Condimentizing Your Tunafish

Diced carrots, celery and onions. Sometimes toasted pecans. Sometimes diced serrano. Mayo is either Duke's or Hellman's.

I usually add celery for crunch, but I've been forgetting to get more at the grocery store. I usually have it on hand.

Real mayo, bit of liquid from the jar of dill pickles, S&P to taste. Nothing else. I can my own fillets that are raw packed, requires little additional tastes or flavors. I do like an amount of very good lettuce on the sandwich.

Wow, canning your own tuna. Much respect!

I used Kirkland's albacore in water. I think it's the best out there. Probably not as good as yours, morz8!

Start with the usual full fat mayo, Nalleys/BestFoods/Hellmans, then add a scant tsp or so of Dijon mustard per can of white albacore. Not enough to 'taste' as mustard, just enough to give the mixture a sorta zing. Read that somewhere and its subtle and tasty. Add some dill pickle juice, chopped green or Bermuda onion and fresh cracked black pepper.

For true decadence layer Ruffles potato chips under the top slice of bread. Moi? Oh heck yes, if they were ever around!

Toasted pecans? Yum!

Yum, potato chips on sandwiches.

We're going to have tuna melts tonight. I think I have American and smoked gouda on hand. Pumpernickel bread.

Mayo, diced onion, tuna. That's it. I used to eat it on saltines before cutting carbs so now I just eat it with a fork. DSII adds some sweet relish to his sometimes.

I've been making tuna the same way since I was 8 or 9 yrs old and learned the 'recipe' from my neighbor who was a few years older than me.

Finely chopped parsley, celery leaves, red onion, black olives, and tomato, dressed with vinaigrette dressing, black pepper and tiny whole capers. If I have fresh basil on hand, I'll add some of that too.

I prefer the chunk white tuna rather than solid white tuna or chunk light tuna.

I just use mayo and a tiny bit of yellow mustard, unless I have pimento stuffed green olives in the refer, then I chop those and add. Or sometimes I'll chop dill pickle and add it. I get a wonderful canned albacore at my food co-op, canned in jars called Sweet Creek. It's amazingly good, canned in its own juices, line caught, family owned company. I've never tasted tuna like this before.

Sweet Creek Albacore

Like Cilantro.....mayo a little finely chopped onion and tuna....perhaps a hard boiled egg if i have some on hand.

I don't have a particular recipe. Tuna salad is very popular with the kosher ladies, so I've made tons of it, usually based on the inspiration of the moment. For regular kosher, canned tuna--white albacore or yellowfin, packed in water--I always use mayonnaise, sometimes with mustard or pickle added, plus garlic and pepper, or curry spices, or Southwest spices, or Greek spices, or whatever I'm aiming for. Added in are at least one soft, one crunch, one snap, and usually a fresh herb. These should also cover a (sweet) fruit, a sharp, and "green" flavor. A particularly popular version had dried blueberries, diced orange bell pepper, and mint. I think there was some kind of nut in there as well, and probably scallions or some other kind of onion. The colors are as important as the textures.

oooops...add butter to ome side of bread

pillog-you just reminded me that I forgot to add dried oregano! Going to the kitchen right now...

Since canned tuna is an expensive protein (at least on our $10/week meat budget), I add less expensive protein to "stretch" the protein servings with hard-cooked eggs and/or beans, cooked quinoa, cottage cheese, bean or seed sprouts.... Even at 69-cents a can, that equals $2.21 (rounded up) per pound, at $1.19 a can = $3.81 (rounded up) per pound.

I add chopped parsley and chives from the garden, to start with. With all the snow peas from the garden just now, I'll chop some small ones and add them or use the large ones split open and stuff them with tuna salad (a good gluten-free delivery system ;-).

Curried Tuna Salad includes slivered almonds, celery, chives, sour cream, mayo, lemon juice, pepper or ground papaya seeds, and curry powder. I like to add lemon pepper and an oil/lemon juice/mayo (or plain kefir or yogurt) dressing.

Old Bay Tuna made with cannellini beans, a little mayo, a few drops of hot chili oil or cayenne pepper and a bit of celery seeds and lots of chopped celery and seasoned with Old Bay.

