6/20/05 | Tuna Sandwich
[ Currently Eating: Ice Cream ]
Ah.. the tuna sandwich. When it comes to sandwiches, tuna is a pretty popular way to go for picnics, bag lunches, and marketing meetings (the in-house catering service for where I used to work seemed to have nothing but tuna and egg salad). It’s a pretty popular sandwich, but is it Cheap Eats?
In many cases, the answer is no because of the price of tuna. There are many different brands to pick from like Chicken of the Sea, Bumblebee, and Starkist, but the price seems to be pretty static for them. They also have Generic tuna, but this is one food where I think I might pay the extra 25 cents per can.
I make sandwiches from tuna pretty frequently, sometimes as a standard sandwich and other times as a Tuna Melt, which I’ll save for another time. One thing I like to do is to change up the consistency of the tuna by putting something “crunchy” in it. If you don’t like the crunch, in this case provided by celery, you can easily substitute it or omit it completely. I think it makes it less boring, though. I also put in tomato and/or lettuce usually:
Simple Tuna Sandwich
1 can Chunk Light tuna — $0.79
1/2 tomato, sliced — $0.25
2 slices white bread — $0.10
1 rib celery, minced — $0.10
1 green onion, minced fine — $0.05
2-4 tbsp mayo — $0.10
Salt / pepper — negligibleTotal: $1.39
I don’t need to tell you how to make a tuna sandwich do I? Oh, all right. Mince the green onion really fine, this is kind of important so you don’t bit into onion chunks. Chop it super fine and it will add flavor without being annoying. Mince the celery too, but leave some chunkiness for texture.
Pop the bread in the toaster and toast away to your liking. Drain the tuna and empty into large bowl. Break it up with a fork and then add the celery, onion, mayo and salt and pepper to taste. Mix up well. Spread the mixture on bread, top with tomato slices, and cover with other slice. Yay, tuna sammich is done.
Along with the celery, you can put any number of things in there. Some of the most popular are sour pickles, sweet dill pickle slices, chopped green olives, and lettuce. Cheese is an option, but I don’t put it in unless I’m making a tuna melt. One of the weirdest things I’ve put in that actually helps out with texture is minced water chestnuts. It sounds strange, but try it along with the celery…
Tuna isn’t cheap but you can lop a few pennies of the top of the price for buying in bulk. Bulk as in number of cans, not the size of cans. It’s often better to buy the smaller cans even if the larger ones are a bit cheaper because tuna spoils and you often only need a single can to make one sandwich, unless you’re making a lot of sandwiches. But they do have sales, where you can “buy 4 cans and get one can free” so it’s just a matter of keeping an eye out for it.
Another thing to consider is the type of tuna. I’ve been buying Starkist and there are two major types I get, “Solid” and “Chunk Light”. Solid is just that, solid whole white meat tuna. There is nothing “chunky” about Chunk Light though… it’s made up of more of the “darker” meat part of the tuna and is more flakes than chunks. However, it is significantly cheaper… probably 79-99 cents versus 1.50 or more. If you are making a tuna casserole you should always try use the “Solid” tuna, but for a sandwich where you’re going to mix it up anyway you can probably get away with Chunk Light.
Along with the meat consistency, there’s also the question of whether to get it packed in water or packed in oil. I had never got it packed in oil before, but I found once I tried it that it seemed to make a slightly more tasty sandwich. I think it’s the same in price, so that’s up to you. Either way, you want to make sure to drain it first… one popular way is to open the can with the can opener, and then press the lid down on the tuna while tilting at an angle over the sink. Or you can drain it in a colander but I find it tends to make my plastic colander really smell.
You can also get tuna packed in these “foil” packages, though its more expensive. I tried this once and it actually does taste a little better. I don’t know if it tastes that much better to justify the extra cost though.
I like tuna sandwiches a lot, but the price of tuna made the score drop quite a bit…
Cheap Eats Score: 6/10
June 20th, 2005 at 8:15 am
I admit I don’t actually like tuna. At all.
But, I did learn something here - is it really called a “rib” of celery? I don’t think I’ve heard that before.
