Lunch and Learn - The History of Tuna

For lunch today I made a tuna salad sandwich; to feed the craving I have been having for the last several days. Tuna fish sandwich on toast; made with chopped celery, onion, pepper and salt and mayonnaise. I am reminded of Lent and the Friday night meal of tomato soup and tuna sandwiches that my mother made. In addition to the tuna sandwich, her "tuna talents" included macaroni and tuna salad. That's it. No Salad Niciois; no tuna casseroles; no tuna melt or tuna bake; and I didn't have Ahi Tuna until many years later.

This sandwich got me thinking. . .who decided to make tuna a salad?

Canned tuna is a staple. An April 2009, survey commissioned by the National Fisheries Institute found that "four out of five. . .U.S. adults usually keep cans or pouches of tuna in the house at any given time. More than half of adults have a least three. . .and one in four usually keep five or more cans or pouches of tuna at home."

I started my "research" on the origins of the word "tuna". My friend Webster cites the word with an American origin somewhere between 1880-85; a variation of the Spanish word atun; derived from the Greek Thunnus; a genre of game fish. Tuna is a fish, so why do we call it "tuna fish" or "fish fish"? We don't refer to snapper as snapper fish or salmon as salmon fish. Is it so good we have to say it twice?

A survey of old cookbooks and menus confirms that meat and mayonnaise-type salads were popular in America from colonial times to present. These dishes were culinary traditions brought over by European, primarily German, settlers. The tuna salad is an early twentieth century recipe.

Canned tuna was first mass marketed in the U.S. in 1903. American cookbooks began to offer tuna as an alternative to chicken and turkey in salad recipes. I found the following recipe from Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes, Marion H. Neil (1916):

Tuna fish salad
1 can of Tuna fish
shredded lettuce
salt and red pepper to taste
1 tablespoonful vinegar
2 tablespoonfuls lemon-juice
Mayonnaise dressing
1 tablespoonful capers
1 hard-cooked egg
2 or 3 stuffed olives.
Line a salad dish with shredded lettuce. Break the fish into pieces and place it on top of the lettuce. Mix the salt, red pepper, lemon-juice, and vinegar together and pour over the fish. Chill, and when ready to serve, decorate with the capers, slices of hard-cooked egg, and the stuffed olives. Service with mayonnaise dressing. Another method - Flake one can of Tuna fish with a silver fork, add one and one half cupful of diced celery and one half cupful of broken English walnut meats, mix with mayonnaise - or boiled dressing. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves."

The Christian Science Monitor, ran a story in February 1913, "Tuna Now Popular Fish Food":

"In California the tuna is being introduced generally in the best restaurants, no only because it is new, but because people are beginning to value it for what it is. Tuna salads are getting to be popular. The housekeeper can prepare the fish in a dozen different ways."

Now, hasn't this post brought a whole new meaning to "lunch and learn." Bon Appetite!

Fall Colors in the Kitchen

I love Autumn. The greens and golds and oranges and deep reds. While the trees are beautiful this time of year, I'm actually referring to the vegetables. I love seeing, eating, cooking and smelling the products of the Fall Harvest.

People talk about lighting a fire for the crisp, cool autumn weather and I'm in the kitchen turning on the oven and the stove.

There are the winter squash, pumpkin, rutabagas and turnips, brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes (although I find them all year round). Apples, cranberries, chestnuts and pears. It is time to check my spice closet for plenty of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, brown sugar and maple syrup. It's also time to check the clothes closet for drawstring pants.

Roasted turkey and roasted pork with hearty vegetables and smooth sauces; beef stew and slow cooked chili and vegetable soup; pea soup and lentil soup and sweet corn chowder; pumpkin bread and cranberry muffins and apple cinnamon coffee cake.

I have always said that Autumn was my favorite time of the year. And, I wonder why. I grew up in South Florida and only dreamed of being in the cooler climate of the north, surrounded by the changing landscape and the cooler and longer days. I would go to school with the traditional plaid skirts and fall sweaters only to be dripping with perspiration by the end of the day. The smells of autumn were confined to the kitchen. The cooking of the fall harvests provided the warmth and safety of the season.

I have changing landscapes now and I can layer on sweaters as the days cool down. But the real joys of this time of year come out the kitchen in waifing aromas of feasts from days gone by.

There is a turkey breast roasting in the oven; along with a herbed stuffing. Beside the turkey, cooking in a mixture of brown sugar, allspice, walnuts and maple syrup are my first acorn squash of the season. It smells sooooooooo good. Dinner is at 6 PM.

What's for dinner?

I read that the film Julie/Julia has put The Art of French Cooking back on the New York Times best-sellers list. While Julia did not necessarily approve of Julie's blog, I think she would have thought that this "is a good thing." Oh no, that's Martha's line.

It sometimes amazes me how much the discussion of food consumes us; and how much food we really do consume. We cook; we eat; we talk about cooking; we exchange recipes; we dine out; we throw dinner parties; we critique food; we calculate calories and nutrition; we watch food and cooking shows; we read cook books; we make documentaries; we photograph our food; and then, we obsess about our weight and coax our physicians into giving us prescription-strength anti-acids.

We drive thru; we dine leisurely; we snack; we munch; we knosh; and then, we talk about it. We can't wait to sit down for a big meal; and then, we complain that we ate too much.

We search for unique ways to use chocolate; we grow herbs; buy spices that cost a fortune and only use them once in some obscure recipe. We fill shelves with reference material and have parties themed to exchange recipes and taste the creations. We spend a small fortune on pots, pans, knives and utensils; not to mention all of the small appliances and kitchen gadgets. I have a ricer, melon baller, garlic press, apple corer(?), egg slicer, microwave egg poacher and at least 20 other "whatchamacallits" that I bought, used once and they now sit in drawers. I have enough plates, serving dishes, platters, glasses and bowls to open my own restaurant. Somewhere in my life I learned that you can never have "too many" sets of china.

My family was, and is, a bunch of foodies. We gather at kitchen and dining tables; coffee tables and picnic benches. I was fifteen years old before I realized that I could actually go to the beach without ten pounds of potato salad, a grill and 25 people. Some people went to the beach for the sun and surf, we went for the "beach food". We each have our specialties: some are wonderful, some are not very good - but, we expect it to be served on whatever holiday, setting or feast it has been designated to be served.

Easy as pie. Smooth as butter. The best thing since sliced bread. Sweet as sugar. It's all gravy. Pie in the sky. Crack the nut. He's a crunchy-granola, old hippie. Food defines us. I'm a low sugar, low sodium, carb free person (not really, but I'm told I should be). My sister is allergic to cheese and shell fish. One of my nieces won't eat canteloupe. My friend's husband will only eat canned peas and corn. I used to serve salad with cucumbers and tomatoes on the side so my father wouldn't have to pick them out. This one doesn't eat meat; the other one won't eat fish. Food preferences can make a simple visit a huge production. Because. . .we MUST eat something together; it's what we do.

With that said, I think I'll make something to eat and then make my grocery shopping list. Hmmmm, what will I eat for dinner?