Trying hard to get a taste for tinned fish

For the first time in our long, though admittedly long-distance, relationship (ie he’s never heard of me), I find Tim Dowling on the wrong side of history (‘The trout lasagne is very good!’ How I recreated six classic beef dishes – with oily fish, 23 April). His attempts to replace meat with tinned fish in their diet and its effect on his relationship with his wife were, as always, entertaining, but I just don’t think he’s trying hard enough.

Tinned fish has formed the backbone of our diet for years: it’s delicious, nutritious and cheaper than it ought to be, and we should be extolling rather than mocking it. Pasta con le sarde? A tin of sardines in oil makes that a store-cupboard staple. Late-night supper after a gig (my husband) or the theatre (me)? A baked potato with a tin of pilchards in tomato sauce and a salad make it the work of a moment. Adding umami to a cream sauce? Garlic and a tin of anchovies does the trick, with the leftovers used the next day in avocado mashed on toast. Let’s redress the balance with an equivalent article – or a whole issue of Feast – on the joys of tinned fish.
Virginia Orrey
Cowes, Isle of Wight

• Rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel, or in this case the fish ball, Tim Dowling would have done better to order them in from JA Corney of Temple Fortune, north London. Preferably not on the alternate Tuesdays that my mother-in-law gets them in for our regular lunch date, in case they run out.
Ben Moore
London

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