June 20th, 2005 at 9:13 am
Mr. Bottom, does that mean we’ll not be seeing tuna reviewed on your site?
As for the tuna sandwhich, how can you chop the onion so fine it won’t “get in the way?” The onion is the best part. I think you should put in extra onion and leave it big and chunky.
June 20th, 2005 at 9:25 am
Bottom - I think it is called a rib of celery … at least when I read cookbooks they call it that.
Tim - Yeah, I thought about that some after I wrote that part, and I think it’s just that everyone that I know doesn’t like the chunks of raw onion in food. But I see a lot of onion diced in recipes, so there must be a LOT of people who like it. I actually use the white part of a green onion instead of brown / yellow onions, and mince it up until it’s almost like a paste.
Interestingly, I think a lot of “salsa” recipes call for BOTH blended onions and whole onions. The pureed onion is for flavor and body, and the whole diced onions are for texture…
This whole onions smushing thing goes back to when my mom would chop up onions so fine you couldn’t see them, or cook them until they disintegrated, and then put them in her dishes… because my brother HATED onions, so she was just doing it to fool him! =)
June 20th, 2005 at 11:06 am
Cheap Eats, that’s funny about disguising the food.When I was a kid, I couldn’t swallow pills, so my mom would put them into sandwhiches to try to get me to eat them. It didn’t usually work.
June 20th, 2005 at 12:17 pm
Tim - LOL, I can see how pills in sandwiches wouldn’t fly with little kids. You could smash the pills up, but I bet depending on the pill it’d make the sandwich really bitter…eww.
June 20th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
A tuna salad sandwich is not complete without adding some potato chips to it. I love the crunch and salty flavor…mmmmm.
June 20th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Bill - My friend used to insist putting potato chips into sandwiches whenever we ate at places like Subway or Togo’s. I tried it and it’s pretty good. The only thing is sometimes the sharp potato chip shard tends to jab you in the mouth, sort of like crusty bread on sandwiches can give you mouth beef…
June 21st, 2005 at 10:41 am
I love the crunch in tuna salad but HATE more than a back of rabid dogs the taste of celery. I use crushed peanuts - or other nuts. I also always add either shreaded or small cubed cheese - swiss or what ever is in the fridge - oh yea, and don’t forget the garlic…
June 21st, 2005 at 11:14 am
Spider - Garlic in tuna sandwiches? I’ll have to try that… that seems like it’d be pretty powerful stuff, unless you roasted that garlic first. Peanuts sounds weird but interesting too.
Too bad on the celery, but understandable. My brother absolutely hates celery. I can’t get enough of it and use it in a lot of recipes especially as the “trinity” - onion, celery, bell pepper.
June 21st, 2005 at 1:26 pm
79¢ for a can of tuna is not the best price for tuna if you can find the time to shop the sales. We’ve found Chicken of the Sea for 25¢ per can on sale.
Is that trashy white bread you’ve made your sandwich with? lol…It has been a long time since I looked at white bread.
You have a really fun sight to read. Thanks for doing it.
Belinda
June 21st, 2005 at 2:09 pm
Belinda - Wow, 25 cents for a can? You are right, I don’t really keep track of tuna prices so I mostly just try to get it on sale at least. I’ve never tried Chicken of the Sea… is the kind you got for a quarter the “Solid” kind or the soupier “Chunk Lite”? I could be wrong about the price I paid… I just remember that normally Chunk Lite is about 79-99 cents but that solid is nearly double. On sale, I forget how much it goes down. Was yours a special sale, like from a Fourth of July mailer?
The sliced bread in the pic is actually really, really good, from a Chinese Bakery near us that makes half loaves of bread. It is quite buttery and flavorful. Although, I have no problems with “wonder” or even generic “wonder”…
June 21st, 2005 at 3:33 pm
I love a good tuna sandwich. I usually replace some of the mayo with mustard. It gives the sandwich a little zip, and I think it even makes it a little healthier (at least in my head).
