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Tunny Cream
Created by Chef Juliette
Oil-packed tuna, soft butter, and whisked cream become a cool, silken hors d'oeuvre for toast. Crème de thon teaches the cold emulsion: match temperatures, pound finely, then fold gently.
Crème de thon (tunny cream) teaches the cold emulsion in its smallest, clearest form. Before you touch a pan, know the one thing that decides it: the butter must be thoroughly soft but never melted, because it binds the pounded fish now and firms the spread when it chills. Cold butter leaves specks; melted butter makes a greasy cream. We don't apologize for butter, but we do respect its temperature.
The brigade kitchen assumed a commis at a heavy mortar, a fine tamis (drum sieve), and the companion smoked-salmon formula close at hand. Your honest equivalents are a mini processor, a fine-mesh sieve, and the finish written plainly into the method. The source's four ounces of tunny already make the right small bowl for six, so it needs no false enlargement. Only the tools and the cross-referenced finish are made explicit. One cook, one stove, one evening, though this time the stove may keep quiet.
Pounding and sieving are the dish; elaborate piping and molded buffet shapes are brigade scaffolding and can go. Work the softened butter completely into the smooth tuna paste before the whisked cream enters. Get that emulsion right, and everything afterward is gentle folding and a rest in the cold.
Ingredients
oil-packed tunny or tuna
Quantity
½ cup packed (4 oz / 113 g)
drained but not pressed dry
unsalted butter
Quantity
¼ cup (2 oz / 57 g)
thoroughly softened but not melted
heavy cream
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
very cold
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| oil-packed tunny or tunadrained but not pressed dry | ½ cup packed (4 oz / 113 g) |
| unsalted butterthoroughly softened but not melted | ¼ cup (2 oz / 57 g) |
| heavy creamvery cold | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
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