Salt-Cured Sardines Recipe

Name: How to Cure Sardines
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 2190 min
Ingredients: 12 Pacific sardines; 1/2 cup fine sea salt

Prep: 30 mins

Cook: 0 mins

Curing Time: 36 hrs

Total: 36 hrs 30 mins

Servings: 4 to 6 servings

Yield: 12 sardines

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Sardines are wonderfully flavorful and nutritious little fish. Curing them with a bit of salt overnight softens their strong flavor and makes them perfect for topping salads, putting on toast or bagels and cream cheese, or serving as an easy, elegant appetizer.

Cured sardines can be kept, covered with oil, for up to a week. As you might guess from looking at it, this recipe is easy to double or triple as needed.

12 Pacific sardines
1/2 cup sea salt

Gather the ingredients.
Use a sharp knife to cut off the heads of the sardines just past where their gills are. Cut a slit down their bellies to the tail. Under running water open them up and slip out their guts. (You can ask your fishmonger to do this, but if you're new to cleaning fish, sardines are a super easy first attempt!) Don't bother trying to remove the skin, it's much easier to slip off after they've been cured.
Rinse the fish clean and pat them dry. Place them in a baking pan or similar container and sprinkle them on both sides with the salt. Cover the pan thoroughly with plastic wrap (a few layers is in order) and tuck the pan in the fridge for about 2 days (36 to 48 hours).
Remove the sardines from the pan and rinse them clean of salt. Peel off their skin, if you like (it's easy to do now), and serve or cover them completely with oil and store them in the fridge for up to a week.
Enjoy!

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
54	Calories
3g	Fat
0g	Carbs
6g	Protein

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4 to 6
Amount per serving
Calories	54
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 3g	4%
Saturated Fat 0g	2%
Cholesterol 37mg	12%
Sodium 9511mg	414%
Total Carbohydrate 0g	0%
Dietary Fiber 0g	0%
Total Sugars 0g
Protein 6g
Vitamin C 0mg	0%
Calcium 105mg	8%
Iron 1mg	5%
Potassium 105mg	2%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.