Missing pieces

Mello-Yello · 07-07-2003, 07:04 PM

Ok, being a sponge for information, I think I've almost got all the pieces to the puzzle, but there are still a couple pieces missing.

Most of the information on preserving tuna deal with best case scenarios. What if....

1> You've just returned with a boat load of tuna and you need to hot-tail it home. How long will tuna remain top quality if kept on ice?
2> You just got home with a cooler full of loins, wrapped in zip-locs and packed tight with ice. How long before it MUST be canned?
3> Due to a slight mis-calculation (and a really good day on the lake), you run out of canning jars and still have some tuna. Can you freeze it and can it later?
4> Do you cook canned tuna like you would fresh raw tuna, or should you consider freezing some fresh tuna for frying, bbq'n, etc for later?
5> Can you freeze whole (gutted of course) tuna and deal with it later?

I realize doing many of the preceding actions could jeopardize the quality of the tuna, particularly being sashimi grade, but assuming it's been spiked, bled, chilled quickly and kept packed in ice the entire time, would there be significant degredation to it's quality?

M-Y

Mark Mc · 07-07-2003, 08:22 PM

Hiya Mello, some partial answers:

First of all, if you have not yet been to this website

uc davis seafood extension

do so and soak it all up. Also, this publication from Seagrant is helpful:
web page

If you will not can it (or cook it for that matter) within 2 or 3 days of landing it, you are better off freezing it right away, and thawing out later. I have frozen it fresh, then thawed out 1 or 2 months later to can, and it was still quite good. I also thawed out some tuna that had been frozen for 6 months, then smoked it, and it was great. Note that after 6 months I did trim off some of the "freezer yuck". And no, you do not cook canned tuna *again*, because it has already been cooked in the pressure-canner!

Last comment: as I have noted in other posts, to give the fish the "royal treatment" on the boat, after bleeding remove the guts & gills. Then when you put in slush or pack in ice (that is, ice packed into the belly cavity as well as surrounding the body), the core will chill even faster.

Hope this helps; great questions. These are fabulous fish and are worthy of the attention you want to give them.

Mark Mc, a.k.a. Marcus Carcass

Mello-Yello · 07-07-2003, 10:39 PM

Great info Mark. I'd read the UC Davis info but hadn't seen the other. The SeaGrant page really touched on the issues I was wondering about. Even though a person sets out to do something 'perfect', circumstances sometimes require the "Plan B" approach. As with all meat, especially from the wild, how it tastes on the table is directly dependent on how it was cared for in the field.

Thanks Mark, you did good.