Tight and silky meat, total absence of thorns, the right point of salt, maximum fleshiness and an oil that accompanies but does not mask: if this is what you ask of some anchovies, those of Conservas Emilia can be your winning horse. Fish salting began as a simple and necessary preservation technique that, with time and the improvement of processes – controlled times and temperatures, among many other things – has become an exquisite snack (which requires a lot of work, as we will see below).
This Santoñesa company, born at the end of the 80s as a small family project -with the Emilia Fuentes Ruíz who gives its name to the front-, won the title of best anchovy in the blind tasting-contest of 2019, organized by the Anchovy Brotherhood of Cantabria (they had already won it previously in the years 1999 and 2000). With toasted bread, with smoked butter, in tomato salad or buds, alone or with olives and potatoes in the aperitif: its anchovies triumph in every possible way, thanks to its manual preparation process and a very good raw material.
The elaboration of these marine delicacies begins with the artisanal fishing of bocarte, anchovy or anchovy during the months of April, May and June. Once disembarked, they are passed to containers with ice water and salt for a few hours, until they bleed completely. Then they are removed head and gut and screened by size, and then placed in barrels forming crowns, alternating a layer of salt and another of anchovies until filling the container, with a last layer of salt (all this process is done the same day in which the fish arrives). From here they are left to cure at a low and controlled temperature -so that the fish does not deteriorate-, a process in which the anchovies lose water and fat by osmosis, and incorporating salt into their meat.
A manual and laborious workConservas Emilia
The anchovies of Serie Oro are made with the Cantabrian spring fishing, -because it is when they have a higher fat content, which provides the juiciest bite-, "they have a maturation in salting of at least one year they are made in more limited productions with maximum care and care", says Daisy Noguera, commercial director of the company. The Silver Series are also from the Cantabrian Sea and first, they may be spring or not -sometimes they are bought a little later, towards the summer-, they have less time of maturation in salting -generally between six and nine months- and a final salt content a little higher.
After the necessary time, the anchovies are removed from the tanks, washed scrupulously to remove excess salt and worked by hand one by one, removing the skin, the spine and trimming the thorns of the chest area with scissors, until obtaining completely clean fillets; From here, also by hand, they are packed in jars, cans or tambourines. This is the time to stop and think about all the times we have found anchovies to be expensive: after all this work, a jar of 100 grams of fillets from the Gold Series costs 9.45 euros, one from the Silver Series 7.95).
One by oneAnchovies Emilia
Now it's time to fill them with what is known as "governing liquid", in this case special low-acid olive oil for preserves. "For us, oil is a mere liquid coating, necessary to preserve our products without altering their flavor," says Nogueira. "When introducing an anchovy, bonito, relanzón or any of our products in the mouth, we precisely want you to taste the product that we have selected so carefully, and not that the oil predominates, as is the case with extra virgin".
Does that mean that oil is not good or should it be thrown away? No joke: both the anchovies and the bonito "can be used as a base to dress a salad or for the preparation of sauces to accompany a rich pasta dish", point out from Conservas Emilia. For our part, we encourage you to use them to enrich any mayonnaise that you are going to use later with these products: a Murcian Russian salad, stuffed eggs or a tuna cake will multiply its flavor with this trick. If all this seems very good to you but what you want is to start eating, let's see what use we can give to each of the presentations and categories. "From one format to another of anchovy, what varies is the size of the fillet, but the quality does not: you can open an Octavillo of the Gold Series and it will be as good as a tambourine," warns Nogueira. From here, the Serie Oro anchovies are the lowest in salt, and are ideal to taste alone (for example in an aperitif accompanied by a white wine, cava or kombucha). In all cases it is important to remove them from the fridge an hour before so that they are tempered and their flavor is enhanced.
The silver series are ideal to include as an ingredient in salads, pizzas, canapés, toasts or sandwiches, as quality anchovy for day to day. The pieces are the fillets that are broken during the elaboration process, of irregular size and cheaper, perfect for hot dishes such as pasta or stews -in Italy anchovies are used as a flavor enhancer, and this format is ideal for this use- or others in which we are going to chop the anchovy, such as butters, mayonnaise or vinaigrettes.
With anchovies and tomato salad, to eat a cuboMònica Escudero
As we can not live only on anchovies, the marine range of Conservas Emilia offers many other possibilities, ranging from anchovies in vinegar to bonito in all its cuts and formats -from belly to crumbs-, a tasty octopus cooked in its juice or pâté with all the recognizable ingredients and dishes ready to eat, that were born out of necessity during the 2005 anchovy ban (and stayed in their own right).
My favorite is surely the most humble, the relanzón or marlin, a small fish that is caught in the Bay of Biscay during the autumn. "Its shape is elongated and beaked, intense silver color and we only use small specimens to package well with olive oil, and more recently we also make them with vinegar, garlic and parsley," says Nogueira (this last format in a sandwich with chopped spring onion and parsley, or in a tomato salad has given me more joy lately than the replenishment in Filmin of 'Doctor in Alaska').
Relanzones, mon amourConservas Emilia
In the Product of the Month section we tell the story of groceries that excite us for their quality, for their taste and for the talent of the people who make them. No producer has given us money, jewelry or gift vouchers from Mercadona for the elaboration of these items.
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