Baked Sardines Recipe

We are going to share all our tricks to know how to make odorless baked sardines. Sardines are a type of oily fish with large doses of omega 3 fatty acids, however, we tend to avoid cooking them at home due to the smell they give off. Therefore, below, you will learn how to cook them in an easy and effective way.

Before starting, we must highlight the importance of buying a quality product, so we recommend opting for fresh sardines. Of course, do not open them! He continues reading and discovers with us this simple recipe for baked sardines and our tricks so that they do not smell.

Ingredients to make Baked Sardines:

• 1 kilogram of sardines (or parrochas)
• 1 package of coarse salt
• 1 minced garlic clove (optional)
• 1 sprig of chopped parsley (optional)
• 1 lemon (optional)

How to make Baked Sardines:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC with heat up and down. Leave the sardines whole, wash them with water, clean them well and dry them with kitchen paper. It is not necessary to open them on the side and remove the casings. If you want to cook sardines in the oven without smell, the best trick is to bake them whole. Once cooked, you can easily remove the guts.
2. Take a baking tray, put a sheet of parchment paper and cover the entire base with coarse salt . It will not be necessary to put salt on the sardines, by covering the base of the tray with salt, apart from preventing odors from coming out, the salt is already given to the fish. So, this is the second trick to get grilling sardines without odors.
3. Trick: you can also directly cover the tray, without the sheet of parchment paper.
4. Place the sardines on the tray , one next to the other. You can put them well together, but without being one on top of the other so that they cook well. Put a little more salt on top of the sardines. Bake the sardines by placing the tray in the center of the oven. Keep the temperature and cook them for 15-20 minutes, although the time will depend on each oven, since some have more power than others. The size of the sardines also influences the final cooking time.
5. Tip: you can cook the sardines in the oven with garlic and parsley by chopping these ingredients and distributing them over the fish.
6. When they take about 15 minutes, to see if the sardines are ready, take one of them and check if the skin comes off easily. If so, it means that they are done. They have to be juicy inside, so it is important to check the cooking after 15 minutes, not later. However, if you like them more done, you can leave them for a few more minutes.
7. The last trick so that the sardines do not smell is for the oven. When you remove the sardines from the oven, prepare a suitable tray for the oven with hot water and a splash of vinegar, leave it for 5 minutes with the oven on, turn it off and leave it inside for a while. And ready! You can now enjoy this recipe for baked sardines, and without odors! You can serve the baked sardines with lemon by dripping a little juice on them, they will be delicious!