the mussel meat has this beautiful
07:36 sort of natural sauce that comes with it
07:38 and it's called the liquor.
07:39 So when you cook it,
07:40 it extrudes like the sea water that's inside of it
07:43 and makes a sort of like natural oceanic sauce.
07:45 It's gonna be salty like the sea.
07:47 You're gonna taste the marijuana of North America
07:50 or wherever the can is from,
07:51 which is one of my favorite words to use.
07:53 There's the oil floating amongst the water,
07:55 which are the brine or the liquor,
07:56 which is I think quite pretty.
07:58 Moving on to B.
07:59 Uniformity is nice,
08:00 very rich and unctuous.
08:02 The smell is wafting in my nostrils.
08:04 It smells super good.
08:05 This looks more like a safflower or a sunflower oil
08:08 that's been working with the mussel meat.
08:09 Because the mussels are whole intact,
08:11 they're not cut up into pieces.
08:12 So you're getting like the innards
08:13 and like all that good,
08:14 all the good juicy extras.
08:16 Similar color,
08:17 but I think this one is not smoked
08:18 and I think this one is very lightly smoked.
08:20 I also love how the subtlety of smoke is coming through.
08:23 It's not, I'm not being bombarded
08:24 with like really strong, acrid smoke.
08:27 Uniformity in size of the species inside,
08:30 the mussels inside of the can
08:32 is probably gonna say to you
08:33 they spent more time and labor grating their product.
08:36 So these are all the same.
08:37 This is all the same size.
08:38 I'm not seeing,
08:39 like maybe there's a couple that are a little bit larger
08:41 and maybe a little bit smaller.
08:43 But mostly overall this is the same,
08:44 which means they've grated the product
08:46 after the cooking or smoking process.
08:49 This one, you're seeing some big guys,
08:52 some little guys.
08:53 Like there's a big guy and a little guy right there.
08:55 Like these are two very different size mussels.
08:58 And that means that they probably batch cooked
09:01 and filled with a scoop or with another,
09:03 or maybe even by hand,
09:05 but pay less attention to the detail.
09:07 But they both look great.
09:07 One thing is I love mussels.
09:08 I eat mussels all the time.
09:09 Now I want to try them.
09:10 I'm gonna start with letter A.
09:12 I'm gonna try a big one.
09:13 I'm gonna try a little one to see the comparison.
09:15 So let's start with the little one.
09:18 Super cute.
09:19 So good.
09:22 So much flavor.
09:23 You get a little bit of irony,
09:24 like a little like you're eating something
09:25 that's rich in iron because they have their,
09:27 all their organs inside of them still.
09:29 They're like super tender,
09:30 which is great because they handled
09:31 the cooking process really well.
09:32 Like these are relatively plump.
09:35 The liquor comes through.
09:37 So I'm not just getting like a nice oily mouth feel.
09:40 It's actually quite juicy, which is surprising.
09:42 Anyway, I'm gonna move on to these guys.
09:45 But these have that nice little smoky note.
09:47 Much smaller even across the board.
09:49 More oil coating, like it's glistening.
09:51 This has been cooked longer because of the smoke.
09:56 It'll cook the liver, like the tamale, too long.
10:00 There's actually something in here.
10:02 Interesting.
10:03 They're not cleaned.
10:04 They have their beards on them still.
10:06 When they take the meat out of the shell,
10:08 they're doing it quickly.
10:09 And they're leaving a little beard attached.
10:10 It's the part that attaches to where they are raised.
10:13 The liver has a bit of a granular aftertaste.
10:17 So I'm tasting the smoke, which is really nice.
10:20 The oil is luscious and gorgeous.
10:22 A's got like a juicier, plumper sort of note.
10:26 And the liquor that's coming out of it
10:27 is actually really pleasant.
10:28 It's adding to the oceanic flavor.
10:30 This feels more like I'm eating kind of like
10:32 fresh mussels in a sense.
10:33 I'm like, ooh, tastes good.
10:35 It's refreshing.
