Canning your own tuna means packing cleaned, fresh-caught tuna into jars and processing them in a pressure canner long enough to make the fish shelf-stable, producing home-canned tuna that is far better than anything you can buy. Capt. Scott Walker turned me on to this, and it is one of the best things you can do with a cooler full of tuna. In this How 2 Tuesday Scott walks through how to prepare the fish, pack the jars, and use a pressure canner safely so your catch lasts for months on the shelf.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
You clean fresh tuna into chunks, pack it raw into canning jars with a little salt and optional oil, wipe the rims, seal with canning lids, and process the jars in a pressure canner at the required pressure and time for your altitude. Tuna is a low-acid food, so it must be pressure canned, not water-bath canned, to be safe. When the jars cool and seal, you have shelf-stable tuna.
Yes. Tuna is a low-acid food, and low-acid foods must be processed in a pressure canner to reach the temperature needed to make them safely shelf-stable. A boiling water bath does not get hot enough. Using a proper pressure canner and following tested times and pressures is the non-negotiable safety step in canning tuna.
Properly pressure-canned and sealed tuna stored in a cool, dark place is shelf-stable for a long time, generally a year or more for best quality, and it stays safe well beyond that as long as the seal is intact. Always check that each jar sealed, and discard any jar with a broken seal, off smell, or bulging lid.
Because home-canned tuna from fresh-caught fish is dramatically better than store-bought. You control the quality of the fish, the salt, and any oil, and the texture and flavor of properly canned fresh tuna are in a different league than canned tuna off the shelf. It is also a fantastic way to use a big catch so nothing goes to waste.
Most people add a small amount of salt for flavor, and you can add a little olive oil or leave it packed in its own juices. Keep it simple. The fish releases its own liquid as it processes. Follow a tested recipe for headspace and added ingredients so the jars seal and process correctly.
It is safe when you follow tested procedures: use a pressure canner, process for the correct time and pressure for your altitude, leave the right headspace, and confirm each jar seals. The danger with low-acid foods is improper processing, so do not improvise times or skip the pressure canner. Done by the book, canning your own tuna is safe and rewarding.
Here is how Scott Walker cans fresh tuna at home.
I walk through each of these in detail in the episode. Press play in the player above.
The first time I tried Scott Walker's home-canned tuna, I understood why he goes to the trouble. Fresh-caught tuna, canned right, is in a completely different league than anything off the store shelf. It is also the perfect way to put a big catch to use so nothing goes to waste. Scott makes the case in the episode, so press play in the player above.
This is the safety point Scott hammers home. Tuna is a low-acid food, which means a boiling water bath will not get it hot enough to be safe. It has to go in a pressure canner, processed at the right pressure and time for your altitude. There is no shortcut here, and he explains why in the episode.
Scott keeps the recipe simple: clean fish, a little salt, optional oil, the right headspace, and clean sealed lids. The fish makes its own liquid as it processes. Press play in the player above and he will walk through how he preps and packs each jar.
If you have a freezer full of tuna and a pressure canner, this is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your catch. Follow Scott's process by the book, confirm your seals, and you will have restaurant-quality tuna on the shelf for months. Press play in the player above.
Capt. Scott Walker · tuna · pressure canning · canning jars · food preservation · low-acid foods · fresh-caught fish · Florida Keys · How 2 Tuesday · Saltwater Experience
How 2 Tuesday is my weekly series where I break down one fishing skill at a time, from knots and casting to gear, tactics, and the habits that make you a better angler. Watch and listen to every How 2 Tuesday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's How 2 Tuesday series I break down one practical skill or lesson at a time, from fishing technique and gear to the habits that make you a better angler, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 86: How to Can Your Own Tuna at Home With Capt. Scott Walker
In this episode: no canning involved just mason jars, cutting the loins to the length of the jar, sea salt and olive oil, 10 pounds for 80 minutes, 40 jars out of eight tunas, and a tuna fish sandwich a year later — in the exact words spoken.
Tom Rowland: Hey, everybody, welcome to How to Tuesday. This week I got a special one. I am in Scott Walker's kitchen in Duck Key, Florida. We just went out and caught a bunch of blackfin tuna, and Scott does something special with the blackfins. Well, we had some sushi last night, but then he has spent the day canning tuna. So Scott, tell us about canning tuna. How do you can tuna?
Scott Walker: Well, s- it's not, there's no canning involved. Actually, it's, uh, Mason jars, which is, uh, pretty cool because once you, uh, fill them up, you can put them in your cupboard for up to a year. And whenever you're feeling like a fresh tuna fish sandwich, or just wanna pull some tuna, put it on a plate, a little salt, pepper, maybe a little olive oil, capers, it's always ready.
Tom Rowland: Right on. So what's the process? You got all these ball jars, and then we started out yesterday, you cleaned the fish. Take us from cleaning to, to canning it, or- We
Scott Walker: rolled out to the hump and we caught eight really nice tunas, and I knew I was gonna can them all, so we gutted them that night and put them on good ice to tighten up. And the next day we got there early, and we just, uh, cored them out and pulled all the, uh, skin and red meat off of them. And then I took them over to my neighbor's, uh, backyard. He's got a wonderful, uh, fish cleaning station in shade, a little music, and we just start carving the tuna up the act- the length of the, um, actual ball jar. So we just lay a jar down, sh- let's say that's five inches. We cut the loins at five inches, trim all the red meat and sinew off, and then you start just julienning the chunks about one-inch square. Uh, they can be a little bigger and they can be a little smaller. And the end cuts, you kind of just set off to the side. And then when you got it all cut and prepped, you just start f- putting the slices into the jar, and if you have any space left over, you take an end cut and kind of p- pop it in the top. And you wanna get the jar full to about three-quarters of an inch, um, tightly packed. And then once that's all done and lined up, it's just a matter of seasoning them, and the main season for all the ones I hand out as gifts is just, uh, sea salt and olive oil, extra virgin olive oil. It's, uh, a teaspoon of, uh, sea salt and a tablespoon of, uh, olive oil- And then when we finish filling the top with just distilled water, or just, uh, filtered water until it's packed to the top. And then just take, what we use is a, um, a sushi, uh, stick, just stick it down the bottle to kinda move the fish a little bit and let that water get down in, in, uh, mixed up amongst the fish. You don't stir it. You just want to- Okay ... stick a stick in, and let the water kinda bubble in and around. You don't want it, doesn't have to be packed tight with water, but that just gives you the f- uh, fluid so that when it starts, uh, steaming off in the pressure cooker, it just, all those flavors just pop.
