ThermoBlog by Martin Earl
if you’ve read this blog for long, you know we have a great love for steaks. Ribeye, NY strip, picanha…tenderloin filet—we love them all. But sometimes, just sometimes, we feel like we could use a break from steak. And that’s why we’re glad there’s such a thing as tuna steak.
If you’ve never had a tuna steak, you don’t know what you’re missing. Seared to form a delicious crust but still rare inside, a steak of quality tuna is not at all fishy but is savory, meaty, with a slight sweet freshness that is incredible. It is the red-meat of the sea. But it is, alas, all too often overcooked. Particularly by home cooks. And when it’s overcooked, it loses much of its charm.
Cooking it up
Because you don’t want it to overcook, you need your tuna steak to have some significant thermal mass, and that means buying steaks that are at least an inch thick. As noted above, keeping your fish chilled until the last moment is an important safety step, but beyond that, it’s also thermally advantageous. Cold tuna presents a greater barrier to heat transfer than does warm tuna, making overcooking less likely.
To get a quality sear, you need high heat. A cast-iron or other heavy-bottomed pan will provide enough heat capacity to sear a tuna steak, and a light skiff of high smoke-point oil on the surface will enhance heat transfer from the pan to the fish while also preventing sticking. The pan is heated over high heat and the fish is only added once the surface is hot: 425–450°F (218–232°C).
I like my tuna quite rare, so it only needs a minute or so of cooking per side, but the real tell is the internal temperature. We have found that when searing at that high temperature, the internal temp of a tuna steak can increase by as much as 25°F (14°C) after being removed from the heat! A final temp of about 90°F (32°C) makes for a beautifully rare steak that is still red and has the luxurious texture that is a hallmark of a good tuna steak. That means pulling your tuna from the pan at a mere 65°F (18°C)—as read on a fast instant-read thermometer like the Thermapen Mk4.
Once you flip your tuna onto its second side, start taking its temperature immediately to watch for the pull temperature. Even a few degrees of overcooking can make a huge difference in the final taste and texture of your fish.
More:
https://blog.thermoworks.com/fish-seafood/how-to-cook-tuna-steak-thermal-principles-for-the-other-red-meat/I was on a deer hunt and a good friend ( he was in my "Indian Guides" tribe) cooked us up yellowfin tuna steaks from a tuna he had caught in the Gulf of Mexico. They were awesome!