10:36 The smell feels very nice.
10:37 The smoke is nice on B.
10:39 B is more expensive than my, is my guess.
10:42 The perceived value for me is that it's gonna be
10:44 a more premium product because of the smoking
10:46 and the extra steps.
10:47 This doesn't surprise me at all.
10:51 But I also love this because this is a great introduction
10:54 to eating tin mussels.
10:55 This is cost effective, friendly to your pocketbook,
10:59 and is delicious.
11:00 Premium, correct as can for a holiday or a party.
11:03 I'm happy to hear that these are a very accessible way
11:05 to get tin fish into your life 'cause this is delicious.
11:09 This is definitely octopus.
11:12 A and B look almost identical.
11:15 The can shape is the same.
11:17 How they're cut in the can, the same.
11:19 The clearness of the oil, the same almost.
11:22 So this is gonna be the hardest one to discern.
11:26 These are very clean cuts.
11:27 So whoever was cutting this one was like,
11:29 choo, choo, choo, like they know this product.
11:32 They know the species very well.
11:33 This one has a little bit of a muddier tone or visual
11:36 when it comes to the oil, which may mean that
11:39 it started cooking to the point where the membrane
11:42 on the side of the octopus started like maybe
11:43 breaking down a little bit more instead of mixing in
11:45 with the oil and creating a little bit of residue
11:47 in the bottom of the can.
11:49 But these are ridiculously similar.
11:50 Very neutral.
11:53 When you cook octopus in its own juices,
11:55 they may not have like cleaned the octopus as well.
11:57 Like they may not have like wiped off
11:59 the tentacles as well.
12:01 So I'm getting like that dirty river water,
12:03 like it's got a bit of muddiness.
12:05 This one, almost no scent at all.
12:09 All right, we are starting with column A,
12:12 the gold can of octopus.
12:13 I'm just gonna get it all on this plate.
12:16 I see some coloring from the coloring of the outside
12:19 of the actual skin itself.
12:21 Looks pretty good actually.
12:23 And then can B.
12:26 Interesting, interesting.
12:28 They're almost exactly the same.
12:30 The color on this one is a little bit more of a blush,
12:32 which is nice.
12:33 It's a bit of a cleaner color.
12:34 And A, it's a little bit muddier,
12:36 a little bit cloudier with the liquid
12:38 that has come off of the octopus,
12:39 which could also mean that the can has aged a little bit,
12:42 that it's been sitting for a while.
12:43 I'd have to check the age and stage of this can
12:45 'cause if it's a bit older,
12:47 it means that it's spent some time with itself
12:49 and has changed and evolved.
12:51 Versus this one, this has probably been canned
12:54 very recently.
12:55 A lot of tin fish ages really, really well
12:57 and actually increases in deliciousness,
12:58 moisture, texture over time.
13:00 They're so similar that I think the only thing
13:02 that's going to be able to differentiate these two
13:04 is how they taste.
13:06 Okay, so we're gonna start with A.
13:07 I think I'm gonna go with the larger piece first
13:09 and then maybe try the tentacle.
13:11 Slimy.
13:14 And very salty.
13:19 Out of all the tins I've had today,
13:21 this one is the most seasoned.
13:22 Octopus has natural oceanic salinity quality of its own
13:26 and it is so porous and has so much moisture content in it
13:29 that it holds on to more liquid.
13:30 Weirdly almost tastes like there's a bit of a soy sauce
13:33 moment happening.
13:34 It tastes aged.
13:36 It's very tender with a bit of chew,
13:39 which is to be expected.
13:40 I think I'm just gonna go right to this one
13:41 'cause I'm hoping for this to be super bright.
13:43 The smell is a little bit stronger, more aroma.
13:47 It has that soy sauce flavor as well.
13:51 It's like a salinity.
13:52 There's not soy sauce in these, I know that.
13:54 But it has that umami funk a little bit.
13:57 Also salty, not as salty as this one.
13:59 Could be the exact same recipe.
