Could it be that the lid was just too tight to allow the liquid to drain? Was there the usual amount of liquid, or less?

Lots of better brands out there.....chicken of the sea chunk light is like cat food any more...little flakes in a wet mess. Try Genova for one.

Draining a tuna can is low skill, ha. As I pressed the cutout lid against the tuna, the tuna was oozing out like silly puddy. I had noticed the wet mess previously but refused to believe my life was reduced to being annoyed by such trivialities. It’s really more than that and I came to the cooking experts to show me the error of my eats. I’ll ck our Genova.

I shake the cans before I purchase them. It will let you know how much water they contain. I forget the recipe but it requested well drained tuna. The instructions said to place the tuna in a towel and squeeze. I was surprised how much more water came out after a good press draining using the can/lid.

I buy fresh tuna and grill it instead of buying cans. I avoid Albacore, but that might be okay for a tuna salad, and it might also be okay for a salad if it was previously frozen, although I never buy that either. I think you can also buy frozen tuna, and that would be better than canned.

I buy Raincoast exclusively. Very little water. Excellent tuna.

albacore-tuna

Agree with Lars, fresh is the best. When dh used to catch yellowfin I would make tuna salad with the grilled or blackened leftovers.

Yes, fresh is best, but really, you can't make tunafish with ahi tuna. It's just not the same. :)

Incidentally, they're saying now that yellowfin is the tuna to buy, because of lower mercury levels.

Nope...I say canned tuna...but use it to make tunafish sandwiches, or rarely tuna casserole...
And I make codfish cakes from salt cod.
Go figure......

I use Starkist in oil, and yes, it does look like cat food, but it's cheap and convenient.

I don't do anything with the lid except get rid of if ASAP, having cut myself with such lids too many times.

Bossy - just empty the can into a strainer over a bowl and wait a bit, turn the tuna over once of twice with a fork so most liquid oozes out, and you're good to go.

I transfer the drained tuna into another bowl, plop in some mayo and mash the whole with a fork into a yummy spread.

As it happens, that's the packed lunch I brought to work today. Cat food is cool!

Off topic but FWIW I buy chunk light because it’s made from small tuna like skipjack that have significantly less mercury than white (albacore) tuna. I do lose some to the sink when draining though.

ETA - LindaC, are you admitting to CoM and potato chips, or do you have something more respectable to offer? I tried the “classic” a few years back for old time’s sake, but couldn’t get it down with all the salt. :)

FWIW?
ETA?
CoM?

TTKMAWAN.....

FWIW = For what it's worth

ETA = Edited to add

CoM is a mystery to me, too.

TTKMAWAN???

Good canned tuna is out there, packed in olive oil is my preference. Of course manufacturers are cutting corners on every level.

A standard science trick; put a piece of cardboard on a glass with full water and turn the glass upside down quickly. The water will not fall out from the glass. This is due to 14 lbs of atmospheric pressure pushing up.

Try to punch a little hole on the bottom of the can, water may come out easier.

dcarch

"FWIW = For what it's worth
ETA = Edited to add
CoM is a mystery to me, too.
TTKMAWAN???"

I realized FWIW just before reading your post.
ETA, I could only see Estimated Time of Arrival.
Could CoM really be CoS? Chicken of the Sea? (To keep this on topic.)

TTKMAWAN: These things keep me awake at night.

TBLBITW.....

Cream of Mushroom soup

Well now you’re making it fun. Hint: think Andy Warhol

Isn't it interesting that fresh is "Tuna" but canned is "Tunafish"...?

Like Lindac, to me canned tuna is also tuna. Tunafish is tuna salad with mayo, especially when used in a sandwich.

Never COM...
One time I was talked into making that dish that puts a piece of dried beef inside a chicken breast and there maybe a slice of ham bentath, then mixing COM with something...maybe chicken broth from a can/, pouring it over then baking for an hour and a half!
The guests seemed ok with it...but it was so salty I couldn't drink enough and the chicken was so over cooked and dry it was hard to even tell it was chicken.

Tunafish comes in a can...tuna is caught on a line and made into steaks and grilled.

And when I realized how much actual tunafish was in a can of Starkist light...I stopped buying it. There is easily twice as much meat in a can of "the expensive stuff" for less than twice the price.

Haha - tuna & tunafish mean the same thing to me. Tuna salad is made w/ canned tuna.

But I actually stopped eating all types of tuna years ago because of its high mercury content. Now I make 'salad' & noodle casseroles w/ canned salmon instead.

I dislike anything other than solid pack (in water) albacore tuna for tuna salad. It looks better, tastes differently and never has the 'mush' issues referred to above. And I don't eat it very often so do not worry about mercury poisoning......I am well within any recommended guidelines :-) I do sometimes use fresh grilled ahi if I am making a Nicoise salad. For other recipes involving canned tuna, I do use chunk light tuna (skipjack) simply because it is far less expensive and the dish is not as tuna-centered as a salad is so the consistency and flavor is less important.

"But I actually stopped eating all types of tuna years ago because of its high mercury content."

Any long living sea creature has higher mercury content because the organism eat/absorb more over time. It is retained in the flesh and is not expelled. This goes especially for bottom feeders such as lobster and crab.

The younger the fish, the smaller it is, and you tend to consume as much flesh accordingly so the mercury is there anyway.

And that's why I mostly stick to sardines, herring, wild salmon, mullet, farmed shrimp, catfish, Pacific cod & calamari. I do miss eating a lot of seafood - esp. living here in FL, where even our inland waters have been contaminated w/ mercury from agriculture and power plants = (

I like to use the Seafoodwatch consumer guide:

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/seafood-recommendations/consumer-guides

A lot of mercury got into the water supply from gold mining industry in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It will keep washing into the oceans from the streams. Even fresh water fish is vulnerable.

The younger the fish, the smaller it is, and you tend to consume as much flesh accordingly so the mercury is there anyway.

Gary are you suggesting that pound for pound, there’s the same amount of mercury in young and old fish? I don’t believe that’s the case but I’m not 100% certain. I thought concentrations grow exponentially with age.

re fresh water fish, I’ve actually read that they are often worse.