Veggies, mayonnaise, and just the right bread — There's a lot more to tuna salad than
simply tuna.
What are the most common mistakes that people make with this versatile meal?
Keep watching to find out.
Unless you're going for a chunky twist on tuna salad, roughly chopped pieces of celery
and onion are not only unsightly, they also detract from the overall flavor of your tuna salad.
By chopping all the vegetables finely enough, each mouthful will be perfectly balanced,
for a smooth ride from the first bite to the last.
If you are unsure of which vegetables to use, start with the commonly used celery stalks,
adding in onions, and finishing off with extras of your choosing like pickles.
Just be sure to sharpen your knife, take your time, and chop those veggies as fine as you can.
As you get more comfortable with your base recipe, you can experiment with different ingredients.
So much about cooking is balancing out flavors, and this is true even if you are making a
quick salad for an on-the-go lunch.
In general, acidic ingredients were never a strange addition to fish dishes, from thin
slices of lemon on top of broiled Alaskan cod to vinegar in Middle Eastern fish sauces.
In fact, you might find that a little fresh lemon juice is just what you need to make
the flavors in otherwise plain canned tuna really pop.
Sugar might be a more surprising addition, but it was recommended by Cook's Country as
being a secret ingredient you won't be able to skip once you try it.
This makes sense since sweet pickles and their juices are often added to tuna salad recipes.
They recommend half a teaspoon of sugar per can, which might be a little too much for
some, but this is where you can have fun experimenting.
Start with less, or substitute the brine from a jar of bread and butter sweet pickles, for example.
"It's the greatest thing that's happened to a sandwich since sliced bread.
The one and only Vlasic sandwich stackers."
Steve Cook, head of the highly regarded Rooster deli and Zahav fine-dining establishment in
Philadelphia, recommends against using water-packed tuna, as it will inevitably lead to a dry
tuna salad sandwich.
His trick for enhancing the mouthfeel of canned tuna is to mix in another oily fish, sardines.
Unlike tuna, sardines are low on the food chain and lower in mercury.
They are also more affordable, more sustainable, and can add a boost of flavor you might otherwise miss.
Beyond selecting oil-packed tuna, be sure to also look for the pole and line caught
label, which is more sustainable and lowers the risk of other, sometimes endangered fish
from being caught at the same time.
The team at Bon Appetit recommends the brands Genova, Tonnino, Bela, and Ortiz.
"Ha HA!"
"Oh my God!"
What do most famous chefs have in common?
None of them use mayonnaise substitutes.
In its simplest form, mayonnaise is made simply of egg yolks, oil, and an acid such as lemon
juice, and those are the clean flavors you want in your tuna salad.
If you don't like mayo, or are looking to change things up a little for variety, you
can use mashed avocado as a substitute, or even yogurt.
Or hone your culinary skills and try to make your own mayonnaise a home.
It is not as hard as people think, but remember that it has a much shorter shelf life than
store-bought mayonnaise, which has been pasteurized.
Mayonnaise needs to be refrigerated, and so does tuna salad.
If you are making it in advance, be sure to keep it in your fridge at all times.
And if you plan on taking your sandwich on a hike or to work, adding an ice pack to your
lunch bag is always a good idea.
Ideally, you will want to assemble your tuna salad sandwich at the last minute to keep
the bread dry and intact.
According to the USDA, storing tuna salad above 40 degrees renders it unsafe to eat
pretty quickly, so remember to keep it under that threshold at all times, and eat it within
3 to 4 days if you were able to keep it cold.
The same goes for most other foods which contain perishable items, like potato salad.
The risk goes up for homemade condiments like homemade mayo where the egg yolks stay raw.
"And here's the extra mayonnaise you ordered."
"Yum, yum."
Tuna salad needs sturdy bread that won't fall apart, and bread that is neutral enough in
flavor that it will not clash with the tuna salad itself.
According to Matt Duckor of Epicurious, do not use sweet, soft white bread, which can't
handle tuna salad.
He recommends whole wheat multigrain bread only.
If you don't like it or are out of sturdy bread that can handle the weight of your tuna
salad, feel free to toast it.
This will also make it less likely to become soggy halfway through your lunch.
In general, store-bought bread tends to be flimsier than artisan bread from an actual bakery.
Your tuna salad adventures might be the push you need to explore your neighborhood for
local bakers who can not only provide you with delicious sliced bread, but can also
get you to try out different kinds of bread like baguettes, ciabatta rolls, or even freshly
made English muffins.
Tuna salad does not have to be just celery, onions, and mayonnaise.
You can use fresh tuna steaks like The Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten, who also uses hot sauce
and wasabi powder in her tuna salad.
Singer Nick Jonas, while not a professional cook, still describes himself as "a tuna enthusiast"
and likes to add a few drops of Cholula hot sauce to his tuna salads.
"You know, hot sauce makes everything better."
Or go wild and add drained and rinsed cannellini beans as Giada de Laurentiis does.
At the end of the day, you can make your tuna salad as unique as you are, and as you can
see from the multitude of tuna salad recipes out there, every cook brings something different
to the table.
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