Aldi Herring Fillets (Deutsche Küche) Review
Fish are food, not friends.
I finally found a couple cans of these Deutsche Küche Herring Fillets at my local Aldi. These must be popular, because they disappear almost immediately at the start of German Week, and they aren’t available at my store the rest of the year. There were only two varieties available in my locale: Curry Pineapple Sauce and Mango Pepper Sauce. I’ve seen other flavors in the Aldi sales circulars, so perhaps you’ll be more fortunate than I was.
I like canned fish, and I cannot lie. I don’t care if you think that’s weird. I like it. Canned fish is good. There should be more canned fishes in the world. I routinely stock up on canned sardines, herring, mackerel, salmon, and tuna. It doesn’t hurt that canned fish is also cheap, portable, and nutritious.
I’m reviewing Aldi’s Herring Fillets in Curry Pineapple Sauce today, and maybe I’ll get to the Mango Pepper Sauce at some point in the distant future. Maybe. If I feel like it.
Anyway. These flavors are pretty good. I ate one can for a snack at work, and found it quite satisfying. My coworkers might hate me a little bit now, with my weird, fishy office-smells, and suchlike. I felt a tiny bit guilty tossing the sloshy fish-can into the office garbage. But not guilty enough.
If you’ve had some canned-fish disappointments like I have, you’ll be relieved to hear that the fish itself is pretty decent. It’s firm, but flakey, and it has a mild taste. There’s no mushy parts or greasiness or old, inappropriate fish smells.
The herring fillets are decently large in the can, but they do have their shiny, silvery, slimy skins intact on at least one side. Although the can is more than 7 ounces, it seemed like there was a LOT more sauce than fish. I found myself wishing I had something to pour the sauce over, like a steaming bowl of rice, or some veggies. Since I was eating my canned fish at room temperature (with a plastic fork, no less), the sauce wasn’t terribly delicious as-is. I love the convenience of the can, but I think I’ll find a way to heat this up and serve with a side item in the future.
I dug diligently through my can-juice, and only found three tiny cubes of mystery fruit. The label lists “pineapple” as the fourth ingredient, but mango chutney is also listed, so who knows. Probably the mystery fruit is pineapple. It had a very bland fruit taste, and it was firm. That’s all I can tell you.
The sauce is, of course, the best part of this snack. It’s slightly creamy and has a fairly strong mustard flavor, but really no “spiciness” from the curry. The savory-salty taste is complemented by the subtle sweetness of the pineapple concentrate and mango chutney, with a little side-kick of vinegar tang. The sauce is just thick enough to coat the fish nicely, but not thick enough to be viscous. I personally thought it would have been better without the added canola oil. If you don’t love fish taste, the strongly seasoned sauce helps cover a multitude of transgressions.
Nutrition Facts and Price for Aldi Herring Fillets
These 7.05 ounce cans are $1.69 each. There are two servings per can, of 210 calories each, which means each serving costs a meager 85 cents. There’s an impressive 10 grams of protein per serving, but a hefty 17 grams of fat (probably canola oil in the sauce), and 5 grams of sugar. You also get a whopping 80% of your daily value of Vitamin D per serving (160% per can)! The front of the can says you get 1.2 grams Omega-3 Fatty Acids per serving.
This canned herring is imported from Germany. My cans expire more than 3 years from the date of purchase, giving these a long and healthy shelf-life.
Ingredients in Deutsche Küche Canned Herring
The herring is wild-caught in the Northeast Atlantic, and the label even includes information on how it was caught (“midwater trawl”), which makes me feel supremely ignorant of fishing methods. Thanks a lot, Aldi! The label also lists the scientific name of the herring fish — if you’re a fish nerd, or something. Aaaaand, the can is labeled as a “Certified Sustainable Seafood” by MSC. Cool, cool.
Anyway, here are the full ingredients:
- Herring fillets
- Water
- Canola oil
- Pinapple, Sugar
- Mustard (water, mustard seeds, vinegar, salt, spices)
- Pineapple concentrate
- Tomato paste
- Cream
- Vinegar
- Mango chutney (sugar, mango vinegar, salt, spices)
- Curry powder
- Rice Starch
- Salt
- Guar gum
- Logust bean gum
- Food starch-modified
- Spices
- Milk protein
- Lactose
- Seasonging
- Dried glucose syrup
- Natural flavors
It’s nice to see there are no artificial colors or flavors here. I also don’t see any obvious preservatives on this list.
More Reviews of Aldi Products You Might Like (or Hate)
Check out these other reviews of Aldi frozen stuff I’ve recently written:
- Aldi Fruits of the Forest Strudel (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Bienenstich Indulgent Cakes (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Bavarian Soft Pretzel Sticks (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Mushroom Schupfnudeln (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Cheese Spätzle (Deutsche Küche)
- Aldi Cherry Frangipane Tart (Deutsche Küche)
Author’s note: I have no affiliation with Aldi, and I wasn’t compensated in any way for this review. I apologize to all the fish nerds — I think you guys are cool.
