Smoked Bluefin Tuna

[TassieSmoker]

Hey All,

Had some Bluefin Tuna given to me through the week to smoke up for someone, and of course I had to keep some as payment.... 8)

Have done a little of it in the past with a basic 30 degree brine mix and a few extra herbs and spices, it didnt come out too bad but I may have left it in a tad long as the flavour was there but a tad dry inside......smoke temp was usually kept at 90 degrees C with a maple smoke for a few hours.

This time I used some Bradley Maple Cure and mixed it up as a wet brine, left it for 24 hours, rinsed it well and dried it in the fridge for 12 hours.......smoked with some Apple Bisquettes in the Bradley Smoker for around 2-2.5 hours and it came out great.....excellent depth of flavour, reddish tinge on the outside and nice and pink on the inside.....and I can tell you after a night in the fridge it got even better, much more even flavour.

Anyone else have much experience with smoking Tuna

cheers
Tassie

[Ka Honu]

I mean it looks good and all but I could never bring myself to do that to a slab of ahi.  If I were going to cook it (instead of eating it as sashimi or in sushi) I might try a bit of cold smoke before grilling or blackening but that's about as far as I'd go.  Sorry, but ahi is meant to be eaten raw, rare, or (maybe) medium rare.

[TassieSmoker]

I mean it looks good and all but I could never bring myself to do that to a slab of ahi.  If I were going to cook it (instead of eating it as sashimi or in sushi) I might try a bit of cold smoke before grilling or blackening but that's about as far as I'd go.  Sorry, but ahi is meant to be eaten raw, rare, or (maybe) medium rare.

Not sure whether we are talking about the same fish.....as far as I was concerned ahi is Yellowfin Tuna, and I am pretty sure you would have Pacific Bluefin in the northern hemisphere.......I am talking about Southern Bluefin Tuna.... ;)

I am sure a lot of people will look at SBT being cooked or smoked and possibly cringe but I have tried raw fish and its doesn't do anything for me so I will stick with the heat treated variety... :D

cheers
Tassie

[3rensho]

Looks good but I'm with Ka Honu on the tuna.  Love it raw with a bit of grated daikon, fresh wasabi (when a friend gets me some in Japan) and a tad of soy.  Yours looks fine though.

[Ka Honu]

Strictly speaking, you're correct.  Ahi means "fire" in Hawaiian and so yellowfin (Kihadamaguro in Japan) was called ahi because of the flashing of the fins in the water.  The word now usually also refers to bigeye (Mebachi) and sometimes one of the bluefin species. I think Southern bluefin (Minamimaguro) is slightly less fatty than the other bluefin varieties (Kuromaguro) but still way up there on the sushi/sashimi list and I'll take mine raw, grilled, or blackened.

I never met a tuna my chopsticks didn't like. 

[beefmann]

looks yummmy

[NePaSmoKer]

OH YEAH


Good Eats

[pensrock]

Looks good to me, but I have only had fresh tuna once. We grilled it a little with some Italian dressing as a marinade. It was probably cooked med rare to med and boy was it good.  :) I have never had sushi or any other tuna except the canned tuna.

[TassieSmoker]

Thanks for the comments guys, and also for the interesting origins of the Ahi word Ka Honu.....I am always quite fascinated with where some words actually come from and I can understand the Fire description in relationship to the Yellowfin.....thats cool 8)

Over here in the land of Oz sometimes the Albacore Tuna are referred to as Bigeye but I have also heard the Northern or Pacific Bluefin called that too.....can get a tad confusing sometimes talking to customers about what fish they have caught.

I have tried Sashimi, both Yellowfin and Bluefin and also Atlantic Salmon, but I just couldnt quite deal with it......we did do some Sushi rolls with the smoked Bluefin though and it was extremely tasty.

cheers
Tassie

[Divey]

I know this is a very old thread, however, because of the lack of information on smoking Southern Bluefin Tuna, I would like to ask a question, did you HOT smoke this tuna OR COLD smoke this tuna.