Sicilian Tuna and Quinoa Salad: cooked quinoa, lemon zest and juice, bell pepper, chives, celery, olives, hard-cooked eggs, Italian parsley, black pepper or freshly ground nigella.

Tuna, Quinoa and Spinach Salad: cooked quinoa, tuna, fresh tarragon, baby spinach (chopped kale also works), dressed with white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard.

There's so many ways...... ;-)

Olychick, never heard of Sweet Creek. Looks like it's not available outside of Oregon, Washington and California.

I discovered Raincoast Trading tuna last year. It's a little pricey, but worth it! I buy it at Walmart. It's a couple bucks more at Whole Foods.

Raincoast Trading white albacore tuna

A little bit of either sour cream or Greek yogurt, as well as mayo, seems to 'clean up' the fishy flavor. Chopped carrot as well as celery is also nice.

Canned tuna (prefer tuna in oil, but good is not always easy to find), mayo, grated onion, grated dill pickle, grated celery or if don't have celery celery seed or salt, hard boiled egg chopped very fine. Many years ago, I found that grating the onion, etc., met our tastebuds the best.

Canned tuna white albacore in water. Home made mayo. Something in store bought triggers my terrible 3, cramps, kidneys, and then the topper migraines. Or if I'm too lazy, a mixture of yogurt and cottage or cream cheese. Mustard and Parsley and whatever herbs for the flavour choice of the day. Love it curried up. Pineapple and purple onions for sweet and crunchy with a bite.

Sometimes I use salmon pink in water or canned from a native friend of ours. So lovely.

In a pinch I'll use sardines mixed with soft boiled eggs and embrace fishiness. Even the kids ate the sardines with egg. Both hated them otherwise.

Like LindaC and cilantro, just mayo and chopped onion, a grind of black pepper. Elery is going to add hot sauce to his anyway, so I don't even bother to try to spice it up. I sometimes go crazy and add some chopped sweet pickle to mine. Frankly, I seldom eat canned tuna. I grew up eating home canned salmon and tuna just wasn't on the "radar", so it's not something I grew up with. I didn't make tuna sandwiches until Ashley was in school, so I was probably 40 before I ever had one. The few times we ate tuna when I was younger it was in tuna noodle casserole and we didn't have that very often.

Annie

Hot sauce! Yum!!! I will be trying that for sure, maybe instead of adding Dijon next time. Thanks for the great idea!

I love good tuna -- wish I could get some Sweet Creek Albacore to try! For tuna sandwiches, my basic additions are always finely chopped celery, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, mayo, S&P.... sometimes add finely chopped carrots, green bell pepper, and rarely add chopped hard-boiled egg.

I had a tuna 'dip'/spread for crackers at a party in Tennessee once that was really good.... quite certain it was made w/ celery, water chestnuts, sliced almonds, and mayo. Sound familiar to anyone?

Tuna canned in olive oil, very well drained; lots of sliced celery, a little sweet pickle relish, mayonnaise. That's it.

Here it's unusual to have anything but perhaps mayo on the bread, S & P, but I mix the mayo with the tuna and add finely sliced spring onions and some sweet pickle relish. A friend mixes about half tuna and half cream cheese and that's good too.

Mayo and garlic powder, the same way mom made it.

Canned tuna in oil, not drained. I add 1/2 a slice of whole grain bread crumbs to soak up the excess oil. My mom always did, probably to stretch a can of tuna, and it's just become ingrained in me to do the same. Add diced celery, onion and dill pickles. Some S&P and some dry mustard powder. Best Foods mayo. Darn, it's not even 8 a.m. and I want a tuna sandwich. lol

Admitting I didn't read EVERY post here!?! I would first have to start with the TUNA!?! For me, would have to be solid, in olive oil. Solid in water is dry as dust. Anything other than solid whatever tastes like what I'd imagine cat food would??

Saw someone using tuna in a jar on some cooking show... WAY back when there were actually COOKING shows on TV. I saw it ONCE at a Trader Joe's. First thought was pretty expensive till I realized it was probably twice the size of typical canned stuff. I "splurged" and bought ONE jar... what a MISTAKE!! It was SOOOO good and I never saw it there again?!?

Albacore chunks in water actually tames the fishiness for me. That said, I should splurge on a good jar of the stuff and try it again.