Tom Rowland: Okay. So now we've got it seasoned. Now, how about the pressure cooker? You're gonna, you're gonna just place this, this lid on top of the jar? Or you, are you- Y- once you put your ball lids- ... tighten it all the way down? ...
Scott Walker: back on place, after... Actually, start off before, you don't just take the mason jars out and use them. They have to be sanitized in your dishwasher first. That's the most important thing. But after that's done, they're packed full of fish, they got their salt and olive oil. You put the lid on, but you don't crank it down tight. You just put the lid on. As soon as it stops spinning, you leave it at that. The rest of the magic happens inside the pressure cooker. And the pressure cooker, it's just a matter of getting two inches of water in the actual pressure cooker. I use a Presto. Um, it seems to be the easiest to use, 'cause it doesn't have different counterweights for 5, 10, 15 pounds. It just has, uh, preselected 5, 10, and 15, so you don't have to worry about losing parts. This one's kind of a set it and forget it. We've got the water in there now, two inches of water. The jars are set in place, and I got it in a heavy boil. Now I'm waiting for the steam to come out the top, then I'm gonna set it 10 pounds. It's gonna lock, and then the pressure's gonna come to 10 pounds, and as soon as it gets to 10 pounds, I set a timer for 80 minutes. And it's, that's the magic number for tuna. It's always perfectly cooked. And then in 80 minutes we're gonna take it off the heat and just set it off to the side and give it about an hour to cool down, because you got, you're building atmospheric pressure in there, so let it, give it an hour to cool down. Then you kind of set it to five pounds. It'll vent, and then an hour later you can take the lid off. And after that it's finished, but I like to take the bottles And wash them with soap and water, 'cause olive oil does seep out, and y- you're gonna store them in a cupboard for a year. It's like clean them up with a little soap and water and a clean dish rag. And then it's just a label them, date them, and just serve them to your friends.
Tom Rowland: Okay, so you've got them for, uh, you, you think a year is good?
Scott Walker: A year. Well, it'll never last a year, but they can-
Tom Rowland: Right ...
Scott Walker: sustain a year in a cupboard- So you got- ... as long as it's a nice, cool environment ... you got
Tom Rowland: hurricane supplies. Yes. You've got, um, gifts for friends,
Scott Walker: and- It's the highlight of Christmas. I do little, um, uh, little, little teeny, uh, half-pint jars in the Christmas labels. It's... Everyone wants to bring the jars back to refill them.
Tom Rowland: Hmm. I got it. Okay, so n- this, this pressure cooker, T-Fal?
Scott Walker: Mm-hmm.
Tom Rowland: That's the one that you're using?
Scott Walker: This one's a T-Fal. I also have a Presto.
Tom Rowland: Okay.
Scott Walker: E- they're both exactly the same when, when you open the box.
Tom Rowland: All right. So how many, uh, if we got eight tunas, how many jars of tuna w- might you get out of-
Scott Walker: Well, w- we are t- I'm just finishing up. This is my last batch of six. So I did 12 24, 36. I did 40 jars with those eight tunas.
Tom Rowland: Wow. All right.
Scott Walker: And I can cook 16 at a time with this particular cooker. Okay. So this is my, uh, last cook.
Tom Rowland: Okay. All right. Well, that's how you do it. If you wanted to find a different way to eat your tuna or prepare your tuna or store your tuna, this is outstanding. Um, you've got this that will last over a year. You've got the tuna in the cupboard ready to go, and super simple to, to make a tuna fish sandwich. Okay, so once you get this out, one more thing, how do you make a tuna fish sandwich out of, out of this?
Scott Walker: Once you pop the lid, it's just like opening a can opener. You pull as much meat out as you think you wanna eat, then I just add a little bit of diced, uh, diced pickle, mayonnaise, and stir it up, and that's... I do it real simple. But you can, if you don't want the mayonnaise, you can just serve it with a light drizzle of olive oil and capers. Super simple. Again, I spiced all these with sea salt, but they're your tunas and it's your fish. My wife prefers lemon pepper on hers, so I did a few bottles with lemon pepper and olive oil. But if there's another s- seasoning that you like, that's, just put a teaspoon of it on it and it'll come out with that nice aroma when you serve it.
Tom Rowland: 10-4.
Scott Walker: Sounds good. And I'll tell you, you know, real quick, we caught, we catch so many tunas that you can't eat it every night.
Tom Rowland: Right.
Scott Walker: And once you freeze it, it doesn't thaw out real pretty. So this is what we decided to do, 'cause we have one of the most beautiful locations to catch tuna, right? The Marathon hump is 20 miles out that door right there, and w- and we've caught more than we can eat before, and we freeze it, and we thaw it out, and it's okay, but it's not as good as it could be. So now with the canning, every fish we catch is totally eaten. It's never goes to waste.
Tom Rowland: All right. That's what we're looking to do. All right, that's canning tuna with Captain Scott Walker.
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