The Tinned Fish Alton Brown Keeps Stocked At All Times

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Tinned fish has seen a major comeback from the stinky, fishy reputation it suffered in the past. And prominent chefs are among their biggest proponents. In a video collaboration with Garden & Gun, Alton Brown takes us on a personal tour of his kitchen, wherein he recounts the "Ingredients in my kitchen that I simply cannot live without." While over half of the items were cooking tools, the edible ingredient Brown crowns a "secret weapon from a culinary standpoint" is tinned anchovies. Brown tells viewers that "90% of foods I cook in my kitchen have at least a little bit of anchovies in them" because they're both "a salt bomb and an umami bomb."

His favorite tinned anchovy brand is Fishwife, a new female-founded tinned fish company with laudable eco-friendly sourcing and high-quality nutrition. The company gained notoriety after appearing on Shark Tank, and has since become one of our favorite canned fish brands. We tasted and ranked every Fishwife tinned seafood flavor, agreeing with Alton Brown's endorsement of Fishwife's Cantabrian anchovies in extra virgin olive oil. 

These plump, juicy filets had briny wine-like notes, while the olive oil tempers the salt with earthiness. These anchovies are ready to use right out of the can, unlike some salt-packed varieties that contain bones and need a good rinse to taste anything but salt. While these tiny filets may not be main-course material like canned salmon or trout, you'd be surprised at how many uses you can get out of a single can of oil-packed anchovies.

Since Alton Brown says that anchovies are part of nearly every recipe he cooks at home, you're probably wondering just how he's able to incorporate them into dishes. Their tiny size and soft flesh all but melt into cooked recipes or disperse seamlessly into blended sauces and dressings. The most famous anchovy recipe is a Caesar salad, but they're good for more than just Caesar salad dressing. In fact, you can add a single filet to most oil-based salad dressings like vinaigrettes for an easy flavor upgrade. For an even easier application, you can use whole filets as a garnish for salads, pizza, and breakfast toast. They'd bring an umami explosion to a classic avocado toast with a poached egg. You could also smash them into a compound butter to spread over grilled ciabatta bread, garlic bread, or a fancy cut of steak.

Anchovies will also make the tastiest foundation for any simmering sauce, stew, or soup you plan on cooking. Fry them in olive oil with garlic before adding crushed tomatoes for your next homemade pomodoro sauce or pasta putanesca. Add a filet to Italian or Puerto Rican sofrito or a Cajun mirepoix trinity for the most flavorful start to gumbos, fish stews, and paella. You can also use them as a swap for other tinned fish, like sardines, to layer over a flaky French onion tart recipe. Use the salty, earthy anchovy-infused packing oil to season tuna salad, egg salad, or potato salad.