I can't even find tuna in oil. I was looking for some specifically for a pasta dish, and for extra good oil. Actually I did see some flavoured tuna in the little wee cans that are expensive. But the regular sized tins of solid or flaked are in water.

I like this "Italian" version: tuna, mayo, pesto, sundried tomatoes and Parmesan cheese.

Solid in water is dry as dust.

Try Raincoast Trading tuna.

http://www.raincoasttrading.com/raincoast-sustainable-concept.html

How I "condimentize" my tuna depends of the desired end product. Although you didn't specify that, I gather everyone has assumed you are asking about tuna used as a sandwich filling. For that I use the tuna in oil (I find the tuna in water to be basically unpalatable, at best), drained. Add diced celery, diced onion (green onion, including tops, if available), diced hard boiled egg, white pepper and mayo. No salt, the tuna itself has more than enough. Amounts of additions depends on how far I need to stretch the tuna.

Now if you were asking about tuna in pasta salads or hot dishes, that would be a whole 'nother story!

Rusty

Rusty- I love to tszuj up my tuna noodle casserole too!

Thanks, CindyMac, I'll look for Raincoast, too. It's probably similar to Sweet Creek, except the can vs. jar. Canned in its own juices is the best! My fish market sells smoked albacore tuna chunks, similar to smoked salmon, that is to die for. It's in bulk, not canned, though.

I actually prefer the tuna in water (don't find it dry at all) but I'm surprised to hear you guys have trouble getting the tuna in oil. Here most brands and sizes come packed in spring water (which I get as salt isn't good for the cats I share with :-) ), brine or oil.

Fun thread...no two condimentizations are the same.

I grew up on tuna with sweet pickle relish, chopped celery, mayo, worcestershire and a titch of mustard.

DH grew up with chopped egg added to stretch it. I can tolerate that, but it's just not quite right, lol.

Well my grammy was not a mayo fan - me either. She made tuna in olive oil served with tomato slices, iceberg lettuce, a bit of vinegar, capers with toasted english muffins.... More salad than sandwich but still my favorite.

A friend who is on a very very restricted diet recently served tuna salad with avocado, lemon, garlic on rice cakes for lunch. I forget what added the crunch. The avocado was essentially standing in for mayo. Delicious!

She said she likes when I eat over because I just eat what she serves - without comment. I have thought about the difficulties of serving people on careful diets - I had never really thought about how it is for them to host others.

Avocado is a great substitute for mayo.

My recipe always...

one can skip jack, (or olive oil DH likes)

olives, black green or mix

celery, with leaves, chopped

cilantro with the stems diced fine

red pepper, roasted and crisp fresh

halved grapes

toasted nuts....cashews, pecans, pepitas

chopped dried fruit, currants, dates, goji, or whatever i have

green onion ,chives, fresh herbs (garden choices, thyme, dill, tarragon etc)

Lemon mustard vinaigrette with a bit of plain greek yogurt or kefir to toss.

Options if available,...in fridge or garden...

micro greens, slaw, kimchi. cucumber, fresh pickles, capers.....avocado and tomato slices, chiffonade crispy salad greens, humus as the bread spread glue.

For an Asian variation we might use a bit of toasted sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds and a bit of soy, squirt of sriracha. for a change.

For travel we like the basic mix. Then i make an olive salad with extra cut-up veg for a ham and cheese with 'olive salad' like a muffuletta.

I don't think of it as 'stretching' as i think of tuna as cheap, but i can make 6-8 sandwiches on sprouted grain bread cut in half and packed separate as a good complete satisfying meal. Grab-n-Go. An upcoming farm/garden weekend, especially in the spring, like now, it is nice to have a quick bite when we get busy and 'peckish'. Years ago when DH would run errands he would pick up a giant sub at a well known Italian deli and a big bag of chips. Not so great of a meal. Having handy a few sandwiches and a slaw and pasta salad we get through the day fine since sunset is 8.30 now and we are often still in the garden late, then have a light dinner from the grill.

Never egg, garlic, red onion, or carrot unless served on a bed of greens as a salad meal. A texture thing and some veg gets strong and overpowering after a few hours.

