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Learn How to Make a Tinned Fish Board, also known as “seacuterie”. It’s an impressive and fun way to share seafood as an appetizer, nice dinner, or holiday event.
Tinned fish is having its moment right now, and for good reason. You may have seen some of these seafood appetizers boards on TikTok or Reddit; they’re an amazing way to learn more about delicious and nutritious seafood this holiday season.
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What is a seacuterie board?
A seacuterie board is just like a cheese plate or charcuterie board, except that it uses seafood instead of meat. Many of these tinned fish boards simply open the canned fish and leave it in the can on the board for a fun and easy presentation.
Seafood is often saved for special events, but these boards can be served at any gathering, especially casual informal parties. There’s definitely something impressive about serving a beautiful platter of seafood.
Keep in mind that a seacuterie board doesn’t have to be pricey or even filled with exotic creatures from the depth of the ocean. You can go as familiar or as adventurous as you like. This is your seafood appetizer board, after all.
I also really like the name Sharkcuterie board!
Choose the seafood varieties
The first thing I suggest is that you can combine different seafoods, however you like. Go with fresh, raw, tinned, canned, jarred, smoked, or even dried.
Make sure to offer different things for different adventurous level eaters. Include familiar friendly options like salmon, tuna, shrimp for those who may not want to experiment. Go for more daring options like oysters, octopus, and squid for adventurous eaters.
Add non-seafood options to your board as well, like cheese, vegetables, sauces, crackers, and nuts. And, don’t buy into the old saying that fish and cheese don’t go together. They totally do. Oh, a nice cheddar with a good piece of tuna on a cracker is heaven.
Do your shopping
Next, you’ll want to do the shopping. Go to your local grocery store and see what they offer. Availability will vary depending on your location. Everything you see on my board came from my local well-stocked grocery store.
Yes, you can order specialty tinned seafoods from the internet, and that’s great, but if you’re just starting out start small.
You’ll want 2-4 cans of tinned fish varieties to add to your board. Feel free to place the cans on the board directly, or place the fish in small bowls.
Food safety
If the board will be sitting out, it’s a great idea to serve the fish on ice to keep it cold.
You can also keep the offerings on the board in smaller portions, and stash extras in the fridge. Replenish often with fresh chilled items.
Also, be careful about serving raw or undercooked seafood if your guest list includes people who are pregnant or immunocompromised, as that can put them at risk of food-borne illnesses.
Please be sure to follow all FDA food safety practices. Throw out food that’s been left out for more than two hours.
How to make
There are so many ways to an impressive and fun appetizer board. Here are some basics you’ll want:
Some ideas:
- Varieties of tinned fish. You’ll want a few, about 2 to 4. Get tuna and salmon as some nice solid anchors. Take a look at mackerel, sardines, herring, anchovies, mussels, and oysters for more adventurous options.
- Crackers, crusty bread, pita chips or potato chips are all fun bases on which to build.
- Cheese Add a nice flavorful harder slicing cheese like cheddar or Parmesan. A soft spreadable cheese like Boursin would be lovely. I like to make easy frico to go on my board too. Check out my Instagram reel for how I make frico.
- Vegetables offer variety in color and texture on your board as well as different flavors on your creations. Try roasted red peppers, seaweed salad, endive leaves, cucumber, cherry tomatoes (even try roasting them), caramelized onions, or celery. Add some Air Fryer Roasted Garlic to spread on the crackers.
- Fruits can make a board really pretty. Try grapes, strawberries, blackberries, or figs (even fig jam would be delicious). Make sure to have some lemon wedges for people to squeeze lemon juice on their fish.
- Fresh herbs add a nice lightness to the board. What’s growing in your garden? Chopped green onions, dill, thyme, and basil all go well with seafood.
- Sauces like chimichurri, pesto, Honey garlic sauce, cocktail sauce, cilantro lime dressing, tartar sauce, and vinaigrette are great. You can also add melted butter to dunk in, which is especially nice if you have lobster or crab on the board.
- Pickled and preserved items also offer different flavor profiles. Try olives, cornichons, capers, or pickled onions.
- And nuts are a great crunch – try pistachios, almonds, and pecans
- Make it spooky for Halloween by adding some Mushroom Skulls or Cheese Skulls to the board.
serving
Make sure you have plenty of serving utensils like toothpicks, forks, soup spoons, or other ways for guests to serve themselves.
You can also add fancy appetizers and spreads to your board. Try some recipes like Smoked Salmon Rolls, Crab Dip, Sushi like Spicy Tuna Rolls, Shrimp dip, and Smoked Salmon Pate.
Can this be made ahead?
You want the fish to be as fresh as possible, so don’t open the cans until you’re ready to serve. But the veggies can be chopped a few days before and stored in zip top bags in the fridge.
Salmon rolls and pate can be made in advance and stored in the fridge.
What can I do with leftovers?
If you have leftovers, you can to pack everything back up.
Place the crackers and chips back in their bags or in fresh ziptop bags and store at room temp.
Take the fish out of the opened cans and place it in fresh clean airtight glass containers. Leftover veggies, cheese, and dips can also be placed in airtight containers and kept in the fridge.
All these leftovers will make a great lunch the next day. You can even use any leftover tuna to make tuna sandwiches, tuna melts, or tuna cakes. Do the same with leftover tinned salmon.
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Recipe
Tinned Fish Board
Ingredients
- 2 -4 cans tinned fish, fresh, raw, smoked, or dried fish
- Variety of vegetables
- Crackers or bread
- Cheese
- Lemon wedges
- Fresh herbs
- nuts
Instructions
- Open the cans of seafood and place them on a large board or serving platter.
- Surround the seafood with cheeses, crackers, vegetables, lemon wedges, fresh herbs, spreads and sauces, olives, and nuts as desired.
- Be sure to include utensils like toothpicks, forks, soup spoons, or other ways for guests to serve themselves.
- Serve immediately. Enjoy.
Notes
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Dorothy at Shockingly Delicious
I love the idea of this board! Not only is the wood board gorgeous, but the fish varieties you chose are very interesting. We are really getting into specialty tinned fish at home here.
Sue Ringsdorf
This combination board was a huge hit at our party last night! Thanks Debi!
Mindy
We have a few pescatarian in our family so I wanted to make this for our holiday party. It looks delicious!!
Jules
What a unique idea perfectly for entertaining. The olivewood iss gorgeous too!
Kathleen
I’m hosting a brunch for a Czech friend and she loves all tinned fish, making this as a surprise appetizer, she will love it!
Lynn
Tried out a test run for our Feast Of The Seven Fishes and it was a hit with us! Can’t wait to make it again for our guests 🙂
Laura Ashley Johnson
This is such a pretty and delicious app for a party! Thanks for the tips and visuals to help!
Jennifer
I am always looking for new ways to share a spread and this is the most unique yet!
Janelle
We did a variety of charcuterie boards for our company party and found yours. FANTASTIC idea. Everyone loved how it was unique and oh so tasty!