Ingredients:
- Sardines - 1kg. All other ingredients will be calculated on this amount of fish.
- Water 1litre
- Salt 50-75g. 50g of salt will give a very gentle taste full of flavours, but the shelf life will only be 2 days. More salt will increase the shelf life but make these fishes more and more salty. I think 75g will be a good reasonably high level of salt. Commercially, in this recipe, some companies can use up to 150g of salt, which I think is too much.
- Sugar - form 0 to 1/2 of a salt content. It is a personal preference. I do like to use almost half of the salt amount., but for the beginning, I do advise trying 1/3 of the salt content.
- Pickling spices:
- Cassia or cinnamon stick - 2-3
- Bay leaves - 10
- Cloves - 1/2 tsp
- Allspices - 1/2 tsp
- Black pepper - 1 tbsp
- Corriander seeds - 2 tbsp
As you can see, this is not a traditional pickling spice mix, but pretty similar. You can also add some mustard seeds but do not use ginger or chilli.
Clean sardines. Under the water stream scale them with a knife and this will be enough. Do not clean the stomach. 
Bring water to boil and boil with spices for 7-10 min, then chill water to a room temperature.
In a stainless steel, glass, or plastic container sat sardines in prepared brining liquid. Salt them overnight in the fridge and they will be ready!
Clean with two forks and enjoy with rue bread and onion. 
