Best tuna salad (IMHO and that of my sister) used to be served at the lunch counter of the Kresge 5 and 10 stores. These were family owned stores affiliated with the “K” brand (which we later came to know as Kmart).
My sister and I had a routine in adolescence. We would walk the two miles or so from our home to the only local shopping strip in town. After windowshopping, we’d finish our trip at Kresge’s with the tuna salad special. After months of having the same waitresses, we finally asked what the secret ingredient was: pickled celery, albacore tuna, and mayonnaise.
First off, we grew up in a Miracle Whip household. We’d never had any mayo at home, ever. Albacore tuna was too expensive and we’d never had that at home, either! Finally, have any of you ever seen pickled celery in any store, anywhere? Me neither.
So....fast forward 30 years or so.
To this day, my sister and I still reminisce about those lunches at the Kresge lunch counter. One day while in Albertson’s I noted they had a pouch of dill pickle mix on the Reduced rack. All in one recipe, only add vinegar and water. I thought “what the hell?” I bought some celery and chopped it up when I got home. I reduced the package of pickle mix to a manageable amount and filled a couple jars with chopped celery, and then with the brine from the package. No special canning stuff; just poured the hot brine in, let it sit for several hours and then to the fridge!
‘Bout a week later, I went to the store and bought albacore tuna, hellman’s mayo, and white sandwich bread (which is what they used in the dimestore lunch counter those days!) I mixed the ingredients and put it in the fridge overnight. Next day, I rolled over to my sister’s house, tuna salad and white bread in hand and made her a sandwich.
I awaited her reaction.
After about a minute, she said: “I can’t believe you got this right! Damn. It’s the same stuff. Just damn!” LOL
Moral of the story:
Don’t give up on your old favs. If you ask around and dig for ingredients, someone will be able to come up with the recipe.
All I’m waiting for now is the recipe for those world class Kenny King’s onion rings we had in Ohio!
Patriot1259...good post. Nice break from the DC mobs. heh
Love your story!
The cheapest, dark tuna is the healthiest. The white albacore tuna comes from the older tuna and contains much more mercury that the dark younger tuna.
I think the darker tuna has more omega-3 and is tastier than the white tuna anyway.
She also made a coleslaw with garlic, oil and vinegar. Every time we served this coleslaw we had three or four requests for the recipe. We still get requests from my wife's relatives in Norway.