Two lovely things make a post

The first lovely thing is my job, which positively requires me to discover, eg, the history of tinned sardines; the second lovely thing is the internet, which makes it so easy to do. (I learn that there is a book from 1938, "The Golden Book of Portuguese Tinned Fish": speaking as someone who has in fact been to a Portuguese fish-tinning factory, I think I need a copy of this excellent volume.) And did you know that the international body responsible for food safety and regulation is called the Codex Alimentarius? And that any fish other than pilchards that are canned as sardines must have their actual species identified on the can, but that pilchards are not in fact an actual species?

I should probably get back to work, but fish! Tinned fish! It's a whole thing!*

*Actually it's more than one thing. We have not touched on tuna. Which - to me, at least, and to others in the discussion t'other day - is "tuna" when fresh, but "tuna fish" when canned. My mother used to make a splendid tuna fish pie - which was certainly not a pie, any more than pizza pie is a pie. See? A whole nother thing!