Fishwife Albacore Tuna with Spanish Lemon

I picked up this Fishwife Albacore Tuna with Spanish Lemon about four months ago, and never got around to trying it until now. In fact, I had forgotten I had it, and bought another can while it was on sale again at Whole Foods last week.

Initial impression upon opening the can: 4.8/5.

It's one of those stiff cans you have to battle to get the lid off without making a mess. It's a nice, solid chunk of tuna. The initial aroma is of a mild tuna, but nothing lemony coming through. A sip of the oil is similarly neutral, but with perhaps a hint of lemon. A nibble of fish straight from the can at first seems to just have that tuna tanginess. But then it kind of blooms toward citrus-y.

Prying the meat out of the can, there is no physical lemon to be found. The "lemon" in the ingredient list must be juice or some other form of lemon essence. One part of the meat, an area that was at the bottom of the can, had a bit of a discoloration to it. I wondered if it was the result of contact with whatever the source of the lemon flavor was.

As you can see, visually it just looks like a plain tuna. I dumped the entire liquid content of the can over the fish. I wanted to make sure I got the most of whatever lemon flavor there was to be had.

Getting more into it, though, with each bite it became more apparent the tanginess was from the lemon. I did find myself thinking, however, there wasn't anything overtly Spanish about it, and I might have just supplied my own good quality tuna and some lemon.

Once satisfied I had given it a thorough assessment on its own merits, I decided to experiment a bit. I had a new jar of S&B Crunchy Garlic with Chili Oil I wanted to try. As chili crisp type condiments go, it's a little saltier than most, and I did find it actually enhanced the lemon flavor of the tuna.

Final Thoughts

• As quality tuna goes, it has a good flavor that the lemon, however it's achieved, improves. Although it did make me consider just trying to replicate it with my own tuna and lemon.
• This would be a good choice for a salad topped with tuna.
• When on sale, it's a good value for a premium canned tuna.