June 21st, 2005 at 4:00 pm
Sam - Ahhh! No mustard =) I need to start up a separate food site called “No Mustard”. I used to really hate it but now I can tolerate it just a bit of the yellow stuff. I’m starting to like that fancy german spicy mustard stuff a little bit, especially with sausages. But wasabe, on the other hand… yuggg!
June 21st, 2005 at 7:29 pm
The 25¢ tuna is the chunk light and not the more expensive solid kind. This was actually a sale back in April of this year. We stocked up rather well and are still able to enjoy it at that price until we run out or happen upon another sale.
The bread sounds really good. I know that a BLT definately tastes better on whlte bread.
Belinda
June 22nd, 2005 at 9:32 am
i put some cajun seasoning on my tuna sandwiches (Tony Chachere’s) makes it taste sooooooooo good!
June 22nd, 2005 at 10:09 am
Belinda - Man, I will have to check the sales more carefully. At a quarter a can, I am kicking myself for not stocking up on a deal like that… because you can just put it in the pantry anyhow and take it down whenever needed…
Jodie - Oh yeah, I do like me some cajun spice in food. I put that in casseroles, stew and soup too.
November 9th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
a late tunaer iner here…but did you ever try chopping up apple with or instead of celery in your tuna? also…I usually hate the non fat mayo…but ifyou use it in tuna ..with a little squeeze of fresh lemon…or lemon pepper…it is really good…and almost zilch on the calories…thank’s for the fun site
December 26th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
While sitting at the computer eating my tuna sandwich I thought I would do a Google search on a good recipe. Your site came up first. Even though it is too late to make a different version of tuna right now I will plan for changing it next time around. After reading some suggestions above I think I will try nuts next time. I didn’t see anyone mention walnuts but I think I recall my Mom making a tuna recipe with some in it. Like the brother mentioned earlier I HATE celery but I like chopped onions for the crunchiness. Just hate the onion breath later. Anyway I made mine today with some homemade Blue Cheese dressing instead of too much mayo. It was very tasty. I didn’t think I was going to be able to eat my whole sandwich today because I didn’t have any delicious chips on hand but with the Blue Cheese it made it a breeze along with a dill pickle on the side eaten in between bites of my tuna sandwich. Anyway I love the suggestions on this site and would love to hear more from others! BYW I buy the off brand tuna and it usually costs 33 cents a can.
January 22nd, 2006 at 7:30 pm
Would an opened can of tuna start spoiling, if left out (unrefrigerated) for an hour or two??
It was a very busy day…it wasn’t hot, either.
Later the kulebiaka was delicious, but couple of hours later we felt kind of sick.
I know this sounds so dumb. Could tuna go off that fast??
January 22nd, 2006 at 7:34 pm
PS great tuna sammich idears!!
June 21st, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Hi, came upon this site when I was searching for a good tuna sandwich. Theres so many ideas I just normally chop up onions and lettuce and mix in the mayo and tuna. I find it taste really good like that, especially with wheat bread and another piece of lettuce on the sandwhich.
September 30th, 2006 at 4:25 pm
Mm, tuna sandwich. One of my favorites! I like to chop of a hard-boiled egg in there, as well as adding 2tsp or lemon juice (per 6oz. of tuna). The lemon juice has become an absolutely encessity for me—it really brightens the whole thing up (if one can brighten a sandwich). It does look quite tasy on qhite, but I generally end up using toasted whole wheat. My staple meal for a dal at the beach.
July 26th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
For me, what makes a great tuna sandwich is Old Bay seasoning. We put it on steamed crabs and steamed shrimp here in Baltimore, but it goes great with any seafood. It really adds something to a tuna sammich.
August 8th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Hi..I was wondering if you could write something about the nutritional value of a tuna sandwhich? or something about calorie counts…thanks.
August 8th, 2007 at 6:15 am
Hi..I was wondering if you could write something about the nutritional value of a tuna sandwhich? or something about calorie counts…thanks.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
In reading this article, am I the only one who has a tuna sandwich with only these 3 things: tuna, mayo, pickle relish? I’ve never heard of any of the combinations i’ve read here… My mom has always made the best tuna sandwich! try it!