I grew up in New York. My soul food is: bagels with scallion cream cheese, whitefish, and nova salmon. Pastrami on rye with mustard. Deli-style tuna salad, nearly puréed. Half sour pickles. Heavily-seeded rye bread.
Most of this, I can’t get on a daily basis. For starters, there is no decent whitefish in Seattle. I’m gluten intolerant and try to eat high-fat/low-carb when I’m eating optimally, so not so much on the bread (except for treats or NYC visits). I do make my own pickles, and the I Heart NY Deli on Roosevelt has pretty great pastrami. But there are foods I miss.
Surprisingly, tuna salad is one of those foods. That New York deli style tuna salad is different somehow. I’ve spent years trying to replicate the tuna salad at a little schmancy foods store in Manhattan called Todaro Bros. It’s puréed with [lots of lemon juice] [Edited 2014: Apparently no lemon juice, according to the store, but I like it anyway], good quality mayonnaise, and finely grated carrots and celery. I still go out of my way when I visit New York to get to Todaro’s and eat some.
But the holy grail tuna salad in New York is something called smoked tuna salad. Tangy, smokey, a little orange, and utterly addictive. Not easy to find; I found the perfect one once in some obscure little deli in midtown and never found anything as good since, although plenty of delis carry a version. It’s been probably seventeen years since that perfect smoked tuna salad, and I still can’t get the taste out of my head.
I’ve tried to replicate it, like the Todaro tuna. I’ve used actual good quality wood-smoked tuna from the St Jude tuna guys at the farmers market here (they also have great canned tuna). I’ve used regular tuna with smoked paprika. I’ve failed. A special-association taste is hard to fake. Your tongue knows when you’ve gotten it wrong.
Today, I got it right… by accident.
I was making lunch for a bunch of people building a sukkah. I thought I’d purée the tuna salad quickly in the food processor, with homemade mayonnaise and grated carrots, going for my best shot at that Todaro tuna. Then I realized I’d put in too much mayo for the tuna, and didn’t have another can. While a friend ran to grab me another from her house, I impulsively threw in some leftover Loki chunk smoked salmon from the freezer.
The secret revealed.
Okay. It’s possible this isn’t what delis do to make smoked tuna salad. But I think it is. Reason 1: it’s the same color, a little more orange than tuna salad. Actual smoked tuna isn’t that color. Reason 2: Smoked salmon is much easier to find in New York than smoked tuna. Reason 3: It tastes exactly right.
If you’ve never had New York deli style smoked tuna salad, or if you crave it from 3,000 miles away, try out this recipe and tell me what you think. You can get nearly all the ingredients from local producers (aside from lemons): canned tuna, smoked salmon, carrots, optional celery. It would make an amazing tuna melt, or just a good lunch with some vegetables, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce.
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Smoked Tuna Salad, New York Deli Style
Proportions are variable according to your taste. Final product should be fairly smooth, puréed with texture and not liquidy.
- 1/2 cup to 1 cup smoked salmon (not lox — West Coast chunk style)
- 1-2 cans of tuna
- 3-5 tablespoons of homemade mayonnaise (link is for my older bowl recipe… I’ll give you the food processor recipe below)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1-2 carrots
- 1 stalk of celery (optional)
- pinch of salt
- herbs or spices to your taste. However, they’re not really necessary with this version.
1. Make mayonnaise and set aside
2. Grate carrots and celery finely. The easiest thing is to attach a grating top blade to a food processor and grate them right into the food processor body, in which you’ll make the tuna.
3. Add to carrots and celery: tuna, salmon, mayonnaise, lemon juice and salt. Start with the lesser end of the mayonnaise, and you can always add more.
4. Pulse food processor as it combines ingredients. Add more mayonnaise as needed. Keep pulsing until puréed with a textured consistency and not liquidy.
Homemade mayonnaise
The linked directions above work great for a bowl. This is the food processor version. Note that it contains a whole egg, whereas bowl mayonnaise contains just a yolk.
- 1 egg
- juice of 1/2 lemon or 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon of mustard
- 1 cup of olive oil
- saffron, basil, garlic, or other flavors as desired
1. In bowl of food processor crack egg, add lemon juice or vinegar, salt, mustard, and any flavors. Pulse a few times.
2. Add top to food processor but leave open the space where you can pour things in while the food processor is running.
3. Measure out your cup of olive oil. With the food processor running, SLOWLY pour the olive oil in, in a very thin, steady stream. If you pour too much, take a break and let it emulsify. Keep going until you’re out of oil. You have mayonnaise.
food processors can really shorten the time it takes for you to prepare home cooked meals :-.
[…] few spoonfuls of homemade mayonnaise (bowl recipe and food processor recipe). I made my mayonnaise mustard-heavy this time, and used both apple cider vinegar and lemon juice […]
I have just found your blog and love it! Living in Jerusalem, I wanted to share the local recipe in Israel for home made smoked tuna. It fits in with environmental concern because the prep can serve 2 uses and it results in an otherwise expensive treat. I don’t know whether it would make a gourmet smoked tuna salad – try it! It is hilariously simple, typically part of camping food, cook-outs, BBQs [on the mangal which is what the grill is called].
You open a can of tuna IN OIL. Don’t remove any oil! Place a scrunched up white paper towel on top, wait until the center of it is soaked, and light it with a match. The fire dies out when all the oil is used up. Then it is ready to eat – the tuna acquires a delicious smoky flavor.
If this reminds you of Girl Scout buddy burners, this is indeed an edible variation! This even makes the fuel to cook other food! Place a low grill over the tuna can [or pile rocks around it on which to place a flat grill] and you can cook something in a small pot or pan there as the tuna oil burns off.
Need I mention that in these last days before Pesach [Passover], this Israeli style smoked tuna does not require any pots. pans, bowls, or plates to prepare? Just make it outside, of course 🙂
Excellent. Thanks for the idea!
Nice job… I’ve been looking for this recipe for a while, and I think you nailed it. You are one of my heroes.
The recipe was a godsend. My mother in law just brought me a tub from NYC because she knows how much I like it. Your recipe is pretty spot on, but the one thing you missed — pimento peppers
Oh, interesting!
i’m trying to perfect the todaro tuna salad!!!! love, love it. do you think they add some sour cream too?
Oh man, tell me if you do. I miss that stuff. I don’t think they add sour cream, but I bet you could ask, since so many people can’t eat dairy. According to Todaro’s, I’m wrong about theirs containing lemon juice (although I still like mine with it). My closest guess these days is some sort of good quality tuna, homemade mayonnaise, and three shredded vegetables: carrots, celery, and sweet onion. The sweet onion is a recent theory; I’m not sure about it. Will you let me know if you find out anything else?
Now if only I could make something that tastes like their semolina bread of my childhood, but gluten-free.
haha! will do! in the meantime, i’ll continue to buy todaro’s. i figure the more of it I eat, the closer i’ll be to figuring it out!
Todaro’s is closing on April 2 2019. Hopefully your recipe will do the trick as I’ve asked for their recipe and they won’t share.
Noooo! And here I am, in Seattle, and won’t ever have their tuna salad again. I grew up going to Todaro’s! I can close my eyes and picture so many details about that store, from sights to smells to tastes. Thanks for letting me know.
Funny. My niece lives in Seattle, too. I just shipped her some tuna salad. She’s in mourning as she would only eat the tuna from Todaro’s when she went to Barnard. I’ve been shipping the tuna to her all over the country.
Wow, I wouldn’t think it would ship well! Lucky niece. 🙂 Tell her to look me up if she wants to bond about mourning Todaro’s tuna salad.
Packed well with ice bricks. Two Day shipping.