(i use fresh tuna steaks for that meal)

I do not buy canned tuna, but I frequently buy tuna steaks that are too large, and then I use the grilled leftovers like canned tuna. Kevin will not eat tuna the day after it has been cooked, but I have found that it will keep for about three days and be fine. The main thing I add to it is my own tartar sauce, which I make with mayo, lemon juice, fresh chopped dill, chives, minced dill pickles, and a bit of my smoked Habanero sauce. I grow the dill, lemons, chives, and Habanero chilies, and I often make the mayo myself. If I make the dill pickles, they are refrigerator pickles, and I have a recipe for that, if you are interested, but they are not sweet. I sometimes add tomato or hard boiled egg to my tuna salad, but not both, and I'm not sure why, and I often add minced celery. In general, I like to keep it fairly simple and not detract from the tuna.

I also make a version of Salad Niçoise, but it is very far from being authentic, but it does have potatoes and tomatoes in it.

I am more likely to buy canned salmon and then make a salad with mayo, green onions, and lemon juice and then stuff tomatoes with it or chop the tomatoes and add them to the salad. It's been years since I've bought canned salmon, however.

Equal parts solid canned tuna in oil (drained), finely chipped onion, and chopped celery if the celery is store bought, much less if homegrown (much stronger flavor), add homemade mayo with extra lemon juice in it, pickle relish, and a couple of drops of Worcestershire sauce.

A long time ago in another town there was a sandwich place that a co-worker and I would go for lunch. We just LOVED their tuna and never could replicate it. Probably commercial stuff, but still we tried! The flavor of that tuna was amazing. We know they put mayo in. We came to the conclusion that it was tuna in oil, not water. I always had mine on these amazing buns they used with dill pickle and tomato. To die! I CANT REPLICATE!!

My mom always used tuna, mayo and pickle relish. I just can't stand that relish anymore.... So, we just don't eat tunafish.

I hate sweet relish, too, Suzi, but I do keep a jar around just for tunafish.

To go back to your first post - I do not believe that "condimentize" is a word, but I think it is okay to make up words, especially when an appropriate verb is not available. This does not apply to the use of "gift" as a verb, as the word "give" already exists and is the appropriate verb to use. "Gift" exists as a verb mainly in the past tense, gifted, meaning talented, and so to use it in place of "give" violates that meaning. I cringe every time I hear someone say "I gifted someone a present". What is wrong with saying "I gave someone a present"? Have grammar schools stopped teaching people how to speak properly?

Another noun used unconventionally as a verb is "Plate", which as a verb should mean "to cover with a layer of metal", but some people use it to mean serving food on a plate. That doesn't really bother me, but my brother hates it.

I did not post this on your hamburger condimentize thread because I do not make hamburgers.

I also hate sweet relish, and when I go to restaurants that serve tartar sauce, I always ask whether they use sweet relish in it, and if they do, I pass on that.

Lars, the one that drives me crazy is "substitute." How is that an entire generation of people doesn't understand how to use such a simple construction?

i'm so tired of reading, "I substituted beef for chicken in the boeuf bourguignon recipe," or, "You can substitute walnuts for pecans in this walnut fudge recipe," when they mean exactly the opposite.

Writersblock, I've never heard that! Fascinating!

I like "condimentize". English has word formation rules just so we can make up and understand this kind of word.

The thing with gift v.t. and plate v.t. is I think they started as jargon and drifted. To plate comes from the food service industry, where the workplace can be loud and full of distractions. "Go ahead and compose plates for the appetizers," is far to much where, "Plate the apps!" will do. With the number of TV shows showing the works of commercial kitchens over the last 15 years, it's not surprising that it has moved into common parlance. English likes homophones, and there's no reason why "plate" meaning put a metal finish on something and "plate" meaning put food on a dish can't exist together. Both come from a Greek root meaning flat.

Same with "gifting". I've never heard the construction that Lars gave, "I gifted you a present." That sounds like a foreigner construction. I'd cringe too if it came from someone who should know English. OTOH, Hollywood is known for "gifting suites" where business give free swag to celebrities hoping they'll be seen using it or tweet praises. In that case, the word is used to emphasize that it's free. There's also a sense where it's used for incomplete giving transactions, such as when donor agrees to pay for building, in a more solid way than pledging, but without a completed transfer of all funds. That has also been generalized to be used in such situations as when Oprah gifted all the people in the audience with a new car. The implied difference with "gave" is that gave can just mean handed over, where as "gifted" means it was a present. The ticket taker gave them their stubs; Oprah gifted them with cars. The word creation mechanism is the same as with "to plate". Part of the problem with the cringe version is that it's redundant, in a way that "I gave you a present" is not. It's also missing a preposition.

