Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Cook's Guide entry for Sardines and Pilchards along with all the Sardines and Pilchards containing recipes presented on this site, with 19 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the Sardines and Pilchards recipes added to this site.

These recipes, all contain Sardines and Pilchards as a major wild food ingredient.



Sardine — Sardines (also known as Pilchards) are several types of small, oily, shoaling fish related to herring in the family Clupeidae. The terms sardine and pilchard are not precise, and what is meant depends on the region. The United Kingdom's Sea Fish Industry Authority, for example, classifies sardines as young pilchards. One criterion suggests fish shorter in length than 15cm are sardines, and larger ones pilchards. The exact species defined as sardines/pilchards vary and as many as 21 species may be classified as such.

The 'true sardine' is the European pilchard, Sardina pilchardus, but members of the Genera Dussumieria, Escualosa, Sardinella and Sardinops are also classed as sardines.

Sardines are commercially fished for a variety of uses: for bait; for immediate consumption; for drying, salting, or smoking; and for reduction into fish meal or oil. The chief use of sardines is for human consumption, but fish meal is used as animal feed, while sardine oil has many uses, including the manufacture of paint, varnish and linoleum.

Sardines are small epipelagic fish which sometimes migrate along the coast in large schools. They are an important forage fish for larger forms of marine life. The European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) is a species of ray-finned fish in the monotypic genus Sardina. Littoral species. Forms schools, usually at depths of 25 to 55 or even 100m by day, rising to 10 to 35m at night. Feeds mainly on planktonic crustaceans, also on larger organisms. Spawns in batches, in the open sea or near the coast, producing 50 000-60 000 eggs with a mean diameter of 1.5mm.

Sardines are often canned, but they are also sold fresh, filleted (pilchards), pickled and smoked. Typically the fresh fish are grilled and barbecued but are also fried and griddled. Pilchard fishing and processing became a thriving industry in Cornwall from around 1750 to around 1880, after which it went into an almost terminal decline. However, since 2007 the stocks are improved and pilchards from Cornwall are now frequently sold as 'Cornish sardines'.

The term sardine entered the English during the early 15th century, and may come from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, around which sardines were once abundant. Though the name could also be derived from the Latin for sardine, sardis.