[Sca-cooks] Tuna, tuna, tuna

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach lilinah at earthlink.net:
>So, Master Adamantius, what (affordable) canned tuna would you 
>recommend for the Apician Tuna with Date Sauce?
>
>Anahita
>
>----- Apician Recipes -----
>
>432. Sarda ita fit: coquitur sarda et exossatur. teritur pipere, 
>ligustico, thymo, origano, ruta, caryota, melle. et in uasculo ouis 
>incisis ornatur impensa. uinum modice, acetum, defritum et oleum 
>uiridem.
>
>432. Bonita make thus: Cook tuna and bone it. Pound pepper, lovage, 
>thyme, oregano, rue, dates, honey. And [put it] in a small vessel, 
>cut eggs. A little wine, vinegar, defritum, and green oil.
>
>One modern redaction mashes the tuna with the ingredients, but i 
>cannot assume this from the recipe.
>
>My intention is to facilitate service by cutting the tuna in small 
>even pieces, dish them (i think we have tables of 8), sauce them, 
>and serve them. I've considered putting toothpicks in them, but i 
>think that will be too modern.
>
>Here's another recipe:
>
>435. Ius in Cordula Assa: piper, ligusticum, apii seme, mentam, 
>ruta, caryotam, mel, acetum, vinum et oleum. convenit et in Sarda.
>
>435. Sauce for young grilled tuna: Pepper, lovage, celery seed, 
>mint, rue, date, honey, vinegar, wine, and oil. This goes also with 
>bonita.
>
>And a third:
>
>438. Ius in siluro, in pelamyde er in thynno salsis. piper, 
>ligusticum, cuminum, cepam, mentam, rutam, calvam, caryotam, mel, 
>acetum, sinape, oleum.
>
>438. Sauce for salt sheat-fish, young tuna (but older than cordula), 
>tuna. Pepper, lovage, cumin, onion, mint, rue, hazelnuts, dates, 
>honey, vinegar, mustard, oil.
>
>Note that for this feast i cannot use hazelnuts - or at least cannot 
>serve them to the Princess, who is deathly allergic to most nuts 
>(but not pine nuts).
>
>Again, i cannot assume the tuna is anything but cooked then served 
>with the sauce. I would assume grilled, given the large size of 
>tuna, but i suppose tuna steaks could have been cooked in a skillet.

Hmmm. I have no idea what commercial options, if any, exist for 
obtaining bonito. While it _is_ a tuna (or a relative), it's a 
smaller, rather bloody (usually the commercial fishermen or boat 
crew/professionals, if any, cut off the tail of the fish and bleed it 
immediately upon catching it), dark-meat type of tuna, and much, 
much, cheaper than the sashimi-grade bluefin. I used to catch them as 
a kid as a trash-fish while blue-fishing off Captree State Park, in 
Long Island's Great South Bay. _GREAT_ hot-smoked... But at least one 
of the recipes above specifies grilling.

You might actually find something in an Asian market that 
approximates it, and for less than fresh bluefin or yellowfin. These 
fish run maybe 12-20 pounds, in my experience, which means they're 
not huge and unmanageable, but large enough to fillet without a great 
amount of waste.

Worth a shot. You might find some kind of amberjack, also large and 
cheap, in an Asian market, somewhere in between tuna and mackerel 
(i.e. firm, fishy-flavored, dark) in character. If I could find fresh 
fish, such as bonito or something similar, for cheap enough, I'd 
think of preparing my sauce, slicing and grilling the fish, arranging 
the slices in the serving dish (preferably something with sides, to 
prevent liquid from running off), saucing them while hot, and setting 
them aside to eat at room or nearly-room temperature, after 
macerating a bit in the sauce.

If you have to use canned tuna, I figure draining it as best you can, 
arranging it as attractively as possible on the platter, saucing it 
before a while before serving, and, again, serve at or near room 
temperature. You don't want it to be cold in any case; it demulsifies 
olive-oil-based dressings and can even solidify the oil like 
shortening.

Adamantius