Tin to Table

Anna Hezel is a food writer and former editor at TASTE, the digital magazine that did more than almost anything else to make careful, specific, self-aware American food writing a real genre. That background is legible on every page of Tin to Table. The book knows exactly what its reader has eaten, what they have been too embarrassed to admit they haven’t tried, and what level of instruction will be useful without being condescending. It is the best American introduction to tinned fish cooking because it was written by someone who understood the specific American relationship to the category: vaguely curious, a little suspicious, short on pantry vocabulary, not about to fly to San Sebastián.

The organization is the key decision. Where van Olphen organizes by recipe type, Hezel organizes by tin: sardines, anchovies, tuna, mussels, smoked trout, crab, octopus. Each section opens with a short guide to what to buy, what to look for on the label, and how the fish behaves in a kitchen. Then recipes, organized from simplest (here is what to put on the tin with a cracker) to more involved (here is how to turn these sardines into a composed salad that looks like you did something). The format works because most American readers approach a new tin as an object first — what is this, why does it cost twelve dollars, what do I do with it — and Hezel answers those questions before asking them to cook anything.

The recipes are more practical than van Olphen’s and more forgiving than you might expect from someone with her editorial background. A smoked mackerel recipe builds from a quick romesco, a handful of fried capers, and a piece of good bread. A sardine toast involves nothing more complicated than a sharp knife and a tin of good fish. The point throughout is that tinned fish rewards attention more than technique: buy a better tin, taste it plainly first, dress it with acid and something crunchy, and you will eat extremely well without having cooked in any serious sense. That argument is made through accumulation rather than polemic, which is the right choice for an audience that needs to be shown rather than convinced.

The honest critique is that Tin to Table is a guide more than it is an argument. Van Olphen’s book has a thesis: tinned fish is the future of sustainable eating and it is delicious and these are the same point. Hezel’s book is quieter about its position. It will teach you what to do with a tin of Ortiz anchovies, but it won’t tell you why the category matters in the same insistent way. For some readers that restraint is a feature — you came for recipes, not a manifesto, and the recipes are here and they work. For readers who want to understand the tradition behind the tin, not just the techniques, van Olphen first and Hezel second is the right order.

The subtitle — Fancy, Snacky Recipes for Tin-thusiasts and A-fish-ionados — is the book’s one real misstep, a piece of marketing wordplay that undersells what is actually a careful and intelligent cookbook. Do not let it put you off. The book inside is better than the label on the cover, which is, as it happens, exactly the argument the book makes about tinned fish.