[Sca-cooks] Tuna, tuna, tuna

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

Well, for what it's worth, I opened a few dozen cans in a series of 
these demos, and did not encounter what you describe. (ew...) And a big 
part of our selling  point was how pretty it was, so they were counting 
on it being pretty.  And yes, it does look like the old solid, several 
people mentioned that, but I at least think it has a bit more taste than 
I even remember "in the old days."

Yes, I had my first Salade Nicoise in Nice, actually,  long ago,  and I 
thought I remembered canned tuna, but still I wouldn't use the mush or 
the cardboard. This gives me another option. Would not bother with it 
for the ubiquitous Tuna Salad Sandwich  however. It just  seemed a 
useful thing to know about.

AEllin

Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius wrote:

> Also sprach 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've seen the Prime Fillet product, actually a couple of different 
> brands; to be honest it looks to me like solid-pack tuna used to look 
> years ago. I agree on the mysterious decrease in the chunkiness of 
> Puree Light Style Tuna, the artist formerly known as Chunk Light, but 
> what is really getting to me is the... I hope nobody is eating when 
> they read this... the... ummm... what appear to be... visitors... in 
> the allegedly solid white tuna. I think they seem to turn up, in my 
> experience, mostly in StarKist tuna. Sort of like veins of clearish 
> jelly, which, if it were fresh raw tuna, would be easy to identify as 
> roundworms of some kind. I've seen 'em raw, and I've seen 'em cooked 
> (in tuna), and that's what they look like. I hope I'm not guilty of 
> libel or anything, but it's extremely unattractive and it's a great 
> coincidence if it just resembles parasitic infestation to that extent, 
> but is not... I'm sure it's not dangerous at this point, but still, 
> quite unpleasant to think about. Maybe I'm wrong and the FDA and such 
> regulates the bejaysus out of these people and such a thing is 
> impossible. Let's hope.
>
>> 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...
>
>
> FWIW, in the South of France, even (or especially) in Nice, a Salade 
> Nicoise almost invariably contains either canned or jar-packed tuna, 
> and almost never fresh. Maybe it's like getting a real Idaho potato in 
> Idaho, or else it's simply that the kind of concentrated fish flavor 
> that is appropriate for such a salad is better achieved using canned 
> tuna.
>
> Adamantius
>