Growing up my mother made my tuna sandwiches with Best Foods mayo, chopped celery and chopped egg from the wire egg cutter or the mouli grater. I loved it on white bread or toast, preferably with potato chips. DH likes it today with Best Foods mayo and his latest love, Tony Packo's Pickles from Ohio. Don't ask, the best thing about DD moving to Georgia was that Fresh Market carries Tony Packo's. He doesn't want a sandwich, prefers a salad unless I make a tuna melt on an English muffin.

Mother always made hers as: tuna, mayo, celery, dill pickles, and a little ground pepper.

I despise pickles, and I have to be careful at deli counters because pickles are, in fact, a pretty common ingredient in tuna salad. I think I've encountered them more often in chicken salad than tuna salad, but they definitely pop up in both. Don't even get me started on potato salad.

Well it depends on what I am going to do with the tuna salad. For a sandwich I just use mayo ... and a bit of finely chopped onion and a squeeze of lemon....white bread toasted with lettuce please. If it's for a scoop of salad on a plate I put in some celery too.....and if I am trying to make a can feed 3 people I will add some hard boiled egg and more celery.
But never pickle of any sort in tuna salad. And I save the slivered almonds for chicken salad.
I do love, though, tuna salad on a bun, topped with some cheddar cheese, wrapped in foil and warmed in the oven until the cheese melts.
My mother always sneered at people who tried to "stretch" a can of tuna with excess celery....but a hardboiled egg was OK. go figure!

I like mine with Mayo or Miracle Whip, I like both of them, plus sweet pickle relish, and hard boiled eggs, a bit of diced celery and even a bit of onion. I like it served on toast and some lettuce. I do not have any tuna stockpiled.

Sue

I like yellowfin tuna in olive oil, chopped sweet onion, capers, hard-boiled eggs salt & pepper. No mayo..a squeeze of lemon and on a baguette with lettuce and tomato.

My husband has been making the tuna sandwiches here for 42 years now. Tuna plus mayo. Way way back I recall tuna salad with relish. I have always hated bug chunks of celery in mine.

Although it was specifically not asked for, I’m enjoying reading what people are adding to their tuna. I’m generally making it for my wife and she’s in the “no crunchies” camp. Other than that she takes whatever I give her and that is generally chunk light tuna (not preferred for taste but for lower mercury), as little mayo as I think I can get away with, a good squeeze of lemon juice, black pepper, and celery seed. If it were for me I’d be adding onion to the mix. I would like celery but I’ve generally stopped buying it because I never get through it before it goes bad. I don’t have much need for relish in my life, but it’s had me thinking about capers. I see that seagrass mentioned them. These conversations always leave me wondering what miracle whip is all about, but I’m always left just shy of being tempted enough to buy it.

Tuna fish, a bit of chopped sweet onion, chopped celery, finely chopped apple, mayo, a bit of lemon juice, pinch of salt....and a pinch of both powdered coriander and cumin. My family approved this combination when I dreamed it up about 50 years ago. And, better yet, my Mother-in-Law insisted on this for lunch whenever she visited.

Mine gets the entire crisper drawer and whatever else I'm in the mood for. Olives, capers, apples, celery, especially the inner leaves, fresh dill, sweet red/yellow pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, shallots, red onion. radish yellow beets, etc. celery seed, coriander, fennel...cilantro and its stalks, halved grapes, hijiki, crumbled seaweed snack squares. I finish in different directions like mustard, horseradish, yogurt, avocado or toasted sesame oil, ginger, miso, yogurt. avocado.

One can fills and entire baguette, 3-5 wraps depending on size, 3-4 sandwiches, favorite bread is RocklandBakery's pumpernickel/rye swirl sliced the thinest setting at check-out. Or just in a lettuce wrap, or a plated salad with quick pickles.

I'm not stretching the can. Its a healthy meal. Good for road trips, hikes, yard/garden work...wrap individual halves for grab-n-go quick lunches, and some in a fridge bowl. Lasts a couple days.

I make tuna salad one of two ways. The preferred way is tuna, chopped celery, chopped hard boiled eggs and mayo PERIOD. The “omg, I need lunch and I forgot to boil eggs” way is tuna, sweet pickle relish, and mayo PERIOD. It’s either celery and eggs or sweet pickle relish and NEVER the twain shall meet!

