Smoked tuna? Help.

Cactus Doug

One of my employees has brought me some tuna to smoke. The tuna is mostly yellowtail and yellowfin. The yellowtail is a white meat fish and the yellowfin is a darker reddish meat fish. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Do I need to cure before smoking? Wet or dry cure? What temp and for how long? Also I am not sure what wood to use? And seasonings? I want to shoot for a snack/appetiser type finished product that can be eaten alone or on bread or crackers with a relatively firm consistency. Thanks in advance.

BigGreenDon

Yellowtail is actually an amberjack, not a tuna.

Yellowfin is sometimes called "ahi". If you think that the fish you have is sushi-grade, you could try Harry Soo's signature "Seared Ahi Tuna w/ Maui Onion Dressing":
Seared Ahi Tuna w/ Maui Onion Dressing

Don

fishlessman

i dont have a tuna recipe served cold, but maybe a smoked tuna dip. should be some recipes. yellow tail can be lots of things, ive only had fried yellowtail and it was a yellowtail snapper, im thinking thats what you have if its white

evenwhenitsraining

Hhhhhhhmmmmmmmm, never even occurred to me smoke tuna. I always sear those nice big red fish steaks to MR and then slice and enjoy over a salad or rice.

Little Chef

Cactus Doug: Good timing. I just smoked some Amberjack yesterday. I started at 200* dome with heavy smoke. (I used apple. I'm not a fan of strong smoke flavors.) Started at 200*, then after 2 hours, I bumped to 275* with another shot of smoke. I wanted to accomplish a firm outside, but soft inside. It was pulled at 150* (which is WAY higher a temp than I would shoot for if I was eating this for dinner) This was destined for the food processor for smoked fish dip.
I brined the fish for 8 hours in 1/2 c kosher salt, 1/3 c brown sugar, 1 T pickling spices and water to cover. I then removed it from the brine, a QUICK rinse (barely rinse), then onto a rack and cookie sheet to dry uncovered in the fridge overnight. Had a nice pellicle on the fish by morning. Let the fish warm up a couple hours so it doesn't sweat while smoking, then onto the egg.
It depends exactly what you are shooting for in the end. Fish dip? Sliced? Ask your employee exactly what they want, as different techniques may apply.
Best to you!

Susan Egglaine

There used to be a smoke shop in downtown Morehead City N.C. that had the BEST smoked tuna. It was kinda like a moist jerky. I have tried several times to duplicate but no luck. Has anyone ever had anything like this or have a recipe.

Cactus Doug

Thanks LC, your post should take care of the amberjack. But what do I do with all that yellowfin/ahi I have? The guy wants me to smoke it (he gave me 7-10lbs in several large chunks). I was thinking some kind of teryaki marinade or a plum sauce glaze. Any thoughts? I will be keeping some for searing along with the little bit of bluefin he gave me as well.

ccmcbeck

I'm from San Diego and I've smoked a LOT of tuna, but never on the egg (cause I didn't own one until just now).  I used an electric smoker and tried to keep the temp around 200 and smoke for 6 hours.  Without a doubt, tuna bellies are the best to smoke.  There is more oil in the bellie so it stays very moist.  On the party boats, when they filet your tuna, they often throw away the bellies so make sure and tell the deck hands that you want to smoke them.  Sometimes, I'll rack up on everyone else's tuna bellies. I brine them and I leave the skin on.  Eventually the skin just falls off.  Went fishing yesterday and I have some bluefin bellies sitting in brine.  I'll let you know what happens.

Legume

@Cactus Doug look up salmon candy, that may give you some ideas for what you can do if you're looking for hard smoked/teriyaki sweet style

ccmcbeck

Everything turned out great.  In picture 1 you'll see that I inverted the deflector plate and used that to separate the grate from the foil drip tray which I filled with water.  I cooked it for about 5 hours at 200-225.  It's hard to generate smoke at 200 degrees so I let it creep up.  After it came off the grill, I wrapped it loosely in saran wrap while cooling to avoid drying out.  The tuna filets in picture 2 were moist and flakey.  The tuna bellies were like butter.