With the closing of the Prospect Harbor plant, we may have lost the last sardine cannery in America but Mainers haven’t lost their memories of sardines or their taste for them. The Maine State Museum celebrated sardine history a few weeks ago, and there was a Sardine Festival in Belfast with poetry and song. Even though more sardines probably have been consumed straight from the can for lunches and snacks than any other way, I wondered how else folks liked eating them. Several of you obliged with recipes and ideas.
Jane Basely loaned me a charming little sardine cookbook, “Fifty Eight Ways to Serve Sardines Hot and Cold”, produced in Lubec by the Seaboard Packing Company in 1947 (my birth year).
Jane wrote, “I grew up in Lubec and all our parents and grandparents worked in the factories. It was a different era then and one I will always cherish. Small towns had all that anyone needed, from movie theatres to clothing stores and local newspapers, etc.” She recalled “the whistle blowing certain numbers when the fish had arrived or when it was time for the packers to return to work.”
From creamed sardines in a spinach ring to hot sardine mousse, the booklet is full, I’ll bet, of recipes hardly anyone ever tried though it is beautifully laid out with photographs of the sardines dishes.
JoAnn Fuerst in Mount Desert, a former colleague of mine at Mystic Seaport back in the day who now runs Wikhegan antiquarian books, sent a Maine Sardine Industry cookbook called, “Uses and Preparation of Maine Sardines, America’s All-round Seafood.” The book was published in 1952 (the year my kid sister was born).
Sardines were touted as nutritious and delicious in “rugged he-man specials” as well as “dainty feminine canapes.” They recommended sardines in tossed salad, potato salad, spaghetti sauce, rarebit, and sardine pizza, in case you can’t convince anyone to go for anchovies.
Sharon Frost in Calais said she has used recipes for Fish a La Reine and Creamed Sardines that she collected when she was “a teenager and sardines were plentiful and cheap.” An Eddington reader sent along a sardine casserole she found in “Maine Coastal Cooking.” And Miriam Hart in Hampden shared Port Clyde Sardine Sandwiches which mixes sardines with hardboiled egg and avocado with a little lemon juice, salt and pepper. The sandwiches are assembled with lettuce and cheese. Perfectly lovely.
Bruce Wallace in Cherryfield sent along an astounding combination. Bruce reported that his friend and brother-in-law Myron Jones introduced him to sardine and blue cheese sandwiches, which he described as a perfect marriage.
“You had to like the two ingredients to start with,” he wrote, “but when you mixed them the taste was — is! — divine!!” He has collected nothing but positive comments on the combination. Easy enough to try.
An uncomplicated supper dish of sardines, drained, flaked, added to cream sauce and served on toast or layered with potatoes seem like the easiest of the hot supper type recipes. Sometimes the recipes call for cheese, too.
Miriam’s recipe, which she labeled as “original,” I think might appeal to many of you. It is simple and since we are still in picnic season, here is the recipe. Alas, we no longer have Port Clyde sardines to work with.
Miriam Hart’s Port Clyde Sardine Sandwiches
Makes four sandwiches
1 can sardines drained
2 hardboiled eggs
1 ripe avocado
1 or 2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 or 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
Salt to taste
4 slices thinly sliced cheddar cheese
8 slices whole wheat bread
Romaine lettuce
Combine sardines, eggs, avocado, lemon juice, yogurt and salt. Lay the cheddar slices on four slices of bread; spread the sardine mix, then add the lettuce, and finally four more slices of bread.
