Smoked Tuna!

[Jeff T Miller]

I was at Sams Saturday and saw they had fresh tuna. I used this recipe for the marinade. I fired up a chimney of rancher and put on a couple of chunks of alder and got the wood smoldering before adding the tuna. I added the tuna without a water pan and the temps running about 350. I left it on about 8-10 minutes a side. Yea, I know but we like our fish done.

Took it off the wsm the finished tuna had a nice brown color to the outside. Definately got some smoke. I wish I would have taken a picture because it looked as good as it tasted. The inside was still juicy and pink in the center. It was excellent, much better than my last attempt. Last time it was well done and dry, very dry. Fish sat covered about 10 minutes while we finished up the rest of the meal.

Had a backup plan of 2 pork tenderloins also. Kids aren't much for fish so I made it for them to eat. Man was it good too.

 

[K Kruger]

Bravo!

Tuna is something I've been wanting to play with for a while. I finally found a good local source so it'll happen.

What did you have with it?

 

[r benash]

Sounds good Jeff! How thick was the tuna?

 

[Paul K]

Sounds like a great meal. Even before I opened your link to the marinade, I was thinking "I wonder if this has sesame oil in in?". I still remember some years ago when the rest of the family was introduced to my sister's fiance. He brought out great German beer and marinated swordfish in a fantastic sesame/ginger marinade. Of course he was immediately welcomed to the family

.

 

[Toby Keil]

Sounds like the tuna turned out great Jeff. My wife and I love grilling our tuna then once it’s cooked just right, we add a little Japanese Ponzu sauce over the top. Very tasty. Never smoked tuna but now I’m going to add it to my list of things to smoke. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jeff T Miller]

Sorry I haven't been back, heat went out tuesday and that has been keeping me real busy.

I have been wanting to try tuna out for a while. I got hold of some last fall and really overdone it, bad. I don't like anything rare and was about to write tuna off as far as grilling or smoking. While that recipe doesn't have a cook time or temp I was seeing on other recipe's 4-6 minutes a side. I was perplexed on how long to cook it so it wouldn't be like eating a stack of saltine crackers or yet too rare. The 10 minutes a side was perfect, maybe a minute or so too long but it wasn't dry.

I went into sams Saturday and looked around to see if they had tuna. I saw this guy at the butcher shop who I always talk to and asked if they had tuna in. He said yes and if I wanted any to let him know he would go back and cut me fresh. I couldn't resist that, and had him cut me 4 steaks. They were about 1 inch thick. I also saw some tenderloins pork type marked down because of date so I picked up a couple of packages of that.

Kevin after reading about some of your dinners I hate to tell you what we had with it.

I made the tuna and my nephew and his wife came over for dinner and they brought some home made mac and cheese. It was just one of those things. My nephew his wife and my wife were really unsure if they would like the tuna. My kids don't care much for fish so I also smoked 2 tenderloins on the grill for them and had pleanty left over just in case the tuna bombed. It was really funny on that first bite. Everybody took some put it on their plate and looked at me. I took my fork and had the first bite. I just smiled and said oooooohhhh yeeaaaa. Everybody started eating and said how good it was. My nephew just called me a little bit ago and said he was thinking about tuna.

Ray those steaks were about an inch thick, maybe a tad more.

 

[Kevin S.]

I've been doing thick Costco purchased Ahi tuna steaks for some time now. I do a quick flavor brine (standard brine with garlic, onion, and crushed peppercorns), then very low temp smoke cook (~170? - 190?) using alder. Cooking at such a low temp brings ambient temp into play, so this is a cook I can only do in the winter. I'm not sure of the finish temp as I just poke it with my finger to see when it "feels done." I like it very pink/rare inside, so ambient temp can play a large role in how long it takes. Because it isn't under smoke for long, I get pretty heavy handed with the smoke wood for full flavor.

I use the same technique with halibut and striped bass as well, but I cook the halibut a little more and the bass I cook completely.