Conservas de peixe · Porto Salgado

The sea,kept.

Hand-packed in Porto Salgado since 1923. Seis sardinhas, good oil, and six months of doing nothing on purpose.

Abrir uma lata — open a tin
SARDINHAS SARDINHAS em azeite PESO LÍQUIDO 120 g · PRODUTO DE PORTO SALGADO desde 1923 CONSERVAS MARÉ ALTA

N.º 2 A Nossa Lata

Our tin, and how to get into it.devagar — slowly

The key-wound lid is older than we are, and we have seen no reason to argue with it. Hook the tab, turn towards yourself, and do not rush: the lid should curl like a ribbon, not tear like an envelope.

  • 6
    Seis sardinhas, head to tailNever five, never seven. Odete counts, and Odete has not been wrong since the eighties.
  • ½
    Azeite, and half a year in itPressed in November, poured in June, left alone until it tastes of both.
  • 1
    Uma folha de louro, one slice of malaguetaThe bay leaf is for the oil. The chili is for you.

Scroll, drag the key, or press Abrir. Then run a finger over the fish.

CONSERVAS DE PORTO SALGADO MARÉ ALTA MARÉ ALTA Sardinhas em azeite PESO LÍQUIDO 120 g · PRODUTO DE PORTO SALGADO 1923 RODAR a chave — drag me

N.º 3 A Gama

Six tins. That is the whole shelf.e chega — and it is enough

We have been asked for a seventh. We said we would think about it, and we have: no. Turn any tin over to read what is in it, which is never much.

N.º 1 Sardinhas em azeite

N.º 2 Sardinhas picantes

N.º 3 Cavala em tomate

N.º 4 Ventresca de atum

N.º 5 Mexilhões fumados

N.º 6 Polvo em alho

Hover or tap a tin to turn it over. Prices as stickered in 1961, in escudos; we kept the stickers, not the prices.

N.º 4 Seis Mãos

Six pairs of hands before yours.do barco à lata — from boat to tin

Arrastar · drag the strip
5h10 PORTO SALGADO
1Os barcosEleven boats leave Porto Salgado before the bakery opens. They come back when the gulls say so.
LOTA 403530 26
2A lotaThe auction runs downward, from too much to just enough. Our buyer, Tomás, has not blinked since 1998.
40 MIN nem mais, nem menos
3A salmouraForty minutes in brine, timed by a clock nobody is allowed to replace. It firms the flesh and settles the nerves.
4A grelhaCooked on racks over steam and a little smoke, then cooled by the open windows. The whole street knows what day it is.
À MÃO · BY HAND
5As mãosThirty-one women pack every tin by hand, six fish, head to tail. A machine was trialled in 1987 and is now a coat rack.
zzz 6 MESES
6O descansoSealed tins sleep six months in the dark while the oil does its slow work. We check on them; we do not hurry them.
Conservas Maré AltaCais da Lota, 7 · Porto Salgado · Fundada em 1923

Porto Salgado, numa terça-feira de chuva

Caro amigo, cara amiga,

Every few years a man in a good suit comes to explain how we could make four times as many tins. He is always right. We give him lunch and send him home.

My great-grandmother Amélia opened this factory in 1923 with a borrowed boiler and a view of the harbour. The boiler is gone. The view, the recipe and the six-month wait are exactly where she left them.

A sardine does not improve because you are in a hurry.

The oil needs half a year to do what it does, and I have yet to meet the spreadsheet that can persuade it otherwise. So we make what the season allows: some years plenty, some years a polite apology. Either way our name goes on every tin, and my telephone number is not hard to find.

If you open one and think it was worth the wait, then the arrangement is working.

Com sal e paciência,

Inês Carvalhal
Quarta geração