Hook, line and sinker

By Steve Bain

Feb 1, 2023

Step 1: First catch your tuna — the author with more than 77kg of fresh tuna.

Our resident butcher STEVE BAIN is all at sea this month, baiting us with his tuna back steaks.

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This month we’re processing tuna that gets precooked as a ‘steak’ for use in niçoise salad as flakes of tuna.

The large ‘chunks’ of meat shown in the photos are boneless pieces that come from the back/dorsal of a tuna.

These slabs of prime tuna are cut crossways into steaks that are then cooked in your frying pan.

After cooking, they will break into flakes that are used in the salad (see Lynne’s recipe on page 34).

As part of the process, after being trimmed into steak sized and shaped pieces, the tuna is kept cool for a while (often overnight in an iced slurry).

Note that there is some debate around whether or not to allow the steaks to make direct contact with the iced water slurry — all will be revealed, so read on.