Chicken of the Sea Jack Mackerel, 15-Ounce Cans (Pack of 24) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If sixty-four dollars were the actual cost of this item, it would be overpriced garbage. It's nearly that at the regular price. I bought it with the subscribe and save option, and was thoroughly disappointed with my purchase upon it's arrival and subsequent use. At the subscription price, it's a moderately-fair deal, but still seriously lacking quality.
I eat canned fish daily. I usually buy cans of mackerel, salmon (though, not preferred, as mackerel packs much more nutrional bang), or sardines for a similiar price, and usually in about the same size can, too, and, well, this stuff is some of the worst I've ever bought. I'm sure many of you who buy this to feed it to their cats or dogs would even be disappointed.
Pros:
Cheap! I split cans this size in half, eat half for one meal, and half for another the next day. If you bought this at the subscription price of $39.95 for 24 cans, that's $1.64/can, or $0.83 per meal (excluding the cost of brown rice and kimchi, what I mix mine with). Not a bad deal, and that's about as cheap as you're ever going to get as far as anything near a healthy meal goes. Unfortunately, even at this price, it's not really worth it, details below. Still, it get's a star added because it has excellent nutrional value and supreme affordability.
Cons:
The fish.... well, it's kinda crap. Like I've said, I've bought A LOT of canned mackerel (I've been eating this way for almost four years now), and this is near the bottom of the list of what I've eaten. Big Box-store fish is usually better than this (but hey, this is from a big box brand... go figure). The taste is on the end where even fish-lovers like myself balk at it.
It's hard to eat, and it's unpleasant. I slurped fish out of the jar as a child, and enjoyed my Dutch grandmother's raw herring-straight-into-the-mouth dumps when I was a kid. I eat the heads and eyes of fresh fish, suck the brains out of the skull, etc etc. Point is, I'm not someone who chickens-out or even minds a "fishy" taste. The problem with this isn't a "fishy" taste. It tastes like it's damn-near putrid, and this is fresh from the can, or even fresh from the can, then lightly cooked with my rice/kimchi combo. I've tried making and eating this other ways too, and there really just isn't a way to eat this stuff right.
And as for the quantity, half (sometimes more!) of the can is water. And this is gross, disgusting water, you cannot use and is only suitable for the garbage disposal. I ALWAYS use the water/juice/oil the fish comes in, with my food. Usually, this gives it flavor, tastes good, keeps everything moist when you cook or microwave it, and allows you to make sure you're getting every nutrional drop you paid for. The packing liquid in this is BY FAR the worst I've ever experienced, and I've eaten that Roland stuff (here: Roland Mackerel in Water, 15-Ounce Tins (Pack of 24)) that everyone complains about here on Amazon.
The torn up fish-parts and bad packing procedure aren't what bother me. This stuff is just vile. It's as much gelatin as it is water. Hey, maybe this is some natural process, wherein all the fat collects and turns the water into Fish Jell-O. Correct me if I'm wrong guys, please. Frankly, I'm glad I now cook this stuff until it's nice and hot, rather than dump it into a bowl and eat it, as I usually do with canned fish.
It pisses me off even more when I get home from my full-time $10/hr job, have to study the rest of the night, and am really wanting a nice, tasty fish dinner only to discover upon opening the can that only 3, maybe 4, mackerel body thirds are in my can. Remember when I said that half the can is water? That's when you have 5 or 6 of those thirds. So, when you get that unlucky can, you've now got 3/4 can of water. Excellent investment. I'll be a Rothschild in no time at this rate.
This whole package seems like a really huge failure. I don't want to eat smoked fish anymore. I'm sick of paying $3 a can at the grocery store for something decent. I can't afford to have fresh, frozen, whole fish shipped to me weekly. I feel like I'm in a serious bind. I need good, decent, ready-to-eat fish, that's nutritious and healthy and not packed with hydrogenated oils at a fair price. I currently don't know where to get it, and thought this would be my bail-out. As such, I can't really recommend a true rival product.
However, products I can recommend that I've tried in the past that are similiar, would be the Wild Caught Salmon cans from Trader Joe's ($2.69/can back in Santa Cruz, I believe), the canned Sardines packed with chili and tomato from any old mexican grocery store (I think it was Goya brand), and random cans/jars at Asian markets (keep an eye out, yes there's stuff there). I also picked up some excellent canned mackerel (pressure cooked, I think) from Harmon's recently (a local grocery store in SLC), but that also costs almost double what this does.
The point is, don't buy this. You're better off snooping through your local grocery stores and overpaying for canned fish. Y'know, because at least you'll be able to eat it.


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CHICKEN OF THE SEA's Canned, pouched and frozen seafood is an almost perfect food! It's an inexpensive and easy-to-prepare source of important nutrients like omega-3, calcium, protein and more. In addition, Chicken of the Sea's canned and pouched tuna and salmon, frozen shrimp and other seafood are low in fat and calories when compared with other proteins.

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