One look in the mirror told me I needed to visit the old neighborhood barber shop. My barber shop is the sort of place where the barber may decide to cut your hair wildly close. It is also the sort of place where people discuss how often the cops visit their friends, and what the pit bulls did, and “that’s life in a trailer,” followed by “but they’re good people.”
Since this is the routine of the barber shop, I find it quite boring. While waiting for my turn in the chair, my thoughts started drifting and eventually I asked myself “how can I make the world a better place?” I decided that what the world really needs is a Kippered Snacks Taste Test.
Remarkably, a search of Google for “kipper snacks taste test” and “kippered snacks taste test” did not result in any taste tests. Requests for recipes, yes; and discussions about recipes, but no head-to-head comparisons between several kippered snacks products. Wow! With this post I am going break ground on original research!
This post describes the results of a taste test of canned, lightly smoked, herring fillets. The products tested are “King Oscar Lightly Smoked Kipper Snacks” ($2.29 for one tin weighing 3.25 oz / 92g), “Brunswick Seafood Snacks” ($1.59 for one tin weighing 3.53 oz / 100g), and “Crown Prince Kipper Snacks” ($1.99 for one tin weighing 3.25 oz / 92g).
The Crown Prince tin is packed with “wild caught” herring. According to the Crown Prince Web site, “Crown Prince only sources kipper snacks that are naturally smoked over hardwood chips.” The tin’s packaging says the ingredients are “smoked fillets of kippered herring, salt.”
The Brunswick tin is probably packed with wild caught herring, too, but I’m guessing. I can’t imagine anyone farming herring. But I digress. Brunswick’s Web site says “The Kippered flavor of Seafood Snacks is processed using a liquid smoke flavoring that is derived from an extract of hickory smoke.” The tin’s packaging says the ingredients are “herring fillets, water, salt, natural smoke flavoring, sodium hexametaphosphate.”
According to the King Oscar Web site, their product’s tin contains “traditionally smoked (wild-caught) herring.” The tin’s packaging says the ingredients are “naturally smoked herring fillets, water, salt, sodium hexametaphosphate.”
All of the tins are labeled “product of Canada.” The Brunswick and King Oscar tins are also marked “Bumblebee Foods, LLC.”
For the taste test I assembled a crack team of tinned fish experts from the Pacific Northwest. The team consisted of several people and one cat.
vox populi says:
The taste test winner was Crown Prince. The herring had a pleasant smoky aftertaste and mellow flavor. It did not taste salty. The herring was not particularly firm, but was not mushy, either.
After Crown Prince, the next most favorite tin was Brunswick. The herring in the Brunswick tin had no smoke flavor, but did taste very salty. The herring in this tin was very firm and held together.
Bringing up the rear of the taste test was the tin of King Oscar herring. The testers said the King Oscar herring was the same as the Brunswick herring, except the King Oscar herring was less salty. The King Oscar herring was very similar to the herring in the Brunswick tin in that it, too, was very firm.
Epilogue
The cat acted as our primitive control and local fish expert. Her take on the matter? She merely licked the fish and soon got bored. We interpreted that to mean that either the cat was full or expressed no preference.
