Tuna fish sandwich

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tuna fish sandwiches (often just tuna sandwiches) are popular sandwiches. Since the price of tuna has dropped with effective commercial tuna farming, tuna fish sandwiches have become a cost-effective source of nutrition.

1 Ingredients and preparation
2 Nutritional information
3 History of tuna
4 Tuna sandwiches in the media
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Ingredients and preparation

Generally consisting of canned tuna, either chunk light or chunk white, tuna fish sandwiches are quickly and easily prepared. The tuna can be mixed with mayonnaise and made into salad with vegetables, such as chopped celery and onion, according to taste. Many consumers also add lettuce and tomatoes.

Gourmet versions of the tuna fish sandwich exist, including the classic French Nicoise.^[1] One version, originally from Brooklyn, contains cream cheese instead of mayonnaise, and pickles or sliced cucumber.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Nutritional information

Tuna is a relatively high protein and low-sodium food, and it's very high in Omega-3 nutrients. A sandwich made from 100 grams of tuna and two slices of toasted white bread has approximately 287 calories, 96 calories of which are from fat. It also has 20g of protein and 27 grams of carbohydrates.^[2]^[3] ^[4]

According to the StarKist company,

The nutritional content of albacore may vary naturally from catch to catch. In particular, the fat and calorie content will differ depending on the region or depth where the fish are caught. Albacore tuna that swim close to the water surface can be higher in fat than tuna caught in deep ocean waters - but they're also lower in mercury content and higher in Omega-3 content. Because availability of albacore tuna may vary from season to season, we use two different labels to accurately show the fat and calorie content of the product contents.

—^[5]

A larger, commercially-prepared tuna fish sandwich has more calories than noted above, based on its serving size. A 6-inch Subway tuna sub of 250 grams has 530 calories, 280 of those from fat, about a gram of sodium, and 22 grams of protein.^[6]

[edit] History of tuna

Until 1903, tuna was considered a "nuisance" fish or pauper's food, when, after a sardine shortage, a California canner replaced the usual fish with albacore.^[7] ^[8] ^[9] After 1910, the industry grew with increasing consumer demand for tuna fish, discovery of new fisheries off San Diego, and World War I demand for tuna supply.^[10] By the 1920s, other related species were being fished and marketed as tuna, but albacore retained the highest prices.^[11] At that time:

To meet the extra demand, commercial fishermen who had originally fished the coastal waters off southern California expanded northward and westward. By the late 1930s, the fleet expanded to the waters off the Pacific Northwest and ranged several hundred miles offshore. With this increased supply of various tuna species, the United States by 1954 had become the world's largest producer and consumer of canned tuna products.

—^[12]

The albacore tuna catch has decreased in recent decades:

Fishing effort and catch of albacore in the Japanese pole-and-line and the U. S. surface fisheries have declined, beginning in the early 1980s. In contrast, recent landings in the Japanese longline fishery have been relatively constant, and there has been a rapid development of Asian gillnet fisheries that harvest large numbers of albacore in the North Pacific. Several factors are associated with the decline in the traditional surface fisheries, but their relative importance is unknown. It appears that no single factor is responsible, but that the decline in catches is a result of complex interactions among factors, including (1) a reduction in overall fishing effort for albacore, (2) lack of fishing in areas of traditional high catch, (3) indications of population decline and (4) major anomaly patterns in oceanographic conditions across much of the North Pacific in the md-1980's and early 1990s.

—^[13]

[edit] Tuna sandwiches in the media

Tuna fish sandwiches have been featured as meals on the Food Network, including renowned chef Emeril Lagasse featuring the delicacy on his "Sandwich Sensation" show in 2004.^[14]

Large chain sub shops such as Subway, Quiznos, and Blimpie often feature tuna subs as a daily deal or featured sub.^[15] ^[16] ^[17]

In an episode of the U.S. version of The Office, Andy Bernard nicknames Jim Halpert "Big Tuna" after eating a tuna fish sandwich on his first day in the Stamford Branch of Dunder Mifflin.^{[citation needed]}