Has anybody tried curing/cold smoking Tuna

I have recently seen a raft of recipes for curing and cold smoking tuna. Has anyone tried this and have any comments on techniques? As always, the recipe times vary wildly from curing for 30mins to 4 days.

My plan is to cure it like salmon (2 days dry cure, 24 hours drying, then a full CSG of smoking). Any comments would be appreciated.

Hi PjL

I personally have not dry cured tuna but yes its similar to salmon If you are doing a large fillet I would dry cure for 10 hours with a mix of salt and sugar 2.1 ratio Eg 500g salt and 250g sugar. Then once you have dry cured the tuna don't forget to rinse off the dry cure (salt and sugar) off with cold water and then pat dry before putting into the fridge for 24 hours before cold smoking it for 10 to 24 hours depending on taste,  if you use the full CSG time which is about 10 hrs depending what dust you use,  I would let it rest after 10 hrs of smoking for at least an hour before adding more smoke.

The above would be for a large fillet,

If smaller pieces of tuna like steaks then maybe dry cure for 3 to 4 hours then rinse and dry and rest in the fridge for 4 to 6 hours before cold smoking for 10 hours.

Happy smoking

from Paul

I have now cured/cold smoked my first bit of tuna. It was a fillet about 2" thick.

I cured it in gray sea salt and demarara sugar (50/50) for 48 hours to be on the safe side. Washed it, let it soak for about 15 mins and then dried it for 12 hours. I then smoked it over oak for 10 hours.

The result is a bit like a crumbly York ham. Very delicate and smooth and surprisingly, not very fishy. It has an iridescent look when sliced and looks good on a plate. Overall, it tastes very good and is unusual. Not one for everyday as salmon is probably a better bet for that, but a nice change and well worth the effort.

Hi PjL

Sound very nice as well as mouth watering.

happy smoking

from Paul