In the can – preserving Portugal’s fishing heritage

There are plenty of fish in the sea, but Portugal’s traditional fish canneries are rare as beluga caviar. Hundreds of the factories once lined the shores of this fish-loving nation, and while fresh sardines are a favourite on Portuguese menus, the job of canning the staple has shifted largely to West Africa.

But a handful of the old factories – and their artisanal production methods – remain. One of the most esteemed, Pinhais & Co Cannery, stands a sardine’s leap from the beach at Matosinhos, a former fishing village near Porto, and a factory tour is offered on Viking’s Portugal River of Gold cruise itinerary.

Sardines – quite the handful.

This assembly line is cast in aspic: fish are delivered fresh from the harbour each morning, then prepared and preserved in olive oil or tomato sauce – in versions plain or spicy – just as they were when the company opened in 1920.

“I can’t tell you [the recipe] because I don’t know, it is a big secret,” says guide Benjamin Castanho. “Only two people in the company know how to do it.”

Architectural history has been safeguarded, too. That leaping sardine appears to have swum into the lobby of the genteel office block and transformed itself into the fishtailing, sardine-shaped staircase. It is anchored to the centre of a lobby floor inlaid with time-worn azulejo; the tiles’ indentations carry the weight of history.

“That’s what happened when 100 ladies and 10 men passed here daily for about 100 years,” Castanho says.

While men braved the treacherous Atlantic Ocean, women were left to run the factory. With no-one to care for their children, the company opened an onsite kindergarten; some of the infants cared for here now work at the cannery. Healthcare was another progressive initiative.

Women at work on the line at Pinhais.Credit: Alamy

“Pinhais was one of the first companies to have a doctor to come in two times a week to assess the health of the ladies working here,” Castanho says. “At the time it was hard to even get a family doctor.”

More than a century after its establishment, Pinhais’ workforce is still dominated by women. They line up at a marble workbench, their white-jacketed arms moving with balletic precision as they lop off fish heads and gut the shimmering creatures.

“We could do machine labour for this, but the machine doesn’t distinguish head and gut, so that’s why we do it by hand,” Castanho says.

Elsewhere women chatter as they chop mounds of pickles and chillies; a third group encircles a sushi train-like conveyor belt revolving with sauce-filled cans. Their fingers are a blur, topping and tailing the fish with scissors to ensure a snug fit, and laying 90 grams of the precious cargo on their aromatic beds of secret sauce.

Cooking up Porto’s seafood bounty.

“It can be a little bit more than 90 grams, but no less,” Casanho says. “We have a scale to weigh it, but the ladies have been working like this for so many years that they know it by eye.”

Further along the chain, women douse the sardines in blankets of refined olive oil, seal the tins in a canning machine from the 1950s, and place them in a sterilising machine. The final step in the process – hand-wrapping the tins in beautifully branded paper – is a masterly task.

“We have six ladies that are only dedicated to wrapping, an average of 1400 cans per day [each]. That’s like nine seconds per can,” Castanho says. “And there are two persons that wrap 1800. They are really fast.”

These zesty cans will mature for at least three months before they’re dispatched to hungry customers. With fresh fish so readily available in Portugal, just 5 per cent of today’s haul will be sold locally, under the Pinhais brand. The rest, labelled Nuri, will find its way to gourmands across the world – and into the cannery’s cafe, where I now take my seat. Cans peeled open, Portugal’s flavour and history are ready to be released from their tiny vessels.

THE DETAILS

A Viking river ship on the Douro River, Portugal.

CRUISE
Viking’s 10-day Portugal’s River of Gold cruise is from $7595 a person in a standard stateroom. The Traditional Fish Cannery and Scenic Porto tour from $213. See vikingrivercruises.com.au

The writer was a guest of Viking.