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But I digress, and happy birthday!

We've settled on Geisha as the best brand, and after an extended time of total poverty, plus the quality of all canned tuna going downhill so the good stuff is barely better than the cheap stuff used to be, I absolutely buy the white, not the light. Preferably the stuff listed as "solid white."

I experimented, after noticing there really was a difference, settled on Bumble Bee, IIRC, then it went downhill and I found Geisha was both better and consistent.

Oddly enough, when we were near a Roche Brothers supermarket, we found their store brand was a near-substitute for the good name brand. I haven't tried all the other store brands, which these days would mean Hannaford or Wal-Mart (if they have a store brand). Hannaford's other store brands we've tried have trended good, with their frozen veggies being as good or better than Roche's. Wal-Mart's brand of frozen veggies are the best we have had, between Shaw's, Hannaford, Roche's and Wal-Mart. Good enough to make a point to get there. Digressing again.

Anyway, I usually do tuna smooshed well, excessive mayo - I like Cains, but am not as snobbish as I am about my Heinz ketchup - some black pepper, and usually a dash of celery salt. I love chopped celery in tuna, but we never have celery in the house.

I sometimes will add finely chopped onion. I sometimes will add chopped sweet pickles, or relish. I otherwise frequently have them on the sandwich itself.

Onions would preclude the relish or pickles. Relish or pickles in or on for me precludes lettuce and/or tomato, or cheese, on the sandwich.

Thus I have three main variants:
1 - Plain tuna with pickles or relish in or on
2 - Plain tuna with just cheddar cheese on
3 - Plain tuna with lettuce and/or tomato, with or usually without cheese on

Well, or just plain; the tuna with mayo, pepper and maybe celery salt. But it's better with relish or the other stuff.

Tunafish (10-4 on the BumbleBee), mayo, relish.

Plus three diced hard-boiled eggs. Sometimes four.

Occasionally, I like a dab of mustard, but completely replace the mayo?

My mom always put chopped celery in her tuna salad. I can live with that, if the celery is de-stringed and very finely chopped.

Another big question is, what brand of relish? They're not all the same, and can radically flavor the tuna.

I prefer Vlasic Sweet, but I also like Heinz, particularly their India relish.

Sometimes I have a taste for Sechler's Sweet Relish. I used it almost exclusively for a long time.

I've also had chicken salad made with pineapple. White grapes work, too, if you can some with good strong flavor and use lots of them. They're a pain to slice up, though. (Chicken salad, because tuna drowns out the taste.)

Speaking of pickles, for a while I was getting some truly wonderful sweet pickles that came in a tall, narrow bottle. Can't find them now, and never did write down the name. Anybody else know?

Catch a nice tuna. Make sure it's sushi grade. Fillet and eat.

1 can tuna (in oil) open can and use lid to press the tuna as dry as possible.

1 med. kosher dill finely diced.

1/4 of a small yellow onion finely diced.

1/4 C. finely diced fresh celery.

Pinch of Kosher salt.

2 or 3 grinds of pepper.

Kraft Miracle Whip

Flake tuna in a rather flat medium sized bowl. Add veggies then moisten carefully with Kraft Miracle Whip, to taste. I prefer my Tuna sandwiches on the el-cheapo house brand of whole wheat bread from Fred Meyer, I think they call it "Tender Twist." When I make my sandwiches I use some nice crisp lettuce, too and M W on the bread.

If you don't have fresh onion, use dried onion flakes and add a touch more Miracle Whip. You'll need to wait a few minutes for the onion to rehydrate.

It's nearly as good as fresh onion but be advised, you will be able to clear a pretty good sized room all by yourself for several hours. Dehydrated onion flakes are the pre-teen boy's nuclear bomb.

My best friend in Jr. Hi and I used to have tuna san's made with dry onion for lunch at school just for the WMD effect later in the afternoon.

Gerry N.

two cans white albacore in water.

Drain well, mash up. Hands do the best job for that.

Mix up the following ingredients into the tuna:

2-3 slices of FINELY diced red onion
1 clove garlic finely mashed or squeezed trough a press.
1 stalk cellery, finely chopped.
1 lemon, just the juice (around 2 tablespoons)
salt and pepper, about a half teaspoon each, more or less to taste

Mix the next two ingredients together, then add to the tuna mix:
1/2 cup Helmanns mayo
1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard. (Golds/Kosckiusko preferred over hotter Grey Poupon style)

Best if you let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so.

The red onion is sweeter and less harsh than regular yellow or white onions, and, along with the celery, adds some nice flavor and crunch to it. So give it a try.

To chop the celery, slice it lengthwise 2 or 3 times before cutting accross it. That will make the pieces small enough to hold in the salad and not fall out of a sandwich.

I do not use pickles in my version, but I have no objections to them.

I second the solid white albacore, just a superior product to the mushy stuff. I like it in oil as opposed to water as well.

I use one can, a dollop of real mayo, two or three squeezes of a good brown mustard, a scoop of dill relish and a good spoonful of extra hot horseradish. Mix, put on any bread but a toasted bagel is super, and enjoy.

All ingredients can be kept easily at work and you don't have to chop or cook anything. I'm a big fan. And leaving out the horseradish really isn't an option.

Scotch

I'm amazed to see the support for tuna in oil! The way I learned it, you only use that in something like a tuna noodle casserole. Which, oddly, is something I used to make myself when I was single, but I can't remember the recipe anymore. I could recreate it, I'm sure. I also adapted it to use canned chicken. Trouble is, it's a lot of leftovers.

I can't use tuna in oil because they generally use soy oil -- bad for my gout.

1 Can White Chunk Tuna in Water (well drained)

1/2 small onion finely chopped

2 stalks of celery finely chopped

1/2 small apple finely chopped (I prefer Mac's or Romes)

1/2 teaspoon of celery salt

1/2 cup of mayo (+/-)

Mix all inredients in bowl with enough mayo ( Wife prefers Helman's) to consistancy that you are looking for. Add salt and pepper to taste and let set in fridge for at least two hours. Overnight is better as the flavors meld much better.

I despise mayo, hate vinegar, and can't abide mustard, so when I make tuna salad, it's just tuna, onion, and celery. (And typically albacore in water, though that's as much because that's what I like for Mac & Cheese and for eating straight with crackers as for any reason related to tuna salad.)

Which is very, very good. Very clean, very simple.

Tom's idea of adding garlic is very interesting, and I'll have to give that one a try. Seems like it might overpower things, though.

The main thing I do different is that I don't use tuna. I use the cheap pink salmon or the even cheaper mackeral, and otherwise to things much as described above. The mackeral, it should be noted is strongly fishy tasting, and so I use more lemon juice, and sharper onions, and less mayo.

Scott’s Unbelievably Awesome Tuna Salad

• 1 7-ounce package of Light Tuna. Don’t get the Albacore. It’s more expensive and all you get for you trouble is extra mercury.
• About 3 Tablespoons of light mayo. The fat-free sucks and the regular is out of the question. I like the reduced fat kind. And please, no “Mystery Whip.”
• 1/4 cup of chopped red onion. This is the only thing I buy red onion for, actually. It can’t be beat in tuna.
• 1 Chopped Claussen kosher dill pickle.


• Salt to taste. Yes, salt. It won’t kill you. And you might like your tuna salad for a change.


• Black pepper to taste

Mix ingredients in a small bowl until everything is well incorporated. Place a heaping pile of the resulting mixture on slice of good wheat bread. Top with another slice of bread and maybe some lettuce. Makes two large sandwiches. Serve with pretzels and baby carrots.