Making Portuguese Canned Tuna Oct. 27, 2018

[El Pescador]

For 30 years I've been told by my construction buddy, Jim, of his Portuguese concrete construction friends, who gather to make Portuguese Canned Tuna.  That call came in last week, was asked to help with the production and bake albacore in my oven.

And that's what we did yesterday,

Showed up at my buddy's home at 8:30am, drive the two blocks to his friend, Manuel, a long time concrete construction buddy, of Portuguese decent.

Our job was to process 480 lbs. of Albacore tuna he purchased from a fish monger in Los Angeles.

When we arrived at Manuel's work place, there were trucks all over the place!







His yard looked like a mini Home Depot!



Now to get started, was told to take two tuna trays home, each was 30 lbs. and cook them in the oven at 400 degrees for 4 hours.  Need to put 1 1/2" of water in the pan.







And we start the process.

2 hours later, headed back home to check on the water level, needed to add 3/4" to the bottom tray.  But the brilliant blue sky with vapor trails going every which way caught my attention.



Ran to Target stores in Foster City and Redwood City to get more pint wide mouth jars with extra lids and bands.  Check.



Walked in the shop, and check out the layout of this place!!   Heavy duty tables to support the hundreds of pounds of fish, lots of light, and very thing clean and sterilized with a bleach solution.  BUTT check out the over head support iron I-beam, they use this to process 8-12 pigs each fall for their personal consumption.  The added boat winch allows them to use leverage and not their body strength to hang the pigs from the hooks.  Very impressive



Checked out the jar sterilization station - a restaurant quality cooker, the bottom has 2" of oil in the bottom of the pot!  Gets hot and stays HOT.



A blue bin the corner catches my eye, asked what's in there, what else?  More Portuguese products:   here a 3 month old batch of Red Pepper hot sauce which they will can in about a month.



Alright, 4 hours and my 2 tuna trays are done - home smells great!



Head on back to the yard, and tuna packages are opened & allowed to cool.



It is 2pm and we begin the cleaning process,  first peel back the skin, and quarter out the loins.



Pull out all the bones, pick off any black skin and MAKE SURE you cut out all the black blood line - Manuel was stern on this step!



We were allowed to eat as much of the cooked tuna as wanted -



Cleaned tuna loins go into sterilized trays.



Production line is prepped, we have 350 pint jars ready to go.



We have enough of the home-grown Serrano chili peppers - Hot and tangy - I had one.



Plenty of garlic cloves.



Several cans of... you guessed it, Portuguese Olive Oil,



Manuel, setting up the production table to his liking, he was Command & Control.



Electric knives made for precise cuts, with a jar as a guide to the length of the cut, we could only fill the jars to the ring below the rim, that was it, PERIOD.



Now we are packing the jars, and my job for 5 1/2 hours was that of a jar packer!  and per Manuel, we were the last line of quality assurance, to recheck each loin going in the jars for NO Black Blood Line, NO Bones, NO black skin.  



My last job before the jar left my hand was to stick my index finger into the jar to make room for the red Serrano chili pepper - Per Manueeeeeeel, the pepper goes EXACTLY in the middle of jar - I'm an invited guest, who am I to make the rules.   Remember this is Manuel's Grandmother's family recipe, and it is followed EXACTLY each and VERY TIME they make canned tuna.  EVERY TIME.



Manuel does the red chili pepper stuffing, EXACTLY in the middle of the jar.



3 garlic cloves go onto of the tuna,



teaspoon of sea salt goes on top of the tuna,



2 tablespoons of tomato sauce goes on top of the salt,



Next person uses a butter knife to rim the inside of the jar to release any air bubbles,



a floater of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) is added to the top of the jar,



Processed jars and wiped clean, and a lip and screw ban is added, ready to be boiled for 1 1/2 hours.





As soon as we had 114 processed jars, they went into one of four pots and boiled to complete the canning process.







These are all good, hard working people, who love to fish and shoot birds, both upland game and waterfowl, interesting, they don't hunt for big game, like deer or elk.  But process pigs galore and make their own linguica, blood sausage, hams and bacon.

5 1/2 hours later, we are done, every thing is cleaned up, sterilized with bleach solution, and we sit down for dinner, and you guessed it,

Albacore Tuna!!!!   Here is a delicious meal, baked albacore tuna with potatoes in a home-made linguica-red pepper sauce mixture with enough garlic cloves to make any Italian blush!!!!



I brought some wine, and we enjoyed the finish of a great day together - and they all say HELLO to you all!



All done, we processed:

480 lbs. of Albacore Tuna

into 315 pint jars

and my share is 28 jars to have and enjoy with you,

Was told NOT to open a jar for at least 6 months, to allow all the flavors to marry - and best to wait 2-3 years!  That is what I was told.


OH!  Did I tell you they were Penn Fans!!!  Check out what is hanging from the ceiling!

[Bryan Young]

WOW. Looks delicious. I don't think I could wait 6 months - 2 years though.

[Dominick]

Got a text from Wayne telling me what he was doing.  I was up in San Pablo bay fishing for sturgeon.  No surgeon but several striped bass.  Thanks Wayno for the report.  Those things are really fun.  I remember doing that with tomatoes when I was a kid.  The whole family got together to can tomatoes.  This canning stuff is becoming a lost art.  Dominick

[conchydong]

That was a fascinating and most interesting post and my nomination for post of the year in the recipe section.
Excellent!

Scott

[Tightlines667]

Nice

[swill88]

Nice

X2

[swill88]

Fast forward 9 months...

This is all that's left of the jar gifted to me by Wayne and Jennifer.



Added just a little mayo, salt, pepper & spices for unbelievable albacore salad.  Thanks!

Steve

[Crow]

Looks a lot better than "Chicken of the Sea" !!

[humboldtdan]

I am curious why it is cooked twice; once outside the jar and then inside?

[Alto Mare]

Those guys know what they're doing, I enjoyed mine very much.
Thanks again Wayne!

Sal

[El Pescador]

I am curious why it is cooked twice; once outside the jar and then inside?

Humboldtdan!
Cause that's the way they have done it for 4 generations.  I didn't ask questions, I just kept the camera clicking and stuffing albacore tuna into large mouth pint jars.  I didn't ask why 400 degrees, or why 1 1/2 inches of water in the pan.  That is just the recipe.

Steve, so very glad you enjoyed your jarful of tuna.

Wayne

[Dominick]

I am curious why it is cooked twice; once outside the jar and then inside?

I believe the second "cooking" is not really cooking but the sterilization process.  You have to get both the jars and contents up to temperature for a period of time to complete the canning process.  Dominick

[jigmaster501]

The second cooking I am hoping is providing 2 critical factors. 1 being the destruction of vegetative bacteria and 2 being the penetration of the acid from the tomato sauce to bring the pH of the tuna down below 4.6 inhibit Clostridium botulinum toxin formation.

Boiling a 212F will not destroy Clostridium botulinum spores as you would need a retort (pressure cooker) to bring the temperature up to 250F for a time period sufficient to penetrate the coldest portion of the jar.

These recipes can be scientifically validated and tweaked by a local university with a food science department to ensure a safety factors are achieved.

[El Pescador]

Jigmaster501!

I have a jar if you wish to test it!!!

Let me know.

Wayne

[jigmaster501]

I would have it tested for you. If it came back safe, I would eat it all.

Seriously, if your friends want to validate this process, I can recommend them to someone. Having a clear understanding of all the critical factors is always a good thing.

Jigmaster501!

I have a jar if you wish to test it!!!

Let me know.

Wayne