I’ve never heard of putting onion in tuna salad. And, while I know you are all good cooks, I do not want vegetables, fruits, or nuts in my tuna salad. If you put it in front of me, I would eat it, but I wouldn’t make it and if I were out, I wouldn’t order it.

I love chicken salad stuffed tomatoes, but I cannot abide the taste of tuna and tomatoes together.

Guess what we are having for lunch? And because eggs are hard to come by right now, I’ll be making the tuna, sweet pickle relish, mayo version today. I may turn it into a tuna melt.

Growing up tuna salad was tuna, Best Foods mayo, sweet relish, a titch of mustard and some worcestershire. DH grew up with chopped hard boiled eggs in his, so now it's all of the above, only with homemade mayo and relish. Sometimes I toss in a little chopped celery.

Mayo, chopped boiled eggs, dill pickles, (sweet pickles or relish sounds gross) celery if I have it, tarragon, a splash of lemon. Period.

When I was first married a friend introduced me to tuna (always Geisha Girl in those days, not now) with 1/2mayo 1/2sour cream, chopped scallions and some lemon juice mixed together and let sit for a few hours for the flavors to meld. I liked the creaminess of that blend, probably because I'm not a big fan of the taste of mayo.

Fast Forward 25 years and I find that I'm intolerant to onions and the newest blend of mayo,made with SOY. I was even intolerant to tuna itself, but thankfully that passed. Now I eat plain, good quality tuna over greens with a lite apple cider vinegar or lemon juice and evoo.

I forgot to mention that Tony Packo's pickles are sweet hots or bread and butter style. DH likes either of them in his tuna salad. Another friend introduced me to chopped apple in the tuna salad. I loved the taste, DH didn't like the extra crunch.

Making one can last for two days and 3-4 sandwiches or wraps? I don't understand that math! LOL

That sounds good for a change!

Uh-oh the dairy/seafood police might come after compumom and cookebook!

ETA - oops, and all (including me) who make tuna melts!

Water packed tuna, drained. Bama mayonaise. Mt Olive sweet pickle relish. Chopped hard boiled egg. Iceberg lettuce. On bread, toast, or crackers.

ETA: If out of tuna, substitute poached chicken or ham.

ETA2: I like celery, but husband doesn't.

I started putting relish in tuna years ago upon the recommendation of Weight Watchers, so that less mayo was used. I also like finely chopped celery because I like the crunch. I only do that if I'm going to eat it right away rather than packing a sandwich lunch, as I find the celery weeps and makes the bread soggy.

Sweet relish is a must. Just a little. And lots of celery and mayonnaise mixed with well-drained oil-packed tuna.

Oooh. Geisha tuna was (white albacore) the best!

Whole foods makes a really good tuna salad with red onions and dried cranberries, lemon juice and mayo. Sometimes the cranberries (which are sugared) are too sweet for me, but it's usually well balanced.

It sounds like a lot of you like the tuna wet. I don't like it when it gets gooshy. Just enough mayo/acid to make it hold together, please. Mine is more like Sleevendog's--something made up on the spot from what I have, and a salad rather than a sandwich.

Sadly, while I used to tolerate tuna fine, in the last few years I've been getting a reaction, and had to give it up. :(

One 'can' of tuna mixed as a salad in a lidded fridge bowl. The tuna salad in that bowl can make many sandwiches depending on the size of the bread on hand. Some or half of that tuna salad can stay in the bowl for a couple days to make more sandwiches or a cold salad lettuce wrap.

Here is a link. Click on the highlighted green 'HERE'...>>>...HERE

Not that unusual to elevate a salad as one likes. Or not that unusual to make it plain as one likes.

My tuna salad--chopped hard boiled egg, mayo, Del Monte Sweet Pickle Relish, celery, dab of mustard, paprika. If there is no sweet pickle relish in the house, I don't make it till I can buy more. And it tastes best not with bread but with Wheat Thin crackers!

Tuna, a dab of sweet pickle relish, finely chopped celery and onion, pepper, dill and mayo. Served on good toast with a bit of melted cheese on top. This is comfort food for me, but my family doesn't like tuna so I only make it, my way, for myself.

No relish in my chicken salad... for that I lean toward curry style.

For me, chopped celery, onion, dill pickles, lemon, S&P, a dash of dry mustard and mayo. This is sometimes done as a tuna melt. I've made alternative versions with a herb vinaigrette before (no mayo, no pickles) and its great, but different. And better as a scoop on a salad. I'm now craving tuna for lunch.