Just my opinion here.

Here's another one from just today, plllog:

Directions: 1) Place the halved apricots on a platter and set aside. 2) In the Vitamix or high-speed blender place the bananas along with spices and blend on low, you will need the tamper (if using the Vitamix) to help it along. If not, stop as needed and scrape down the sides with a spatula. (NOTE it’s very important not to over blend, it will take a little longer but the consistency should be very thick and creamy not smooth like a smoothie). 3) Scoop the ice cream out topping each apricot with it. 4) Drizzle coconut nectar over each and sprinkle coconut sugar.

NOTE: Coconut nectar can be substituted with maple syrup or other sweetener of choice.

Interesting! I don't know if this one would have grabbed me. "Substituted with" doesn't sound as wrong and one directional as "substituted for", especially in a recipe--weird syntax happens in Recipespeak all the time. A correct way to say it would be "For the coconut nectar, maple syrup, or other sweetener of your choice, may be substituted." That's really clunky, though.

writersblock: I gather you found the use of substitute to be in error, but I certainly can't spot the fault. Please Strunk me with your best shot.

Okay, that's not the best example, more just cloudy. But I do often see "substitute y for x" where y is the original ingredient.

BTW, chas, I don't think this is a problem that would ever even have occurred to Mr. Strunk or Mr. White as a possibility.

Just in the context of that sentence, it would have been better to say,

" Maple syrup or other sweetener of choice can be substituted for coconut nectar.

Yes. I was trying to maintain the emphasis on "coconut nectar" being in the beginning of the sentence. As you wrote it is excellent prose, but is in more of a discursive than instructional style.

Does making a tuna melt with sourdough and hot pepper jack cheese count as condimentizing it?

You don't substitute with....you substitute for....In reading the recipe's last sentence I read just the opposite of what was meant. The only way to understand the meaning was to read the whole recipe.
Substitute "with" likely comes from people confusing "substitute" with "replace".
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/substitute.html

I always get a chuckle out of hearing it called "Tunafish". Tuna is fish, isn't that like saying Salmonfish, or Halibutfish?? ....maybe it's a regional thing? but it just sounds wrong to me.

rob333

Does making a tuna melt with sourdough and hot pepper jack cheese count as condimentizing it?

****

Yum, tuna melts. Our favorite quickie dinner.

ps...don't tell Scott Conant ;-)

I always get a chuckle out of hearing it called "Tunafish". Tuna is fish, isn't that like saying Salmonfish, or Halibutfish?? ....maybe it's a regional thing? but it just sounds wrong to me.

*****

Tuna fish- the salad made with tuna

Tuna-just the fish

I have no idea about how that varies from region to region, but it is funny. Why it's not just called tuna salad, I don't know.

How do you tuna fish?

Run your finger along its scales :-D

You can tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish ;-D

Let's see-- tunafish salad: from a can? Tuna salad: fresh, tossed into a leafy salad?

It's been a long while since I made tunafish salad (as a stand alone or in a sandwich).

However -- light, not white, canned tuna, either in water or in quality olive oil + mayo + diced celery + a little mustard (Dijon or powder) + ground pepper as a minimum.

Anything else is extra: chopped onion or green onion, chopped black olives, capers, parsley, various added seasonings such as mild curry powder. Dill pickle, often dilly beans. NEVER sweet relish.

Served on a bed of crunchy lettuce, or in a sandwich (slices of bread, no rolls) with that crunchy lettuce.

Tunafish sandwich...I've always called it that and NEVER thought about it. That IS funny now that you point it out.

To me a slab of fresh fish is tuna; the fish in a can or jar - until it's mixed with other things is tuna. Tuna salad is the canned stuff mixed with other ingredients and served without bread, either on greens or as a scoop next to something else. I would never say tunafish salad. Maybe it is regional.