July 4 cookout ideas, part 2: Tuna steaks, with a terrific seasoning

Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.

For much of my life, like most people, tuna came in a can, already cooked and flaked. Long a staple of camping and backpacking menus, we spread it on some bread unadorned or with a little butter (from a small reusable plastic container). More recent versions in foil pouches provide a lot of flavor combinations with less trash to haul out.

But no matter how much they doctor it, pre-cooked tuna is no match for a fresh tuna steak on a grill, and this version from my oldest brother’s compendium “Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes” is easy and packed with flavor. The only choice you have to make is how well done you like it.

Most recipes, including this one, suggest leaving it pink inside. Some like it very pink, with just the outside seared, which can mean as little as 90 seconds per side on a grill, hitting an inner temperature of about 118.° MT and I both prefer our steaks — beef or tuna — closer to medium well-done, so I followed Jay’s suggestion of grilling 3-4 minutes each side. (Because I used a gas grill, I skipped the soaked fresh thyme).

Apparently, everyone at our Memorial Day cookout preferred them this way as well. The responses were all very favorable.

“It almost melted in my mouth,” brother Joe from California said.

“The taste and texture was very good,” next-door neighbor Charlie added.

And MT gave it one of the highest compliments a recipe can get: “Let’s have this again, any time!”

This is the second of three recipes I’m offering from our recent cookout as possible options for your July 4 gathering, if you are planning one — along with last week’s grilled spicy shrimp and next week’s southwest corn and tomato salad.

Dobru chut!

Grilled Tuna Steaks with Herbs (Uncle Jake’s Favorite Recipes)

4 tuna steaks

olive 0il or vegetable oil

1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme, or 1½ teaspoon dried

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper, or lemon pepper

Bunch of fresh thyme soaked in water for 15 minutes and drained.

Coat tuna steaks in oil. Mix together minced thyme, salt and pepper. Sprinkle generously on both sides of steaks. Place soaked thyme on coals. Grill steaks over thyme 3-4 minutes, covered. Turn and grill 3-4 minutes or until brown, but still pink inside.