14:00 One processing plant or cannery
14:02 will can for two different people
14:04 and make the same product.
14:05 They just have different packages on them.
14:06 That's hard to tell.
14:07 But I'm gonna eat this little guy here,
14:09 see what happens.
14:10 Doesn't slurp very well.
14:16 It's softer.
14:17 The oil is nicer in this, the neutral oil.
14:19 This is letting the flavor of the octopus
14:21 really come through.
14:22 It feels sort of like chicken.
14:24 [dramatic music]
14:26 This feels more high quality,
14:28 but it could just be the timing.
14:29 I think B is gonna be a bit more expensive.
14:31 They're so similar, it's ridiculous.
14:33 You gotta be kidding me.
14:38 [laughing]
14:40 443 an ounce versus 112.
14:44 What this is telling me though is that
14:46 they make more of this,
14:47 they're more experienced with it,
14:48 but they're charging less for whatever reason.
14:51 It could be the brand that separates it apart.
14:52 You know, this could be where the packaging
14:54 that we don't see here sort of steps in
14:56 and you're paying for the packaging.
14:57 I'm thinking though, like maybe because
14:59 it has been aged, that the value is increasing over time.
15:02 They release them over a later period of time.
15:04 So they're aging them for flavor for the consumer.
15:07 Or they wanna do a seasonal release or something like that
15:09 so they're only launching small batches at a time.
15:12 It's probably a small batch.
15:13 These look like sardines to me.
15:17 Sardines have like hit the market
15:19 and have become so like sexy for consumers
15:22 in the last couple of years.
15:23 And they are harvested and caught, cut,
15:25 cooked, canned, processed daily.
15:27 This is like a very quick turnaround species.
15:29 It doesn't get brined for very long.
15:31 It doesn't get smoked for very long.
15:32 It comes in the front door
15:34 and is processed and canned right away.
15:36 So it's canned at the peak of its freshness,
15:39 which I think is very unique to sardines.
15:41 And maybe that's why people like them a lot.
15:43 It's more like a fresh fish in a can,
15:45 for lack of a better word.
15:46 I'm observing a few different things here.
15:48 Number one, the shape of the can.
15:50 This is a round can.
15:51 This is a rectangular can.
15:53 The shape of the can impacts
15:55 the nutritional value of the product
15:57 and the flavor and quality and integrity
15:59 of texture of the species.
16:01 To cook the can, it goes through TDT,
16:03 which is the thermal death time,
16:04 which kills like all the [beep] bacteria.
16:06 And then it has the heat penetration.
16:08 So how fast does the heat penetrate inside of the can
16:12 to get to that safe temperature?
16:14 So a thinner, more round can like this
16:16 soon take less time for the heat to get inside.
16:19 This can, a bit taller, a bit chunkier,
16:21 a little bit fatter,
16:22 it's gonna take longer for that heat penetration
16:24 to get into the middle.
16:25 As in, you're losing some of the nutritional qualities
16:27 and it's also gonna have to cook longer.
16:29 So the integrity of the species itself
16:31 will also maybe be reduced a little bit.
16:33 This looks like they have no skin on,
16:35 which to me, I'm going, why would they do that?
16:37 That is so much extra work, labor, dollars.
16:41 This one, it's dark, it's rich.
16:43 The oils are like robust.
16:45 The smells is great.
16:46 No head on either.
16:47 The skin is on.
16:48 And I'm gonna actually guess looking at A,
16:50 that they may have taken the bones out of this one as well.
16:53 This one also looks like there is some additional cooking
16:56 as in maybe a grill mark or a sear or something like that,
17:00 which I can't really tell yet.
17:02 These sardines are nicely packed in a row.
17:05 They're sort of consistent in design.
17:07 They've been laid in thoughtfully.
17:08 It feels more that it's a handcrafted can.
17:10 Someone was like, hoop, hoop.
17:12 All these little Nona's like packing them together.
17:13 This one is likely definitely packed by hand as well,
17:16 but it was packed more roughly.
