Yes, You Can Cook Tinned Fish in Its Tin

Kayla Moreno was looking for an easy recipe to share on TikTok when she remembered a post she’d seen the previous year for something called “oysters redneckefeller.” A spin on oysters Rockefeller, it called for adding hot sauce, lemon juice, garlic, and Parmesan to a tin of smoked oysters before baking the whole thing right in the tin.

“Just like a song that’s stuck in your head, so were these oysters,” says Moreno, who runs the account Good Vibes Cooking. After she posted her own spin on oysters redneckfeller, the post quickly went viral. Along with attracting 6.5 million views, it inspired countless copycats — and a slew of comments about how cooking fish in the can will lead to imminent death thanks to the BPA plastic in the can’s lining.

Lured by the promise of an affordable, eye-catching appetizer — the kind of thing that would be cute enough to serve at a dinner party but also attainable in this economy — I was curious to know how many of these comments were rooted in actual science rather than the reactive pessimism that characterizes 90 percent of social media conversations. So I did a little research.

“Tin cans are capable of surviving temperatures slightly higher than the boiling point of water,” says Dr. Bryan Quoc Le, a food scientist and the author of 150 Food Science Questions Answered. The food-grade plastic in the cans’ rust-proof inner lining can survive short periods of heat (around 150 degrees Celsius), Quoc Le explains, but they’re not designed for long-term cooking.

Vasco Motta, the sales manager for the Portuguese conservas brand José Gourmet, told me over email that while José Gourmet cooks their fish prior to canning, many bigger brands cook the fish directly in the can, implying that the fish in those tins can stand up to at least some level of heat.

“The current debate often centers on the presence of BPA (bisphenol A) in can linings,” Motta says “At José Gourmet, our tins are BPA-NIA (BPA-Not Intentionally Added), meaning no BPA is deliberately included in the products.” He added that the industry is moving towards 100-percent BPA-free linings in compliance with EU regulations.

My takeaway is that it’s probably not a great idea to cook tinned fish directly in the tin for every meal, but in terms of health impact, it’s similar to microwaving food in a plastic container — an at-your-own-risk kind of activity that falls squarely in line with the improvisational spirit of using whatever’s handy to get the job done. With a better grasp of the science behind cooking in cans, I’m ready to embrace it in spirit if not exactly practice, heating the tinned fish separately and then adding it back to the can to serve.

The idea of treating tinned fish this way also has a way of igniting the imagination. Long before the “hot girls” got their hands on it, tinned fish was an affordable, practical food of the people. While I usually bristle at the idea of calling recipes “poor man’s” anything, I can’t help but enjoy the way oysters redneckefeller is not only reframing tinned fish — and effectively returning it to its roots — but also opening a new chapter for our stockpile of tins.

For some tinned fish lovers, the tins themselves have long been the star of the show thanks to their eye-catching design. This puts them back in the spotlight as a charming serving vessel.

When I first saw and saved Moreno’s ‘Poor Man’s Oyster’s Rockefeller’ post, I immediately felt the urge to go camping with a trove of tins in tow so I could zhush them up and then cook them over the campfire. And back to that dinner party idea — I can absolutely imagine devoting an evening with my girlfriends to riffing on seafood dishes in this more affordable format. I’m thinking about canned clams casino and a take on brandade using tinned cod, pre-cooked potatoes, and heavy cream, heated in ramekins but served in the tin because there is just no denying it makes for a very cute presentation. And in this context, cute is key.

Also, if cooking fish in the tin makes you uneasy, Lucia Flors, the co-founder of the Los Angeles-based tinned fish brand Siesta Co, has an alternative: “Heating tinned fish using a bain-marie is a gentle and safe option,” she says, and won’t compromise the quality.

For her part, Moreno says that she owns a ramekin. “As a matter of fact, I did make a tinned fish recipe in an oven-safe container, and it did not do nearly as well as when I cook in the can,” she reports.” She followed her viral oyster post with other tinned variations, including Lazy Crab Imperial, Creamy Clams in a Can, and her most recent, Marry Me Mackerel.

“You guys interact with my canned cooking so much that I might continue this series with canned meat,” Moreno says. “Who knows, maybe corned beef might be a thing.” I, for one, am ready for Moreno to make canned reubens happen.

Stephanie Ganz is a writer and recipe developer whose work has appeared in BUST, Bon Appétit, The Kitchn, and Epicurious. She’s the author of the Substack newsletter But Wait, There’s More.