While we love boutique cans and jars of tuna imported from Italy, Spain and Portugal, their prohibitive pricing makes them feel like a real splurge. This Pacific albacore tuna is caught and canned often within the span of a day, so its freshness rivals the European quality but at a much lower price point. Unlike supermarket tuna, which can be mealy or soggy, CS Fishery's product is wonderfully dense and flaky—you can tell this is tuna meat. The fresh, mild and meaty fish is packed in olive oil and seasoned with Jacobsen sea salt, made from the same waters from which the fish are caught. This is premium American tuna—with a clear supply chain—at a reasonable price.

Founded in 1920, Pinhais is considered one of the best tinned-fish purveyors in Portugal—and we understand why after tasting their sardines packed in olive oil. Based in Porto, Portugal’s second-largest city and the capital of fish canning, Pinahis starts with sardines caught fresh by local fishermen. They are then hand selected, cut, prepared, washed and vapor cooked before being packed in pure, refined extra-virgin olive oil. Mellow and meaty with a bit of salt, these sardines are great added onto crackers, cheeseboards, salads or enjoyed right from the can.

Line caught around the Azores, a carefully managed group of Portuguese islands in the North Atlantic, Tenorio’s Tuna Fillets in Olive Oil are nothing like the canned tuna you’re used to. Tender and moist, this tuna is cut into large pieces before being packed in buttery extra virgin olive oil. Lightly salted with a briny, clean fish flavor, each tender cut is just as good on its own as it is added to a salad or sandwich. Established in 1880, Tenorio sustainably fishes all of their skipjack tuna and is committed to maintaining a healthy ocean wildlife population.

Even skeptics of tinned fish won’t be able to resist this fish: Caught fresh in the Northeast Atlantic, Jose Gourmet’s cod is prepared simply with only high-quality olive oil and garlic. With a clean, lightly salty cod flavor, buttery from the olive oil, not too fishy and just a hint acidic, this firmly textured fish is by far the mildest we’ve tried. Snack on it plain, eat it with crackers, use it to top our Pour-in-the-Pan-Pizza, mix it into our Greens with Walnuts, Parmesan and Pancetta Vinaigrette, toss it into our Fennel, Tomato and Parsley Salad or add it to our Pasta with Artichokes and Olives.

Though sardines are often overly fishy and salty, we loved the bold but not abrasive flavor of Jose Gourmet’s Sardines in Tomato Sauce, which are well balanced by a slightly sweet, slightly acidic tomato sauce. Caught and packed fresh from the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean, they are a sustainable and quick way to add some extra protein into your meal. Add them to pasta and salads (plus a little of their sauce), or grill or fry them up with a squeeze of lemon or clove of garlic for a delicious briny bite.

While tinned fish isn’t hard to come by, tinned scallops aren’t often found in the grocery store—let alone high-quality ones. So we were excited to taste Ramón Peña’s small scallops packed in a traditional Galician sauce, which our kitchen team described as the “gnocchi of the sea” based on their pillowy and tender texture. They’re caught in the Atlantic off the northwest coast of Spain and packed by hand. With a clean flavor, they’re enveloped in a bold, tomatoey sauce made with wine and spices. Add to salads, soups, pastas or just eat them on their own for complex, clean flavor and incomparable texture.

Also known as “red salmon,” sockeye is much more dense that typical Atlantic salmon, with a richer, deeper salmon flavor. It also has the firmest texture of all Pacific salmon, so it can stand up to use in any dish. We especially love this smoked one, which is sustainably-line caught in the wild waters of Alaska. Packed in thick, coral-red strips, its texture is immaculate—not mushy like other canned fish—and its taste is a blend of the rich fish, a good hit of brine and a sweet, pronounced touch of smoke from a natural wood-smoking process.

Sustainably line-caught in the wild, this salmon is much more deeply flavored that farm-raised Atlantic salmon. Coho is known for its richness and drier texture, which holds up well during the canning process unlike others that go mealy. Plus, it’s much less fishy than other grocery store brands we’ve tried. The taste is delicate—complimented by seasonings like garlic, onion and white pepper that don’t overwhelm the salmon, but rather coax out its natural flavor. A nice kick of salt makes it tasty enough to stand alone atop a cracker, while the succulent chunks of fish can stand up to being incorporated into various dishes as well.

Olasagasti catches their yellowfin tuna in the Cantabrian Sea, the abundant cold waters off the north coast of Spain. Fresh-tasting and lightly salted, this oil-packed tuna is a far cry from your average mealy supermarket canned tuna. These cans include only the prized ventresca, or tuna belly—an extremely moist and flavorful cut that’s tender with just the right amount of fat. In fact, our kitchen team found the texture of this canned tuna one of the best they’ve tried. Try it in our Niçoise-Style Tuna Sandwiches; Spanish-Style Tuna Salad; Deviled Eggs with Tuna, Olives and Capers; or Snap Pea and Radish Salad with Olive Oil Tuna.

The cleaner, Scandinavian answer to sardines, these brisling are exceptional and a great addition to any pantry. They’re sustainably caught, lightly salted and then packed in a pleasant neutral oil—yielding a balanced taste. We found the fish supremely firm and flavorful. A light blend of allspice and cloves offers a layer of aromatic complexity.

The cleaner, Scandinavian answer to sardines, these brisling are exceptional and a great addition to any pantry. They’re sustainably caught, lightly salted and then packed in a pleasant neutral oil—yielding a balanced taste. We found the fish supremely firm and flavorful. A light smoky flavor comes through, but does not overwhelm.

These petite whole sardines (with the heads removed) are just under two inches long, but their small stature doesn’t equal a lack of flavor. Elegant, clean and tasting lightly of the sea, these sardines have no trace of the pungent fishiness and unpleasant unctuousness that store bought versions often have. Their meaty texture is the perfect compliment to the silky richness that the olive oil gives the fish, lightly coating each one and helping to carry their flavor. And as with other whole tinned fish, there are still spines inside. They are easy to scrape out, but are made soft and brittle enough during the normal processing that they are barely noticeable when eaten.

Plump. Meaty. Bright. These cooked whole mussels are the perfect balance between firm enough to hold their shape and tender enough to feel buttery on the palate—not chewy like other inferior brands. Their naturally orange color is intensified from the bold and zingy escabeche sauce, which seems to include a good amount of not-too-smokey Spanish paprika. The flavor of the mussels themselves is lightly briny, with a delicate ocean character, which is rounded out by the marinade’s aromatic kick. Bay leaves add a nice herbal flavor, but what truly sets these mussels apart is the addition of wine. We tried another brand that didn’t have both wine and vinegar in its marinade, just vinegar, and it had no where near the complexity of these. The wine coaxes out the paprika flavors nicely, adding a dash of fruity sweetness along the way.

Caught at their peak each spring in the chilly waters of the Cantabrian sea, the flavor and texture of these fillets might convert even the staunchest anchovy hater. Pleasantly plump and meaty, these have an intensely savory flavor and a nearly buttery quality, both in the smooth richness of their flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture. You’re left with an uncommon, lingering umami and faint taste of the ocean. One of our biggest gripes with store-bought anchovy fillets is the mealy, pasty texture they can often take on, so we were pleased that these have a firm, yet richly succulent character to them. These are also boneless.