Well, until I read cookebook's version, I was perfectly content with mayo, lemon juice, celery, onion, and toasted almonds, various seasonings. I'm making a tuna melt for the first time in a zillion years tomorrow - wish I had the ingredients for cookebook's tuna. Eh, we'll live!

Not a fan of pickles unless they are my refrigerator pickles, and I prefer not to have those in my tuna or chicken salad. I did not have cans of tuna in my pantry (have some nicer tuna steaks in the freezer, but that's another meal).

Around here pickle relish in tuna salad is so common there's kits on the shelf that have just that- can of tuna, packet of mayo, packet of relish.

I sometimes do just plain mayo and tuna. But usually I toss in minced pickles, capers, onion.. often a good dash or two of Old Bay Seasoning, sometimes some lemon juice. Sometimes dill.

Sometimes I make it with mayo, tuna, and seasoning.. then build the sandwich with sliced onion, pickles, and sliced tomato. Sometimes lettuce, or sprouts, or a bunch of fresh dill leaves.

Well, I don’t know about adding relish to tuna salad, but hard boiled eggs, onion AND tomatoes, all chopped fine, went in our version, along with Miracle Whip. Now, I would go with good mayo, some onion and a healthy squirt of lemon.

Part of the issue is my husband does NOT like anything with a sweet and sour taste or a vinegar or citrus sweet taste. A lot of Asians and Eastern Europeans grew up with dishes made like that, so sweet and sour was a big thing in my family. Gefilte fish, which is chopped pickled fish in a sweet and sour brine. Pickled herring. Marinated shrimp is another example. I don't like herring or gefilte fish due to the texture, but I can take or leave the relish in tuna salad. Store bought relish is basically high fructose corn syrup, vinegar, green food coloring and some chopped up cucumbers to hold the flavor and color. I can well see why folks would not find adding that a plus, but that's why I make my own pickles. If you use Miracle Whip, you've got at least the sweet taste going on with the fish too. I didn't grow up with Miracle whip, and my Mom was one of those who limited our sugar consumption so no stuff like sweet tea, soda pop or Kool-aide or sugar sweetened fruit punches. So I generally don't like a lot of sweet foods although I like sweet and sour and citrus flavors. So I am fine with a plain tuna salad with just mayo, since that is not sweet at all.

The second issue is the crunchiness, and I am all for that in wraps and sandwiches. If I don't do crunch add-ins to the sandwich or wrap, I want some kind of crunchy salad or pickle on the side. As a last resort, I guess some potato chips . . . So that's why I offered some chopped dill pickles for the tuna salad. No. Perhaps a pickle on the side he said, but never in the salad. And not a bread and butter pickle, heavens no! That's two strikes!

#rightnow, eating tuna melts, lunch on the west coast.

I almost forgot, perhaps my favorite tuna "salad" sandwich is a pan bagnat. Like Samrin's nontraditional version or a (slightly) more traditional recipe.

Pan bagnat, yum!

I made tuna salad yesterday with leftover grilled Ahi tuna. I have canned tuna for emergencies, but I haven't eaten any in years. Anyway, I made the salad with hard boiled eggs, minced celery & onion, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, mayo, and Lebanese cracked green olives (preserved with lemon and thyme). I had seasoned the tuna with Cajun seasoning before grilling it, and so it already had a lot of flavor. I do sometimes use dill pickles instead of olives, but never anything sweet. I served the salad on toast, but I also make wraps using whole wheat tortillas heated with Swiss cheese. If I have hummus, I add that to the wrap - I got that idea from Ina Garten, and it's really good.

I always prefer olives to pickles in tuna salad, but sometimes I will use italian giardiniera.

Pink - My MIL makes it just like your husband. Not bad, but I prefer pickles to onions. My recipe is fairly standard - tuna, pickles, mayo with small amount of celery seed or dill and mustard. Have also made it with cottage cheese instead of mayo. Usually eat the cottage cheese version on greens.

I used to work in a cafe where the owner mixed cream cheese in with the tuna, about half and half, muting the tuna flavour. It was fairly popular.

My husband reminded me of an Asian kind of tuna salad I sometimes make.

Tuna with soy, sesame oil, ginger, dab of mayo, splash of lime juice. Sriracha or wasabi.

