Tinned fish boards have become a delicious twist on charcuterie spreads and traditional entrees. As an appetizer, these vibrant platters showcase a variety of flavorful canned seafood, all beautifully arranged alongside an array of accompaniments like crusty bread, pickles, olives, and artisanal cheeses. Cans of sardines, mackeral, anchovies, herring, octopus, mussels, smoked oysters, and squid joined ubiquitous tuna as convenient, delicious, nutrient-packed, shelf-stable, pantry staples. While long commonplace in Europe, tinned fish gained momentum in the U.S. during the pandemic. Over $2.7 billion in sales were delivered last year!    

WHERE TO GET YOUR TINNED FISH
Not only do tinned fish provide a unique culinary experience, but they also bring a touch of sustainability to the table, as canned fish often boasts a lower carbon footprint than other protein sources.
Pomme Cider Shop and Tap Room, located steps away from Sonoma’s historic Plaza, recently posted a photo of colorful little cans on its Instagram account, asking: “Have you checked out our tinned fish wall?  Over sixty different tinned fish have come through the shop and we’re just getting started. Hang out, crack a tin, stock up for home.”
Pomme Cider, home to eighteen rotating taps and over one hundred ciders, is not alone in its love affair with the eye-catching cans. Also known as conservas, the industry is one of care and cultural tradition. Catch is processed promptly, ensuring straight-out-of-the sea flavor with no taint of  “fishy.”
Just off Healdsburg’s central plaza, Ciao Bruto! opened two years ago as a wine shop dedicated to Italy, although you will also find a curated selection of coveted French Champagnes among the hundreds of bottles carried.  Spotlighted are the organic and biodynamic wines of Italy’s Piedmont region. Special attention is paid to winemakers who farm their own grapes and produce in small quantities.
Ciao Bruto! is also a small grocery of high-end Italian food products. Among the pastas, olive oils, cheeses, and cured meats are some forty varieties of tinned fish, one proudly noting on its tin that the company has been in the business since 1896.
While Ciao Bruto! does not offer tastings, its next- door neighbor Idlewild Wines, of which Ciao Bruto! is an offshoot, does. Idlewild also focuses on Piedmontese  varieties – Nobbalio, Dolcetto, Freisa and Arneis – albeit from grapes grown in the hills of Mendocino County.
At The Punchdown Natural Wine + Bottle Shop (located at The Barlow in Sebatopol), tinned fish has become a celebrated staple, perfectly paired with their curated selection of natural wines. Each can offers a delightful burst of flavor making them an ideal choice for a casual snack or an elegant “seacuterie” board. The shop emphasizes sustainable sourcing, ensuring that each bite not only tastes great but also supports responsible fishing practices.
With their ease of preparation and the ability to cater to diverse tastes, tinned fish boards are sure to impress guests, sparking conversation and celebration at any gathering. Whether you’re hosting a cozy get-together or a lively festive feast, these boards are the perfect way to elevate your holiday spread.

Where to enjoy Conservas 

The Shuckery, a seafood restaurant and oyster bar in downtown Petaluma’s historic Hotel Petaluma, lists a menu of fourteen different conservas. Plated with pickled vegetables and toasted baquette, tins come from Portugal, Spain, Alaska, Washington state, and Canada processors.

Bravas Bar de Tapas in Healdsburg includes eleven tinned tapas on its menu. Included are such unusual taste-bud tempters as Octopus en Salsa de Ajo, Spiced Calamari in Ragout, and Grilled Squid in Ink.

At the northern end of the Napa Valley, in a charming late 19th-century built Calistoga cottage and its gardens, Lola Wines invites a tasting of its wines with the added on pairing of conservas unique to the winery, those of Cortez Conservas. Lola’s proprietor and winemaker Seth Cripe is a founding member of family-owned Cortez Conservas, the first producer of Bottarga and Mojama conservas in the United States. Fish are wild caught in the pristine waters off Amelia Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
In a process followed since Phoenician times, mullet roe is pressed, salt-cured and sun dried to create Bottarga. A similar process creates Mojama from blackfin tuna. With a texture similar to a semi-hard cheese and considered a delicacy, they are most frequently grated as a recipe’s finishing touch.
Lola, however, presents the conservas in their purist form, atop a slice of baquette smeared with premium butter.

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Holiday Seacuterie Board

Roll back the tops of two to four cans of tinned fish, number depending on the size of your gathering, and place them as the stars of the board. Surround them with accoutrements, aiming for a balance of sweet and salty flavors and soft and crunchy textures.  
Include little piles of fruits, perhaps grapes and apple slices, and such colorful vegetables as carrot sticks, radishes, olives, pickled red onion. Unlike a charcuterie board, in which cheeses share the show with processed meats, offer but one soft and one semi-hard.
Crackers and lightly toasted slices of baquette serve as seafood delivery vehicles while providing a bit of crunch, as do the interior small leaves of Little Gem lettuce.
When all is arranged, as a finishing, festive touch, surround the entire board in a wreath of rosemary clippings.