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Oooh ... pet peeve! There is so much water in canned tuna these days. Must be almost a third of the total weight. I think instead of raising prices, manufacturers just increased the amount of water in bits.

When the pouch style first came out, it seemed really expensive in comparison to canned. I bought some of each and weighed the drained tuna. Turned out that ounce for ounce, they cost about the same when drained. But now, the pouch tuna has more water in it than it used to! Same sneaky trick. Remember when a "pound" can of coffee was 16 oz? Nowadays, its what, 12 oz?

As far as taste goes, canned is of course not even in the same zip code as fresh. I like Italian tuna best ... packed in olive oil. It has more flavor than the more common grocery store brands.

Hate it. The smell of it just drives me nuts.

Until my early 20's, the smell of can of tuna would drive me from the room, if not the house. Then I tried sushi (tuna), and tuna filets, and liked them...so I gave tuna fish another try. I LOVE IT. Tuna melts are so yummy.

My mom likes boiled eggs in her tuna salad. I love olives, roasted red peppers, etc. in mine. The great thing is you can put almost anything in a tuna salad and it's still (relatively) healthy and delicious.

LOVE! Water packed. Especially with the teeniest bit of mayo (like 1 tsp. per large can), mustard, relish and a ton of shredded carrots.

Canned is fine for what it's used for - sandwich spread. I put in chopped fresh basil, mayo, chopped dill pickles (hate sweet pickles) or cucumbers, chopped boiled eggs, and ground black pepper. As much as I love mayo, I prefer it chunky versus super smooth, like 1 tablespoon of mayo per can.

To eat alone, not so much. Mainly because every since I was a little kid, my mother would buy fresh caught ahi steaks to grill -- no salt, fresh ground pepper only. It is awesome. My father would use a wee bit (1/3 tsp) of shoyu or memmi on top on his.

Fast forward to when I moved out of the house. I was addicted to seared ahi rolled in crushed black peppercorns, since I first had it at 3660 on the Rise ~15 years ago.

Dammit, now I want some!

Canned is okay, but I've been trying to get myself and my family away from processed foods.

A friend of mine sent this recipe to me, so I have no idea where it came from, but I use it all the time now for those in my family who still eat animal protein. It is so much better than any canned you can buy (and believe it or not, far more cost-effective), you'll probably never want to eat stuff out of a can again!

Try this:

Home Cured Tuna in Olive Oil

2 1/2 pounds fresh tuna fillets
Sea salt
6 cloves garlic, smashed
2 to 3 sprigs fresh oregano
2 to 3 sprigs fresh marjoram
Extra virgin olive oil, to cover

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

In a baking dish just large enough to hold the tuna in 1 layer, place the tuna and sprinkle generously with the salt on both sides. Add the garlic, oregano and marjoram, then add enough olive oil to completely cover the tuna. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven. Cook until the tuna is thoroughly cooked and flakes easily, 3 to 4 hours.

Note: this will depend on the thickness of your tuna; you will know that it is done when it flakes easily and the fillets feel firm from the edges all the way to the center.

Carefully remove the baking dish from the oven and set on a rack to cool completely. Transfer the tuna, with enough oil to cover, to jars, and refrigerate until ready to use, up to 2 months in advance.

Alternatively, tuna may be transferred to sterile mason jars and filled with olive oil within 1/2-inch of the top and processed in a hot water bath for 10 minutes, cooled, and stored at room temperature for up to 6 months. Jars may also be refrigerated for up to 6 months.

I have also used this method with salmon, and gotten great results!

Love it! Let me count the ways...

Canned, envelope, in a jar with oil, fresh.

On a salad, with noodles, on a sandwich (grilled, melted, or plain), with walnuts and apples, with rice, with mayo- a lot or a little, and with oil and vinegar.

Oooh, and as part of a skillet pasta dish with capers, tomatoes, and crushed red pepper.

And...with celery, hot peppers, fresh tomatoes, dill pickles. And lemon!

I could go on all day. I think I know what's for dinner tonight.

I like tuna salad so I like tuna in a can. It's best to get olive oil packed tuna as it has much more flavor than water packed (but it's caloric). For Niçoise salad, olive oil packed tuna totally rules. (And you really shouldn't sub fresh - the Niçoise salad was designed to use canned tuna.)

I don't even consider tuna in a can the same food as a fresh tuna steak, seeing as how they do not resemble one another in the least :D.

Love it.

Always buy Tonno; Italian tuna packed in olive oil. Has a million uses.

Yesterday, we made Pasta alla Carrettiera after seeing this website on Tastespotting:

http://twoyolks.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/spaghetti-alla-carrettiera-spaghetti-with-fried-bread-crumbs-garlic-and-anchovies/

Instead of anchovies, we substituted the A's Do Mar (http://www.europantry.com/store/seafood/stAsDoMarTuna.html).

