2nd Annual Tuna Canning Workshop: Time to Tin a Tuna with Jeremy Brown

Prepping the tuna for canning

Join Slow Food Seattle and Jeremy Brown, fisherman and fish canner extraordinaire, on Sunday, January 8th to learn how to can your own fish. For a preview of the canning day – check out the Slow Food USA blog for a piece on our event from last year. Jeremy will be coming from Bellingham with everything we need to preserve our own delicious and nutritious, locally caught albacore tuna in canning jars to see us through until the 2012 albacore fishing season.

**The tuna canning will be all day process – it’s your choice to attend in the morning or afternoon but allow yourself at least an hour or two to share in the work of canning the tuna (or stay all day)! We have space for about 40 people over the course of the day to share the labor.**

How much will it cost?
Workshop cost is $10/pp and tuna is $62/flat (12 jars/flat), choose either:
- Class + one flat of canned tuna ($72)
- Class + two flats of canned tuna ($134)
- Class only ($10)
- Kids 12 & under free

Any remaining flats will be sold first come first serve to the folks who attend the canning event.

What will Jeremy bring?

• 1,000 pounds of Albacore tuna that was caught of the Washington coast this fall
  

  Tuna in jars - next step, olive oil and the "secret ingredient"

• A pallet canning jars
• Olive oil & sea salt
• A secret yet everyday ingredient that makes this the best tuna ever
• Pressure canners
• Propane cookers to heat the pressure cookers
• The know-how to pull this all off!

What do you need to bring?

• Yourself
• An apron if you wear one
• Sharp knife
• Plastic cutting board (a wood board might come away tuna scented!)
• Whatever you need to stay hydrated…maybe a snack if you’ll be hungry

What should I expect?

• To make it easy, Jeremy will pre-cut the albacore in to steaks.
• Rinse the tuna steaks
• Trim skin & cut the tuna into jars size pieces
• Stuff tuna into the half pint jars
• Add oil and a pinch of salt
• Wipe the jar rims and top with lids
• Pressurize the finished jars under Jeremy’s expert and safe supervision
• Take home jars and eat tuna with the pride of knowing you supported a local fisherman

PNW Albacore - all ready to be processed in the pressure cookers

Be sure to let us know if you need to cancel your reservation to take part in the event so someone “can” come!

Wild Pacific Albacore has been in the news for all the right reasons – topping the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List and on National Public Radio in a feature on the growth of micro-canneries in the Pacific Northwest. You can look for canned albacore tuna at your favorite food co-op or fish market or join us at Gourmondo‘s catering kitchen to can your own albacore to stock your pantry.

Special thanks to Gourmondo Catering for hosting Slow Food Seattle at their catering kitchen (309 South Cloverdale Street, Suite B-24, Seattle).

All photos: Jennifer Johnson

Slow Food Seattle Albacore Canning Day with Jeremy Brown

Tuna canning guru and Washington fisherman, Jeremy Brown.

In the spirit of Terra Madre Day, over fifty Slow Food Seattle members and community supporters came together on November 28^th for a day-long fish canning workshop called – “Time to Tin a Tuna!” – taught by Jeremy Brown, a Bellingham-based commercial fisherman and longtime proponent of Slow Food.

Wild Pacific Albacore has been in the news for all the right reasons – topping the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List and on National Public Radio in a feature on the growth of micro-canneries in the Pacific Northwest.

Though you can find canned albacore tuna at your local food co-ops or fish markets in many communities, this was an opportunity to learn firsthand with someone well-versed in the process and safety considerations of using pressure cookers. At the end of the day, attendees left with both with the pride of supporting a local fisherman and a good stock of Wild Pacific Albacore to last through the long northwest winter. In past years, Jeremy had done these canning days in the coastal town of Port Townsend, Washington with Amy Grondin, a Slow Food Seattle board member and Port Townsend resident. This was the first time collaborating directly with Slow Food Seattle.

Volunteers washed, trimmed, and cut the tuna into chunks for canning.

We were at maximum capacity a matter of days after announcing the event. We were able to use a commercial kitchen space donated by Gourmondo, a local catering company and Jeremy arrived with everything we needed to preserve our own delicious and nutritious, locally caught albacore tuna to see us through until the 2011 albacore fishing season.