17:17 Like they're like, let's get these fish in,
17:19 let's make sure they fit as long as their size is good.
17:21 That's fine.
17:22 Interesting, they filleted these.
17:24 So these are all single fillets,
17:25 which is, this is saying to me machine cut
17:28 because they're cut kind of sloppily.
17:31 Oh, I haven't seen this in a while.
17:34 They added in a layer of parchment.
17:36 You're sort of keeping that moisture retained inside.
17:39 So then you have the other fillets underneath
17:41 that are face up.
17:42 And then I'm gonna do the oil
17:43 because I wanna see the oil.
17:45 B, this nice little rectangular can going in.
17:48 These are gorgeous.
17:49 They're giant, they're shiny.
17:52 Three big whole sardines versus maybe four
17:55 or five cut in half.
17:57 I'm looking at these two going very pale in color.
18:00 The aroma very mild, neutral, neutral reaction.
18:04 This one, on the other hand, beautiful, gorgeous,
18:07 shiny silver skin, a few little peaks of like the silver
18:10 like sort of flashing on the back.
18:12 The marks aren't from grilling them.
18:13 They were from the racks inside of the cooker
18:15 in the steamer before they go into can.
18:17 These have been steamed and cooked first
18:19 and then can, so cooked twice, very normal procedure.
18:21 But these are beautiful.
18:22 The spines are in, the fish are really thick and plump.
18:26 The fillets look really nice.
18:27 When you chew it, it kind of sticks
18:29 in between your teeth a little bit.
18:30 Maybe that's not a really romantic way to describe it,
18:32 but that's what I'm experiencing.
18:33 Which means it's dryish, mild, low seasoning,
18:37 not a lot of salt at all.
18:38 But I'm not getting a big, bold sardine flavor.
18:40 The bones are out.
18:41 A machine definitely did that.
18:43 And also skinned these guys as well.
18:45 It's cooked till it became a little dull.
18:47 So I'm gonna flip over to this guy.
18:48 This feels valuable looking at it.
18:50 Like this is fish in a can.
18:52 This has been caught from the sea, caught fresh.
18:54 So good.
18:57 This tastes like the sea.
18:59 The oil is so rich.
19:00 It's a really nice fatty mouthfeel.
19:03 Umami level, very high.
19:04 I know some of the ladies that do the canning process,
19:06 the cleaning, they are really good at scaling a fish.
19:09 This one feels like a bit of a rush job.
19:12 Less attention to detail means less costly
19:15 and labor and production.
19:16 So yes, this could definitely be a lower valued sardine
19:19 in the can based on how it's been set up,
19:21 assembled and cleaned.
19:22 I think B is more expensive because of the hand cut,
19:27 the hand packing.
19:28 More made by craft by these Nona's.
19:31 This one feels more machine cut, but I could be wrong.
19:34 No way.
19:39 I'm a little bit aghast actually.
19:41 A is actually a little bit more expensive
19:44 and by a little bit, I mean a lot a bit more expensive
19:46 than this one.
19:48 And why I think that is, is because of how much labor
19:50 has gone into the can for processing.
19:53 These have barely been touched.
19:54 This has been cleaned, gutted, brined, portioned, skinned,
19:59 bones are taken out, the side bones are taken out.
20:02 I'm already exhausted talking about how much labor
20:03 went into this can.
20:05 That being said, I like this one.
20:07 There's been like this thing about tin fish
20:09 and tin food in general for a long time
20:12 that it is lower quality, not as delicious,
20:14 not as nutritious, not as interesting.
20:16 And I completely disagree with that.
20:18 My takeaway is that there is so much variety in tin fish,
20:22 whether it comes from the species, the sourcing,
20:24 the sauces, the vinaigrettes, the toppings, the packaging.
20:27 All of these three things I think are showing me
20:30 and others I hope that tin fish is a way for you
20:32 to sort of explore new opportunities in the kitchen,
20:35 at home and with friends.
20:37 I think it's a no brainer personally.
20:39 (upbeat music)