Not that I don't have love for the fresh tuna, but tonno is a great product with a million uses.

I go back and forth between Italian tuna in olive oil and tuna in water. I love them both and always have a can in the pantry. For a delicious tuna salad, I add lots of chopped green onions, chopped celery, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard, mayonaise, lemon juice, chopped capers and dill. Add all ingredients and amounts to your liking. I'm not a big fan of lots of mayonaise so I go light on the mayonaise. On the other hand, if I have a tuna steak, I grill it and use it in a composed salad nicoise.

I love it. I'm a sucker for tuna salad with raisins and curry powder.

every year or so I tell myself to give it a try again. so with good intentions of eating healthier dancing through my head I buy a can of solid white albacore. Every year I mix up a wonderful tuna salad that everyone I make it for loves, and every year I eat about 2 bites before I swear I will never do this again! So in answer, NO CANNED TUNA!!! thank you

Love the stuff- I buy a huge can of tuna, and then combine it with a stalk of celery, large maui onion, 1 bunch of carrots, 1 bunch fresh dill, 1 tbs celery seeds, a large tub of thick greek yogurt, 5 hard boiled eggs, crushed white peppers, and 1/2 cup of japanese mayo (much more flavorful than American mayo). I serve it on toasted ciabatta bread with melted jalapeno cheddar, avocado, and caper berries. My boyfriend loves it and will eat it for a week when I'm out. Another thing I do with tuna, is combine it with a large can of crushed tomatoes, small can of tomato paste, 10 pepperocinis (italian hot peppers), 1 large chopped maui onion, 3/4 a bulb crushed garlic, 2 cans of chopped clams, 1 tbs capers and then I simmer it for three hours, stir in a little bit of white wine and cream cheese, and you have the most amazing fresh pasta sauce from mostly canned ingredients!

Welllll, I would eat it if it was served to me, but I would personally go for the tuna steaks, then grill, then make tuna salad if that was really necessary...at work and on a budget? Can all the way, of course I work for a global charity so the budget is a bit tight...

But I'm not a snob about it. Fresh for me, can for you...(LOL)

Love it!!
Mix it with my white rice so I get some protein
Make a "vegetabley" tuna salad and stuff it into tomatoes for a cool summer lunch. If I have time/patience, I stuff them into cherry tomatoes because then they're a great snack.
Sandwiches- for melts-- i do a little amount of mayo and a sharp cheddar on sourdough- mmmm. - If I want a plain tuna salad sandwich, i like to add halved purple grapes and walnuts. Sounds weird, but I love it!

Love it! Found that Trader Joe's solid white tuna in water is great. It's one of the only ones I found that is just tuna and water...and not soooo much water. Some of the others say tuna packed in water and when you look at the ingredients there is vegetable broth added. You really have to read those labels.

Tuna BLTs....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Love it.

On soft white bread with just butter.

Also mixed into mashed potatoes with sour cream.

On a grilled cheese sandwich.

@embolini9: Nice! And when you make it for people, don't they always want you to make more? I think it's funny.

@Bessfour: Bumblebee!

@Barbara Hanson: I second the pickle juice! Use it every time. It gives it a little something extra :) Glad I'm not the only one that does that.

I mean per the really big can, not the 6 1/2 oz one; even I couldn't manage that!

I honestly never thought Charlie the Tuna had the potential for all these responses! All so different, so informative, and interesting too.

When I think of tuna in a can, I think of not only my own response to it but also think of the several mother-figures I've had in my life and how they dealt with Charlie and also of course as it is mostly what is always lurking in my mind through all conversations about food - what my children think of Charlie.

Hmmm. I think this weekend the post on my blog will be about Charlie, due to all the inspiration gathered from your own posts above. A title just came to mind: These are the Tunas of our Lives. :)

I sort of feel that way too, Hillary. The can and the water or oil are the worst part. The packs are a little better but not much.

I try to keep my mind on the fact that the cat loves the tuna water. It always gets squeezed into a little bowl for her, and I feel quite virtuous and kind as I bestow it upon her. While of course, she undoubtedly feels quite virtuous and kind towards me as she drinks it. :)

Writing about tuna does not cause mercury poisoning at least, so happily my blogging on tuna for Mother's Day post is done.

Thanks for the inspiration, all. :)

Everyone should always have canned tuna in their pantry. It's saved my hungry butt more than once. I still love fresh tuna, but it is not something you can always have on hand or have time to go get or can afford.

How much is 365 canned tuna vs Sunkist/Chicken of the Sea? We'll probably be out and about shopping all day today, I may stop by Whole Foods. We need to restock our fridge anyway. >.>