[Sca-cooks] Tuna, tuna, tuna

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

OK, I don't normally do this on this list, but...  

One of the several things I do for a living is food sampling. A few 
months ago, I did one of my most successful ones ever - a "new" product 
from Bumble Bee, called "Prime Fillet Tuna." It was a solid pack 
albacore, which was indeed solid and lovely to look at, and which 
actually tasted like something! I've, personally, never used the "white" 
because I thought I might as well be eating cardboard, but the chunk is 
getting less chunky and more mushy every day, and therefore less 
appetizing, at least to me. This was a canned product I could actually 
envision presenting in a Salade Nicoise without apology for either looks 
or taste.

I don't think it's hit every market yet, but nationwide brands never 
start products in New York, too big to experiment, so I'm sure it's in 
many places, though perhaps the more upscale stores. (My local grocery 
doesn't have it...)  And a few other brands seemed to have a similar 
product. It is more expensive than the regular, so I'd only use it where 
nice big pieces made a difference.

They didn't give us any information about how this was achieved, but, 
looking at Adamantius's post... I had already been wondering it it was a 
different type of fish, and that now seems even more likely.

Anyhow... this might give several people another option for some dishes...

AEllin

a5foil wrote

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>
>Yes, this is going to depend on the recipe. Solid-pack albacore has larger
>pieces, but tends to be awfully bland. Water-pack has (surprise!) less fat,
>but oil-pack can have more flavor. The quality of the fish depends a lot on
>the brand as well. That's why I suggested trying several varieties, along
>with the fresh, in small test batches.
>
>In _Mediterranean Seafood_ Alan Davidson indicates that both bluefin tuna
>and albacore are present in the Mediterranean, though albacore is less
>common. Apparently yellow-fin tuna is *not* a Mediterranean fish.
>
>Cynara
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