[Sca-cooks] Tuna, tuna, tuna

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach a5foil:
>Oh, but Sarda is a different fish! Sarda sarda, bonito or Atlantic bonito,
>is not even in the same family with tuna. Davidson groups it with mackerel,
>saying it comes "in between" mackerel and tuna. It would definitely be
>closer in flavor to bluefin tuna than to albacore.
>
>Cynara

With respect, sometimes what something _is_ is more important than 
what it definitely would be. Having cooked and eaten all of the fish 
mentioned, and caught not quite all of them, I'm in a position to 
state that while bonito is a smaller fish than most tuna species, it 
is clearly a relative (sharing a very distinctive caudal/ventral fin 
structure), has more the slightly metallic taste of tuna, and is much 
firmer, coarser, and beefier in texture than mackerel. It is, 
however, dark and greyish in flesh color, more like mackerel than 
like albacore.

Davidson's grouping it with mackerel may be for a logical convenience 
not immediately apparent or clearly explained. In fact, it may simply 
be a size or running season issue. I'd class it with jacks (another 
scombroid), myself.

Adamantius