Short version: press the tuna dry, cut everything to 1/8 inch, dress lightly, chill 30 minutes.
Jump to Recipe ↓Two things go wrong with tuna salad and both happen before any mayonnaise is involved. The first is water. Tuna drained by tipping the can still holds a lot of liquid, and it seeps out over the next hour and thins the dressing into something gray and loose.
The second is scale. Tuna breaks into small flakes, so celery and onion cut at the usual quarter inch are enormous by comparison. You get a mouthful of raw celery, then a mouthful of tuna, and the two never combine. Everything here goes to an eighth of an inch, half the size you would cut it for chicken salad, because the tuna it has to match is half the size too.
Get those two right and the rest is a twelve minute assembly with no cooking at all.
What Your Board Looks Like
Everything on this board is being cut smaller than usual, which is fine but repetitive. It is worth taking thirty seconds to destring the celery first, because at an eighth of an inch dice the strings are proportionally even more noticeable.
About three quarters of a cup: celery bases, leaf tops and peeled strings, onion skin and root, pickle ends, herb stems. Light, dry, and bulky for its weight, which is the kind that scatters when you try to sweep it off the board with a knife. There are also two drained tuna cans and their lids, which are the sharpest thing you will handle in this recipe and should not go anywhere near the scrap pile you are picking up by hand.
Prep It All on One Surface: The ROO Bundle
ROO is a silicone mat that sits under your cutting board. It grips smooth countertops so the board never slides, and its built-in 7-cup pouch catches peels and trimmings as you cut. The Bundle includes the mat, a rubberwood board, and a reusable storage bag. $54.99.
Shop the ROO Bundle →
Photo by Natalia Sevruk on Pexels
Tuna Salad
No cooking, twelve minutes of work, better after thirty minutes cold. Makes about 3 cups.
Ingredients
- 2 cans (5 oz each)tuna in oil or watervery well drained
- 1/3 cupmayonnaiseplus more to taste
- 2 mediumcelery stalksdestringed, 1/8 inch dice
- 1/4 smallred onion1/8 inch dice, rinsed
- 2 tbspcapers or chopped dill pickle
- 1 tbsplemon juice
- 1 tspDijon mustard
- 2 tbspparsley or dillfinely chopped
- salt and black pepperto taste
Method
- Drain the tuna properlyOpen the cans, press the lid down hard against the tuna over the sink, and hold it for a good ten seconds. Then tip it into a sieve and press again with the back of a spoon. This is more aggressive than tipping the can and it is the difference between tuna salad and tuna soup.
- Cut everything smallDestring and dice the celery to an eighth of an inch, dice and rinse the onion, chop the capers or pickle. Everything at this scale so it matches the size of a tuna flake.
- Mix the dressing separatelyWhisk the mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon, and pepper together in the bottom of the bowl before the tuna goes in. Tasting it now means you can correct it while it is still possible.
- Flake in the tuna, then foldAdd the tuna and break it up with a fork, then fold in the celery, onion, capers, and herbs. Fold rather than stir. Tuna is delicate and over-mixing turns it into paste faster than chicken does.
- Chill thirty minutes and re-seasonCover and refrigerate. Taste it cold and correct the salt and lemon then. Canned tuna varies enormously in how salty it is, so seasoning before the chill is guesswork.
Make It Ahead
Tuna salad keeps reasonably but not as well as chicken salad, because the fish continues to release a little liquid.
Getting It Right
Drain harder than feels necessary
Press the lid into the can and hold, then press again in a sieve. Under-drained tuna releases liquid over the following hour and thins the dressing into something gray and loose. This is the single most common tuna salad failure and it happens before you have added anything.
Cut to an eighth of an inch
Half the size you would cut for chicken salad, because a flake of tuna is roughly half the size of a cube of chicken. Cut at the usual quarter inch, the celery dominates every bite and the two ingredients never combine into one thing.
Oil-packed tuna is the better choice
It is more forgiving, has more flavor, and needs less mayonnaise to taste rich. Water-packed tuna is drier and blander, which is why recipes using it tend to compensate with more dressing. Drain the oil off just as thoroughly.
Use less mayonnaise than for chicken salad
A third of a cup for ten ounces of tuna. Tuna is a much finer, more absorbent ingredient and it takes far less dressing to coat it. Start light and add after the chill.
Capers or pickle are not optional
Tuna and mayonnaise together are rich and flat, and they need something sharp cutting through. Capers, chopped dill pickle, or a spoonful of the pickle brine all do the job. Without one of them the bowl tastes heavy however much lemon you add.
Upgrade Your Prep Workflow: The ROO Bundle
Everything in this recipe is cut to an eighth of an inch, which means a lot of small, controlled knife work in a confined area of the board. That is precisely the work that suffers when a board creeps across the counter, because you are cutting to a size where a small drift changes the result. The ROO Mat holds the board still for the fine dicing, and the pouch takes the light, scattering celery and herb waste that otherwise ends up spread across the counter. The two sharp can lids should go straight to the bin rather than into any pile you will be gathering by hand.
Upgrade Your Prep Workflow: Get the ROO Bundle
A board that stays fixed for eighth-inch dicing, and a pouch for light, scattering scraps.
Check out the ROO Bundle →Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the ingredients of a good tuna salad?
Canned tuna, mayonnaise, finely diced celery and onion, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and something sharp such as capers or chopped dill pickle. Fresh parsley or dill at the end. The sharp element is the one people leave out and the one that stops the bowl tasting flat.
What is the secret to the best tuna salad?
Draining the tuna far more thoroughly than by tipping the can, and cutting the celery and onion to an eighth of an inch so they match the size of a tuna flake. Water makes it loose and gray, oversized vegetables make every bite either tuna or celery rather than both.
What are the common mistakes when making tuna salad?
Under-draining the tuna, cutting the celery too large, using too much mayonnaise, over-mixing until the tuna becomes paste, skipping the acid entirely, and seasoning before it has been chilled. Canned tuna varies a lot in saltiness so the final seasoning has to come after the chill.
What are the four ingredients in tuna salad?
Tuna, mayonnaise, celery, and salt. Most people would add onion as an essential fifth. Lemon or another acid is arguably more important than the onion, because tuna and mayonnaise together are rich and need cutting.
Is tuna in oil or water better for tuna salad?
Oil-packed, drained thoroughly. It has more flavor and a better texture, and it needs less mayonnaise to taste rich, so the finished salad is lighter rather than heavier. Water-packed tuna is drier and tends to need more dressing to compensate.
Press the tuna genuinely dry, cut everything to half the size you think, keep the mayonnaise light, and season it after it has been cold. Tuna salad is twelve minutes of work and almost all of the quality is decided in the first two.