Tinned Fish

Tinned mackerel and sardines are a Caribbean store cupboard essential — the basis of mackerel rundown, a quick fry-up with onion and tomato, or simply eaten straight from the tin with hard dough bread and hot pepper sauce.

Grace mackerel is the standard. In tomato sauce it is the one most people mean — soft fillets in a rich, seasoned tomato sauce, ready to heat through with onion, thyme and scotch bonnet. Available in 200g and 400g, plus a hot chilli version with more heat and mackerel in brine for cooking from a plainer base.

Brunswick sardines come four ways: in soya oil, in tomato sauce, with hot peppers, and in Louisiana hot sauce. Smaller and firmer than mackerel, and good on crackers, in a sandwich, or fried up with onion.

Quick meal: fry sliced onion, tomato and a little scotch bonnet, tip in the tin, warm through, and serve with rice, boiled provisions or bread. Ten minutes, start to finish.

Good with hard dough bread or boiled provisions.