Written by Linden Staciokas

Canned tuna is cheap, tasty, and with a little creativity

Until I started researching this article, I was certain of only three things about canned tuna fish.

First, it is a cheap food. Every time I go to a grocery store I scope out the price, because tuna is often on an unadvertised special. That is why at our house we are eating the last of Safeway’s 50 cents-per-can tuna, purchased when there was no limit on number so we bought 2 cases. But even when there are no specials, Fred Meyer carries a house brand for 77 cents a can, although you can only buy 2 at a time. If you are willing to pay more, you can find stores carrying flavored tunas, such as lemon, lemon pepper or chipotle.

Second, it is a good source of protein. Your typical 5-ounce water packed can contains, per serving: 11 grams of protein, .5 grams of fat, and no carbs. An identical sized can of oil packed contains, per serving: 8 grams of protein, 4 grams of fat, and 2 grams of carbs. (The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggests that pregnant women eat no more than 6 ounces of canned albacore tuna a week. It has a mercury content three times that of other canned tunas, such as solid, chunk or flaked, and mercury ignores the protective barrier of the placenta and marches right to the baby’s brain.)

The third of the three canned tuna facts I knew is that I desperately miss tuna packed in oil - specifically olive oil. Unless a recipe demands it, these days I confine myself to dreaming about the aroma and texture of oil based canned tuna. For a long time I resisted the food police who insisted we all switch to water packed tuna before allowing another tuna sandwich to pass the lips. As justification for my refusal to acquiesce, I cited the food writers who universally agree that oil processed tuna always tastes better because water processing leaches out the flavor; in fact, the longer a can sits there, the more the olive oil marinade improves the flavor.

But then most companies switched to vegetable oil, so the taste of the tuna changed and I finally gave in. But I still dream of olive oil processed tuna, and at Christmas someone in my family always gives me a few cans - truly a gift of love, since a can of olive oil based Lazio or El Batel Spanish albacore is beastly difficult to find and can cost $6 a can or more, plus shipping.

Here are the things I learned about canned tuna after I started this writing assignment. First, a piece of tuna history: In ancient Carthage, tuna was packed in brine and used like money. According to a blurb on tuna canning that ran in Saveur Magazine, “The first American cannery was established in New York in 1812, packing oysters, among other foods, first in glass and then in tin.In 1903, when the annual run of Pacific sardines didn’t show up as scheduled in Southern California, canner Albert P. Halfhill had his workers pack tuna instead -and lunch as we know it was born.” More than 100 years later, we are still benefiting from Halfhill’s flash of genius.

Second, tuna is a general name and the can you open can contain several varieties of this member of the mackerel family - including albacore, skipjack, bluefin and yellowfin. Albacore is the only variety that is allowed to be labeled white meat, which is what justifies its much higher price, although many people find the darker and stronger tasting meats of the bluefin, yellowfin and skipjack much more to their liking.

Third, no matter what the variety, all of these fish are warm-blooded, and can get sufficient oxygen only if they move quickly enough to insure that, as one writer put it, “oxygen-rich water is incessantly rushing over their gills.” They can swim 100 miles a day, at speeds up to 40 miles an hour.

That is why the flesh of tuna is so much firmer than other fish - those are well exercised muscles you are eating.

Fourth, there are very specific guidelines as to how those muscles are labeled on the can, meaning whether they are called solid, chunk or flaked.

Solid tuna, also known as solid packed or fancy, has a solid piece of tuna loin in the can. Chunk tuna is a collection of pieces that broke off the loin while it was being processed for a solid packed can. And flaked tuna is all the rest.

Finally, what I really could not explain until I started preparing this article was why we usually call it tuna fish, when we never say salmon fish or turbot fish. Apparently not too many people wonder about this, because I had to search back through 10 years of New York Times archived articles to find the reason. So, my thanks to writer Suzanne Hamlin, who revealed the secret in 1997. “Canned tuna is called ‘tuna fish’ in the United States and ‘tunny fish’ in Britain, names that may seem redundant now but at one time were probably enlightening to two nations largely unfamiliar with fresh tuna.”

She goes on to say that the southern Italian immigrants living in Southern California when the calendar rolled over to the 1900s, “began to catch and can tuna.few landlocked Americans were familiar with many ocean fish. As canned goods began to be sold throughout the country, canners did not want any confusion: Better that people knew tuna was fish, not tomatoes, say, or beans.”

So, as the season progresses and you find yourself tired of the excesses and expenses of the holidays, join a century of folks who came before you and open a can of tuna for a fast, cheap and nutritious meal.