Tuna Melt
Keeping it old school and thoughts on quality
My favorite purveyor of meat is Pursuit Farms1. Pursuit Farms is run by Erik Sun, a chef, spearfisherman, entrepreneur, and all around awesome dude. I started following Erik on Instagram several years ago, and when he started shipping high quality wagyu beef during the pandemic, I ordered about 20 lbs and went from there.2
The Pursuit Farms website prominently features an Oscar Wilde quote:
I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
I love that. And, when it comes to cooking and eating, it’s true. More often than not, using the “best” ingredients you can find is the simplest way to cook the “best” meal you can make. It’s part of the reason why restaurant food — from good restaurants — is so expensive. Often, but not always, they are using really great ingredients.
That’s not to say, of course, it’s a 1:1 on price : quality. It’s easy to overspend on crappy food, just like it’s (relatively) easy to find a bargain on really good food. But, it’s worth, at least a few times a year, to really go out and try to source the best stuff you can afford and taste the difference. You don’t have to do it every week, let alone every meal, but knowing the types of things that can really elevate your cooking is important — and the most effective way to learn that is by trying different things. You may find that spending more on grass-fed beef doesn’t do it for you flavor-wise — but a jar of really high quality mustard absolutely blows your mind!
Anyway, after the intricacy of beef stroganoff last week, I thought it might be prudent to keep it simple this week. We’re making tuna melts. This is the type of cooking3 that really shines when you are discerning about what you use, so this is a great opportunity to experiment with some high quality ingredients in a low stakes environment. Go ahead and break out the can opener and let’s get cranking!4
In a medium sized bowl, dump two cans of tuna, preferably packed in olive oil5. Add in a scoop of cottage cheese6, a scoop of mayonnaise, a squeeze of Dijon mustard, a splash of vinegar7, and some salt and pepper8. Mix thoroughly.
Lightly toast the best bread you have9, smear with a little of the best butter you have10, load with your tuna salad, and then top with the best cheese you have11. Pop this under the broiler for 2-3 minutes until the cheese browns, and enjoy!
So there we have it — tuna melts. If you don’t usually read the footnotes12, this would be a good week to start, since there are some recommendations on ingredients. But I’d encourage you to experiment here. Ask around at the grocery store for what’s good. Or, better yet, check out a farmer’s market and talk to the folks who are making your bread, your cheese, your butter. Tell them what your making and get their input on what would work well13. If nothing else, you might get inspired to try something a little outside of your wheelhouse.
Before I leave you with a closing statement, I’d be remiss not to mention where this tuna salad recipe originated. It’s from, of course, Nana CWD — at least loosely. Growing up, we’d often have tuna salad with potato chips. I remember distinctly my mom cutting up celery to add to the tuna, and dumping in cottage cheese. While personally, I think dicing veggies is too much work for tuna, the cottage cheese has stuck. Nana — please submit the “original” recipe below in the comments… and thank you for your constant inspiration!
With that, finish off your Friday, drink plenty of water, and remember to buy some candy for the neighborhood kids!
PS: My good friend Sam has several dozen pounds of beef he needs to run through in the next week before he moves cross-country. He reached out for some advice on what to cook. I suggested smoking most of it on the Traeger, maybe making some beef jerky, crushing some chili — and then packing the rest up in a cooler and giving it to me! Please feel free to amend my recommendations below in the comments.
Besides, of course, local meat from Powisset Farm.
The guy couldn’t be nicer, by the way. After a shipping snafu on the first order, he immediately helped out via text. Now, I shoot him a note a few times a year when I need something delicious and he always helps out. Couldn’t recommend highly enough. If you order, please send my best!
Cooking, as used here, is maybe a generous description.
Pun!
We’ve been getting ours from Mind Fish lately, and it’s terrific, but the gold standard is Ortiz Bonita Del Norte. If you’ve never had really good canned tuna, your mind is about to be blown. This is such a far cry from water packed Bumblebee, I hate to even compare it. Granted it’s way more expensive, but it’s worth trying at least once. I wouldn’t even make tuna salad with it, just put it directly on warm toast (with the oil) and enjoy.
That being said, the stuff from Mind Fish is still fantastic and works perfectly in this preparation. You can even get it on Amazon. It’s our go-to canned tuna.
Red wine or apple cider vinegar is good, but lately I’ve been using pickle juice — or even more recently, pepperoncini brine.
We use homemade sourdough… Uncle Steady — still waiting for the recipe write up you promised! Otherwise, the freshest you can find works.
Kate’s is typically the standard in our house, but ever since we visited High Lawn Farm a few weeks ago in the Berkshires, we’ve been using their cultured butter — at least until our stores run out.
I don’t think anything beats a good cheddar here. Cabot’s Seriously Sharp is good and widely available — but anything goes. We’ve been using Italian Cheddar from the aforementioned High Lawn Farm lately.
Does anyone not??
This goes for more than just tuna melts, obviously!
Have you ever known Nana CWD to follow a recipe? Do you actually think Nana CWD has the patience or the skill set?
When I was 15, I had a friend named Audrey whose 16-year-old sister went on a diet. Back then there was no "low calorie" mayonnaise, but cottage cheese was the rage for dieters (we're talking 1975), although I do not recall there even being "no-fat" or even "low-fat" cottage cheese at the time, only whole milk cottage cheese, so I am thinking in retrospect the cottage cheese was actually as "fattening" as a small scoop of mayonnaise. But the cottage cheese added "bulk" to the tuna, which is a good thing when you are hungry. And vinegar has no calories if you stick with wine vinegar or cider vinegar, so definitely couldn't use balsamic if you were dieting, which I don't even remember existing back then. Anyway, Audrey's sister (can't remember her name, but it will come to me in the dark hours of the night) lived on tuna mixed with cottage cheese, dijon mustard and vinegar for weeks at a time, and actually did lose quite a bit of weight. She did not include any mayonnaise, but she did add celery because at the time we were all told that when you eat celery you actually lose weight because you burned more calories eating celery than the calories of the celery because it took so much effort for your body to break the celery down (???......however, at the time, due to belief of this theory, I thought eating peanut butter loaded on celery was a dieting tool). I think Audrey's sister also added onions, which I like to do, but Dad and you kids did not like onions growing up (maybe Joe did, but he was overruled).
So basically that's how the "recipe" started for the tuna with cottage cheese, dijon mustard (another "dieter's staple back then), and vinegar, although no one on a diet in 1975 would even consider tuna packed in oil. I always used tuna packed in water, probably because Grammy only ever bought cans of Starkist Albacore Chunk White tuna packed in water when I was growing up (which was considered "premium" tuna); however, I bought the cheaper Bumblebee Chunk Light tuna packed in water for you kids--it was fine, before you all became so picky.
I guess the secret to this recipe is to make sure the tuna is drained really well, especially if it's packed in water. If not, the tuna mixture becomes eerily watery clumpy. That being said, tuna packed in water might really be a dummy-down stretch as it is probably NOT the GOOD STUFF. I also like to make sure the cottage cheese is not too watery either but more solid, which the good stuff probably is. I also think too much seasoning ruins the tuna, as I have experimented with garlic powder, onion powder, cajun seasoning, etc., and think the "purist" version is best, most especially if you are using high-end tuna and other ingredients.
I think I overstayed my invite.
Audrey’s sister’s name is Wendy, FYI.