The fish was pre-cut into steaks and with the help of a rotating assembly line of volunteers – we cleaned, trimmed, chopped, packed and processed a thousand pounds of albacore in eight hours!

The recipe was an old Breton family recipe Jeremy picked up while in France many years back – simple and delicious for anyone with a pressure canner and access to some great local fish:

• Pack tuna cut into about 2-inch chunks into jars along with a pinch of salt (we used kosher salt and 12-ounce jars).
• The secret ingredient that adds just the right level of sweetness is a slice of carrot.
• Add extra-virgin olive oil about half-way filling the jars, wipe the rims, cover with the lids and process.

Slow Food Seattle made the round-up on Terra Madre Day on the Slow Food USA blog!

Wild Pacific Albacore Tuna

 

June Lee (bottom left), Philip Lee (top right), Amy Grondin (top center) skinning and cleaning albacore.

Tuna in jars, ready to be processed. The "secret" ingredient is a slice of carrot for sweetness.

SFS board member, Patricia Eddy and her husband, John Eddy - both of cooklocal.com - breaking down tuna steaks.

Jars of tuna, waiting their turn for the pressure cooker.

Pressure cooker, letting off some steam. Tuna jars cooling in the background.

Photos: Jennifer Johnson

Time to Tin a Tuna: Fish canning with Jeremy Brown

Join Slow Food Seattle and Jeremy Brown, fisherman and fish canner extraordinaire, on Sunday, November 28th to learn how to can your own fish. Jeremy will be coming from Bellingham with everything we need to preserve our own delicious and nutritious, locally caught albacore tuna in canning jars to see us through until the 2011 albacore fishing season.

**The tuna canning will be all day process – it’s your choice to attend in the morning or afternoon but allow yourself at least an hour to share in the work of canning the tuna (or stay all day)! We have space for 30 people over the course of the day to share the labor.**

To RSVP, please email us at info@slowfoodseattle.org with the following:

• Name
• Phone number
• How many flats of canned tuna you want to reserve.

Bring cash or check with you to the event. We won’t ask for prepayment but make sure to let us know if you need to cancel your reservation to take part in the event so someone “can” come!

Photo: prowler_charters (http://www.flickr.com/photos/39412049@N07)

Wild Pacific Albacore has been in the news for all the right reasons – topping the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List and on National Public Radio in a feature on the growth of micro-canneries in the Pacific Northwest. You can look for canned albacore tuna at your favorite food co-op or fish market or join us at Gourmondo‘s catering kitchen to can your own albacore to stock your pantry.

How much will it cost?
Flats of 12 half pint jars of albacore will be sold to participants for $57/flat, a cost of $4.75/jar. To start we’ll limit sales to 6 flats max/person. Any flats not reserved can be bought first come first serve by the folks who attend the canning event.

What will Jeremy bring?

• 1,000 pounds of Albacore tuna that was caught of the Washington coast this fall
• A pallet of half pint canning jars
• Olive oil & sea salt
• A secret yet everyday ingredient that makes this the best tuna ever – you’ll have to come to find out what it is! Rest assured, we don’t know anyone who is allergic to the secret item.
• Pressure canners
• Propane cookers to heat the pressure cookers
• The know-how to pull this all off!

What do you need to bring?

• Yourself
• An apron if you wear one
• Sharp knife
• Plastic cutting board (a wood board might come away tuna scented!)
• Whatever you need to stay hydrated…maybe a snack if you’ll be hungry

What should I expect?

• To make it easy, Jeremy will pre-cut the albacore in to steaks.
• Rinse the tuna steaks
• Trim skin & cut the tuna into jars size pieces
• Stuff tuna into the half pint jars
• Add oil and a pinch of salt
• Wipe the jar rims and top with lids
• Pressurize the finished jars under Jeremy’s expert and safe supervision
• Take home jars and eat tuna with the pride of knowing you supported a local fisherman

Special thanks to Gourmondo Catering for hosting Slow Food Seattle at their catering kitchen (309 South Cloverdale Street, Suite B-24, Seattle).