Spot the Ortiz anchovy
Jak simply asked the deli for a tin of anchovies. Dumbfounded by the cost she paid the extra $15.75 and brought them home slightly perplexed.
I was mildly interested having been following the debate between Neil and Rebecca on the expense and finer points of Ortiz anchovies.
What amazes me about these beasts is that the cost of a tin in the market can vary by over $2 – that’s almost the cost of a regular tin of these slippery little beasties.
Out of academic interest I bought another tin myself because I reckon I have found on the shelves of Coles the best alternative.
So what do you get for $15? It’s an attractive cardboard box and tin containing nine cured fillets weighing 30 grams (47.5 grams with the olive oil), which apparently is two portions. That’s about $1.75 an anchovy or 52.5 cents a gram, about $525 a kilo.
I tried two other brands of anchovy including John West, which were the most salty and bony of the lot. Quite nasty really.
Ortiz in action
The nearest alternative to Ortiz is the somewhat perplexingly branded Always Fresh. I say perplexing because of the bastardisation of the word fresh. In today’s marketing speak Always Fresh is far more likely to be a panty liner or deodorant than food. The other thing that troubles me about this name is that these anchovies obviously aren’t fresh. They are tinned and preserved.
For little more than $2 we get 27 grams of anchovy, which is apparently enough for three servings. They come in a fairly unattractive and unimaginative packaging which sort of sums up the location of importer Riviana Foods – 5 Corporate Avenue.
According to a story this week in Epicure in The Age, Ortiz anchovies are processed within eight hours of being caught. I also understand – and this could be a myth – that the bones are removed with tweezers.
I agree with the Epicure article that the Ortiz should score 9/10. But I would rank the Always Fresh at 8/10.
The only difference I could really make out was that the Ortiz were slightly longer.
So if you are one of those Big Swinging Dicks (not you Rebecca), you will probably want to opt for the longer and more expensive anchovy and transport them in the glove compartment of your full strength Porsche.
I am happy to accept that smaller and cheaper is sometime better and transport them home by foot.
Food fascist
I’d love to hear how much Ortiz anchovies cost in Europe, Spain in particular. The Australian dollar (aka the Pacific peso) is equal to about 0.6 Euros. That means we are paying the equivalent of about 9 Euros for a 47 gram tin.
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must be the season for Ortiz anchovies. I tried some a couple of weeks back as well and found them less sharply salty and more meaty in flavour. I will have to try the alsays fresh brand now too. That’s the Coles homebrand right? I think htere’s a revolution going on in Australian withih supermaket home brands to increas their appeal to customer (not just being a cheap alternative).
Cin, I was surprised how good Always Fresh was. the texture, taste, saltiness and meatiness were equal to Ortiz. If you get some of the Coles brand I’d love to hear what you think.
Gosh, I just had a read of my comment from yesterday and realised the shocking amount of typos and spelling errors! I have to admit that I was under a general anaesthetic earlier that day and it obviously affected me!
Will you try the Ortiz tuna too? Let me know what you think.
Hi Ed – wow – always fresh eh? I’ll definitely try them out as I am getting increasingly narked with the price of Ortiz now I’ve seen them cheaper over the ditch. Macro Wholefoods also sells them for about same praice as SJ so I’m getting into conspiracy theory territory. Love to see the Euro price. Thanks for not including me in the porsche weilding tosser group. My love of Ortiz is pure taste not meaningless ostentation
) Neil: now you HAVE to try them.
Oh, and they better be Portuguese virgins tweezing out those bones ….
Reb, okay I’m working on it, really. But there has been such a flood Ortiz stories lately, The Age, Tomato, Esurienties, et al. There were two comments in Esurienties that Ortiz could be had from Harvey Nicks for four pounds and from Fortnum & Mason for five pounds thirty-four, so even overseas they are still expensive. Cin, can I have some of that anaesthetic too!
Reb, SJ is the sole importer and you now have the Always Fresh alternative. i’d love you to taste them and let me know what you think.. i reckon they are almost identical. Now about those virgins…
Neil, I hadn’t seen niki’s post but have now. that means in the Uk they are about $13 but Fortnum &mason is pretty posh. I reckon they could be bought cheaper. I found a 78g tin for five pounds ninety five in a tin that looks as it has twice as many anchovies bringing the cost in A$ to about $7 a tin. Check here: https://www.papadeli.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=159&products_id=1079
I picked up a tin the other day in the evil supermarket chain closest to me. I looked at all the anchovies on sale (no, I don’t have any pretentions of having a life) and AF is the only one labelled as Product of Spain. The others are Italian and Moroccan. You could be onto something here …
if we’re talking anchovies why don’t you take a stroll over to the mediterranean supermarket on sydney rd brunswick? a panoply of anchovies awaits. maybe not quite the ortiz la-de-dah kind but nevertheless delish as all good little anchovies should be.
Minimez. i was there the other weekend and will certainly be back there for anchovies.
STOP PRESS: bad news, I had a can of Always Fresh with bones this weekend. Yes bones. Obviously this prodct is a litttle inconsistent so i ned to continue my search for the perfect cheap anchovy and Medittareanean Wholesaers is probably the place.
A 95g tin of Ortiz anchovies costs about 8.5 ECU in France
Yves, Thats $14 here which almost buys a 47.5g tin whihc means we are being ripped off. Thankyou very mch for this.
I suggest you all try Fruits De Mer anchovies. Very nice anchovies and on par with Ortiz. Look out for a company called Select Europe.
Nicholas, I’ll look out for them in my travels. Thanks.
Well, I just found this price in England…£2.95/47.5 grams
http://www.oilandmore.co.uk/shop/product/137/ortizanchovyfillets
Charles, thanks. At the curent exchange rate that would be about AUS$6 or at the usual rate of around $2.5 to the pound abput $7.50. We are royally being ripped off. i shall stock up when I’m in the UK in September.