Canned tuna steaks vs canned tuna flakes - which actually works for a decent meal?

I spent $3.50 on a can of tuna steaks thinking it would be fancy for a salad, but honestly it fell apart worse than the $1.29 flakes. The texture was dry and it didn't hold up to mixing with mayo like the cheap stuff does. On the flip side, I tried canned whole chicken for $4.99 and it was way better for shredding into tacos compared to the canned chunk chicken I usually get. Which canned protein do you guys swear by and which ones are a total waste?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin36512d ago

Have you tried draining the steaks well and patting them dry before pan frying? That crispy edge cole_flores44 mentioned is real, and it makes all the difference between dry mush and something you'd actually want to eat. Honestly, the cheap flakes are perfect for tuna salad or casseroles where you want that creamy mush, but the steaks need a hot pan to shine.

baker.holly12d ago

Actually you've got it backwards, the steaks are way better if you treat them right. Frying them in a pan with butter for like 2 minutes each side gives you a solid texture that holds together, but people dump them in mayo expecting the same soggy mess as flakes. Plus that dry texture you hate is exactly what makes them perfect for crumbling over pasta or rice instead of mixing into a salad, you just gotta match the application. And honestly for $3.50 you're getting a denser protein hit that fills you up way more than the watery flakes, I can stretch one can into two meals easy. The cheap stuff just falls apart into mush and leaves you hungry an hour later, I'll take the steaks any day.

cole_flores4412d agoMost Upvoted

Ngl I saw this whole thing on a cooking forum a while back where some guy was swearing by pan-frying the steaks in butter and then crumbling them over spaghetti aglio e olio. Tbh I tried it and it actually changed my mind about canned fish. The texture holds up way better than the cheap mush, and you get that crunchy, crispy edge on some chunks if you leave them alone long enough. Honestly people sleep on how versatile those steaks are because they just dump them straight into stuff without browning them first.