Pinhais, located in Portugal, is the only tinned sardines producer that still processes and packages the fish by hand. This women-dominated cannery produces 30,000 tins of sardines daily, which they ship to over 60 countries. Watch the women perform the traditional 12-step canning process they have followed since 1920.
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00:00 The main difference from Pinhaes from the other producers is that we are the only fish
00:06 cannery that still does the traditional method, meaning that we still do everything by hand.
00:12 Every single part of the 12 steps, we still do it as it was done in 1920.
00:18 When all the ladies are really working, we could produce on a good day 25 to 30,000 tins.
00:24 We do sardines with four recipes, one in olive oil, the other one in spiced olive oil with
00:32 tomato and with spiced tomato sauce.
00:43 The first step is Anina Harbor with Emilia, where we choose the best fish.
00:47 This boat just arrived and we are going to see the fish. The boats leave at midnight.
00:55 They will fish the fish. In the morning we buy it to go to the factory.
01:01 Look, it's separating. The sardine is very good, it's alive, but it's short.
01:09 We don't buy it because we don't like the size. That's why the sardine is good.
01:16 We only want it this big. We buy it, but it's not here, it's down there in the sink.
01:24 We need to have the right size of fish, but also a fish that is fresh.
01:29 And we really should guarantee that the fishermen are taken care of and it will be bought at
01:34 a fair price for them to keep on fishing, to make it sustainable throughout the years
01:39 and make sure that this industry lives on.
01:43 There was no fish today coming straight from the Azores, but fortunately Portugal has an
01:49 amazing coast for the fresh sardines. So we got them a little bit further south and we
01:55 got 6.2 tons of fish and they are now being placed in brine. Brine is water and salt.
02:02 So the main purpose of the brine is also to mimic what the environment of the sardines
02:06 is at the sea. So the level of salt and the water is just as balanced as if you were swimming
02:12 out in the ocean. And they stay here from 20 to 45 minutes to make the flesh of the
02:18 fish tighter for then the next step that is the cutting of the fish.
02:23 Here in the factory we are approximately 80 people. These 80 people, they all do every
02:29 single step of the process.
02:32 What the ladies do here, they pick up the sardine and one movement of the wrist, they
02:38 take the entire head and when they pull, they take the entire bowel. We do not want the
02:44 bowel to stay inside the sardine. If you have the bowel, you have the sour taste. This is
02:50 why we have kept the traditional method of doing it by hand, because by hand you can
02:54 take the entire bowel instead of cutting it like that and remaining it inside.
03:00 The fish goes to the gut, comes out of the gut, we cut the head, remove the gut, put it
03:06 in the net and then it goes to the stoves to cook.
03:10 So they are placed like this with the tail up, so to guarantee a proper cooking of the
03:15 entire fish.
03:17 After this, they go into the shower. They are washed over here and you can see the excess
03:25 blood coming out and they go all this way up to the trolley where they will then be
03:33 pushed inside the oven to be cooked.
03:36 The fish preserve industry started just before the First World War. Pinhais is one of the
03:45 three remaining canneries that still exist here in Matosinhos out of the 52 that existed
03:50 in the 50s. The main reason why we have mostly women in the production is because their husbands
03:56 are fishermen. So they go out at sea during the night, they bring the fish into the harbor
04:02 and then they pass it on to the ladies, to the wives and they are here preparing the
04:06 tins.
04:07 This is the cooking, steam cooking. Only water, 110 degrees from 7 to 12 minutes depending
04:16 on the size of the sardines. Today, they are being cooked for 9 minutes and this is your
04:22 perfect lunch right here. Good fish only smells after cooking and I'm sorry you cannot feel
04:28 the smell but the smell is incredible right now. So this stays to cool at least one hour
04:34 and then we move to the canning. Let's follow the sardines.
04:43 This is the canning stage. So the tail is taken off here. Why? Because we need to adapt
04:49 the size of the sardines to the size of the tin and then they fit the puzzle and they
04:54 know exactly how much has to be inside to guarantee the full weight of the tin.
04:58 Today the fish is smaller, I usually make a lot of 5-piece tin but when the fish is big
05:03 I make a 3-piece tin. I really like what I do. We play a lot here, we make friends, we
05:11 play, sometimes we also fish with some other things but everything is fine.
05:15 Para is one of the control points of the several ones that we have throughout the process.
05:21 This is checking if the tin is completely filled, if there's any tail inside or not.
05:27 So today we are only doing sardines in olive oil. One line, one recipe, one day.
05:33 The tins go out into a shower of refined olive oil. We do not use extra virgin because it
05:39 has too much of a flavor and the flavor we want to enhance is the flavor of the fish.
05:44 And then they go inside this machine here where we close the lids.
05:49 We can only produce the sardines from May to November. So we have to produce as much
05:55 as we can at this season because the remaining part that we will be selling will be from this stock.
06:00 So for food safety regulations and for our IFS certification, this is the most important step.
06:08 This is the sterilization. The tins go in and they stay there for over 50 minutes, 1.5 bar
06:16 of pressure, 112 degrees Celsius in order to eliminate any microorganism that is inside the tin.
06:25 This is why we do not use gloves during the process and this is what allows us to have
06:31 the best euphoridates of six years.
06:33 After the sterilization, there's still some humidity on the tins. We have to guarantee
06:39 that they are completely dry so they don't oxidize.
06:42 They also knock a tin on each one to make sure that there's no water inside or there
06:48 was a tin that was not properly filled. By the noise, they know if it's a good tin or not.
06:52 A tin that is going to be made today, it's not going to be sold today or tomorrow.
06:57 It's going to be sold in 90 days. And this is where we age them.
07:01 We store here, by the end of the season, 4 million tins.
07:08 This is the final step, the 12th step. This is the wrapping. Everything here is done by hand.
07:15 This is how we've always done it since 1920 and we do the hand wrapping because it's like
07:21 a Christmas gift. You want to open it, you want to hear the cellophane.
07:26 From what we produce, 95% goes to export markets.
07:31 So as you can see, they are wrapping Nuri. This is the brand that we sell abroad and
07:36 we are now selling in over 60 countries over the world.
07:40 The number one market is actually Austria. It takes about 50% of what we export,
07:46 but then we send to the US, we send to the Philippines, we have sold to Tibet.
07:51 Sardines are a part of our culture. We have so many festivities where the typical product
07:56 to eat is grilled sardine on top of a slice of bread. Other countries that don't have
08:02 that much access to fresh fish, they obviously value this canned fish that we do because
08:07 it's made with really fresh fish. What I love about sardines is that the first bite,
08:11 you still have some texture and then you feel the olive oil or the tomato sauce.
08:16 This is my favorite. You kind of breathe the sea when you're also eating.
08:20 So I think this is why eating a sardine is so great.
08:23 [Music]