Question about flakes in canned tuna...

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
Often times I find strange looking black flakes (about 1/8 - 1/4 inch in diameter) in a can of tuna fish when I open it... it crumbles easily, like it's organic (and not metal, or part of the can or something), and last night I even found a white chunk of (cartilage?) in amidst the tuna.

I had seen them before, so I just fished them out (npi) and used the tuna. Tasted fine, but I am wondering... what ARE these? It was Starkist, so it's not like it was an off brand. In fact, I like the taste of Wegman's tuna (yellow can) even better than the name brands. Thanks.

 
I've never seen that in Starkist Tuna......

But I buy the Solid White Albacore. What kind of tuna was that in? Sounds kind of like the skin that you find in a can of salmon to me.

 
Gayle is most likely right- it is probably skin.

If you look at fresh tuna you will see there is a lot of black in the skin- I bet some got processed along with the meat. I cook a lot of fresh tuna and have certainly left bits of skin on by mistake more than once- like you say Dawn, it is organic.

 
Golly, I'd be tempted to call the company. Whatever it is, it probably shouldn't be there...

For my taste, Starkist and Chick.of the Sea are at the bottom of my tuna list. Have you tried Geisha brand white albacore? It's still in the large fillet...whole firm piece in one can. Beautiful. No mushed up flakes and tiny pieces. I highly recommend it.

 
One of the cooking magazines, I think it was Cook's Illus. did a canned tuna taste test and rated

Geisha highest. But they also like Starkist. I like the Kirkland brand from Costco, but think tuna packed in water is too dry. It takes so much extra mayo to make tuna salad with the water packed, I wonder why it is better than packed in oil. Most of the oil is drained off, but I've read that the calorie/fat information is given as if all the oil is consumed.

 
Dawn, I found a foreign object in my Star Kist albacore tuna. I sent the object back

to them along with the coded date on can. It took them alost 2 months to reply. They sent me some coupons for free tuna, oh yeah like I'm going to buy their tuna again. I like costco brand and smart a final has a great tuna, I can't remember the name at this moment but very good. Good luck on your next tuna finding.

 
eyeballs?

When I was a grad student I worked in the library cataloging German books in an all female office (except for me and one other guy). One day one of the ladies opened a can of tuna for lunch and had an eyeball staring back at her. Needless to say, mayhem reigned for the rest of the day and it was a long time before anyone brought in a can of tuna again. I think the tuna companies response was the same, a couple coupons for some free cans of tuna.

 
I'm with Sarah, I buy the tuna in oil.

I use it mostly for salads and cooking, so it's going to get some mayo or sauce or the other anyway. If it's going to be tuna salad I drain off a little of the oil which reduces the mayo needed--seems a wash to me.

I find that the oil-pack tuna quality is much higher. THe water-pack stuff is flavorless and, as curious said, "dry" when drained.

The water-pack tuna appeared with the big low fat movements at the end of the last century.

 
Geisha isn't readily available in our area...I have only found it a couple of times...but

You are right - it's an excellent product! My girls won't eat tuna much so I rarely buy it, anymore. They prefer canned chicken if they have to have a canned meat. Sometimes you just need something quick and easy.

On the rare occasion that I do get a can of tuna that is less than a solid pack of white meat, I return it to the store. They replaced or refunded, whatever I wanted. If I pay for solid white albacore, I expect to find that when I open the can. smileys/smile.gif

 
Thanks for your feedback. My first thought was skin "lining" too...

(which is one reason I said I dislike fish skin, above), but I wondered why it got hard... oh well, maybe the processing.

I buy so much tuna, but only see this occasionally. I will try Geisha next time! Thanks.

 
We really like this local tuna - the owner, Denny Kimmel, went to school with my dad

many moons ago. That's how I discovered it. It's expensive, but oh-so-tasty.

Just thinking about it is making me realize it's lunchtime and I have a jar in the pantry! smileys/smile.gif

Edited to say: Forgot to add that the tuna comes in small Kerr canning jars. You can see right in to the jar and look at the quality of the tuna. No mystery cans to open.

http://www.kimmelstuna.com/about.htm

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top