I do have a recipe for canned tuna that my mother got from The Fisherman magazine in the early 70's. She used it with some yellowfin that my father had caught, served it a gathering of family and friends and everyone loved it (and with no ill effects either). A couple of years ago I got my first longfin tuna on a Voyager trip. I called Mom for the recipe, canned the tuna up and I was eating that tuna 1 year later (again with no ill effects).
So here is my recipe. A couple of things, though:
1. Make sure everything is scrupulously clean. If you get new jars and lids, wash them well or put them on the normal cycle of the dishwasher while you get everything else ready.
2. The recipe is simple, but the cooking time is rather long. If you cant can it all in one shot, you can freeze the tuna, thaw it later and it will be perfectly fine. With that said, here it goes:
Ingredients:
1 quart Mason jars with lids
Tuna, cut into about 2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
Water
Note: you can halve the amounts and the cooking time for pint jars
Wash jars, rings and lids.
Put tuna chunks into jar up to the neck of the jar, packing the fish in as much as you can.
Add oil, salt and sugar.
Put water in jar just enough to cover the fish (you want a little headspace at the top of the jar).
Put clean knife down the sides of the jar to get rid of air bubbles and cover fish again with water if you need to.
Put lids and rings on and tighten down well.
Place jars in pot and fill pot with water up to the neck of the jar. Bring to the boil, then simmer jars for 4 hours for quart jars, 2-2.5 hours for pint jars (told you the cooking process was long
).
Take jars out of pot and let cool. Tighten lids if they have become slightly loose.
Make sure to listen for the pop as the button at the top of the lids gets sucked in. if they don't pop in 10-15 minutes, tap the lid, if it still doesn't go down, toss the jar (better to be safe than sorry).
Done right, the tuna will last unopened at least 1 year. Opened, treat it as you would canned tuna.