Serve in a wrap, on sesame crackers, or rolled up in or on nori with some thin sliced green onions and shredded carrot.

If you skip the spice in the tuna, serve it with a nice bit of kim-chi and cold rice.

Trying to think ... tuna, diced celery, diced green onion, diced dill pickle, a couple of dashes of dried mustard powder, fresh ground black pepper, a little Best Foods mayo.

Love it stuffed in 1/2 an avocado!

These all, every one, sound good to me!

Cornichons, yum! Thanks for reminding me John that I want to try and grow some. Not sure if I'll find seeds though. This is the first year I am gardening at home, not at work! I just cut down a dying blue spruce to make room for a garden. But it's going to be quite small. The tree was tall and wide, but now that it is gone the spot it was growing in has a small amount of square footage. Oh well, just goes to show you there's a lot of potential energy to be captured from the sun in even a small spot!

Sweet Pickle relish and mayo. And celery. We found Doc's Tomatillo Relish at whole foods and it is even better in tuna salad. Egg salad is better with sweet relish, though.

After reading all of this, I put a bit of minced onion in my tuna salad. I really liked it! Just proves, you can teach old dogs new tricks!

I sometimes make Japanese style tuna salad with ponzu sauce, ginger, and wasabi, especially if I have cooked the tuna Japanese style, with a soy sauce, yuzu, ginger, sesame oil, and wasabi marinade.

Never have I ever eaten tuna salad with pickles in it. I do like pickles, but not like that. Not sure I ever even came across such a thing - I think I would've noticed.

And I don't even eat tuna any more because mercury. I make my 'salads' with canned salmon instead, and use a little minced celery, green onion and fresh parsley, a dab of dijon mustard, mayo, salt & pepper and a dash of Crystal sauce.

I did like to use chopped apples & bell pepper when I used to make tuna salad.

Like beesneeds, I like an Asian spin on it. Usually ginger, lemon or lime juice (depending what's ripe on our trees - have one or the other pretty much year round), scallions (or a bit of other onion if I don't have them). Sometimes put some type of heat in it - mustard seed, horseradish or cayenne.

Sometimes I put in chopped vegetables (tomato, bell pepper, or whatever else I have on hand that sounds good.

Two of our grandchildren are staying with us for a few days* and I made Pizza al Tonno for grandson. Tuna with some lemon zest and juice, fresh rosemary and thyme mixed in. That would be good on a sandwich too.

I'm not a mayo fan and find it holds together well enough without mayo.

*Both parts of the family have been strictly sheltering in place for weeks so we decided that it was safe enough to have the grandchildren over to give them a change of scene and their parents a break for a bit.

Funny part of this was the other day someone asked about egg salad and I said I put onion may and tuna salad in it

well the reverse is true

I don't make tuna salad with out adding egg salad to it.

Its one of those things from long ago. Saturday lunch was either tuna or sgg salad

I had this issue with getting home on time. So what was left was about enough tuna for half sandwich and same amount of egg salad so... mixed them together ate it and never looked back

i still make them separately mix some together for me and let anyone else have what they want. Although many people end up trying the mix and saying this isn't bad

Made tuna salad for lunch today. Been quite a while. Celery, sweet pickles and hard-boiled egg, mayo mixed with thyme and savory. DH had his over chopped tomatoes and lettuce on a plate, I had mine as a sandwich with a slice of tomato. Yummy!!

Tuna, mayo, chopped onion.

No tuna, but I put dill pickles and pickle juice in the chicken salad today because of this thread. :) It also has celery, scallions, red curly kale, red bell pepper, paper thin radish batons, diced avocado, English peas, pistachios, garlic pepper, mustard flour, mushroom salt and mayonnaise. :) I think it needs paprika, but I'm letting the flavors meld before I do anything else. :)

My tuna salad has a little mayo, pickles ( husband likes dill and I like bread and butter..) pickle juice, dill, pepper, black olives, hard boiled eggs, onion and celery. I go light with mayo and keep it dry. Can always add a little as you serve. My husband likes it on hand for topping a salad. I normally only eat multi grain bread but I love my tuna in white bread.

I wonder if it is regional? I live and was raised on the mid Atlantic and I can’t imagine tuna without pickles! We also eat cole slaw on our pulled pork.

Here’s how I don’t prepare tuna:

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_LOMpxFPXJ/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

@foodonastump, that link should have come with a trigger warning! 😆