Tuna Crunch Sandwiches

You don't know how much this recipe made me smile. Will be making it this weekend. Spent several years of childhood incarcerated in a convent boarding school in north of England. Our secret treat was Walls ice cream bars layered with potato "crisps" and sandwiched between buttered white sliced bread! We were told, "only bad girls' would eat something like that. Hence, "Bad Girl Sandwiches" , fondly remembered to this day 65 years later.

My cat gets the squeezed out water, (but will not eat tuna???) I get a perfect sandwich with Ruffles, and chopped green olives instead of relish, celery, and onion if I am feeling 'fancy' but always, always, always the olives. If I am out (unthinkable!) of olives I don't make a tuna sandwich. As in period. By the way, I use ordinary, stuffed with pimento, olives in jars from the isle, not fancy olives from an 'olive bar'.

I have full faith in Kenji for any recipe (try his Detroit pizza recipe!) but I must add my own tips here. The crunch begins with celery, diced small and added with some diced onion. But complement all the salty/savory elements with the sweet snap of diced apple. The apple transforms good tuna salad into whooooaaa good.

The obvious problem with this recipe is that first one has to buy a bag of potato chips. When I do that, they don't last more than 24 hours (size of the bag doesn't seem to matter), so there's never any around to make this sandwich unless you make a trip to the store just for lunch.

Substitute chickpeas for the tuna for a vegan treat.

My only comment is if using tuna in oil, resist the urge to dispose of the oil down the sink drain as called for in Step 1. Dump it into another container and discard, which is what you should be doing with any other fats, oils, or greases you don't want.

If you grate the egg on the small holes of a box grater it disperses through the tuna very evenly and is very fluffy too

My favorite sandwich! But on good rye bread, no relish, lots of black pepper, and has to be Ruffles.

I always add at least 1 tsp of horseradish. The mayo smooths out the bite but leaves the flavor.

If you have cats, don't get rid of the tuna juice! Give it to the cats. They love it. lol. And I always use some dijon mustard in my tuna salad.

More celery, Kewpie (instead of olive oil) and chopped preserved lemon (amd maybe pickled red onions) in the tuna mixture. No need to spread mayo on bread - use romaine or Boston lettuce leaves on both sides of the filling to keep toasted multigrain bread from sogging up.

Sixty years ago my dad introduced us to piling Kitty Clover potato chips on the tuna salad then smushing down the top slice of bread (Wonder, of course). He said it was more efficient and saved time. Also, our tuna salad was always made with mustard (yellow, because we didn't know there was any other kind) and slathered atop a slice or two of good old pasteurized processed American cheese food. Still the only way I'll eat tuna salad.

I guess you don't read comments in the Cooking section often. Absent the instruction to peel the egg, a half dozen people would be asking whether to peel, and a few would wonder what to do with the shell after peeling. Or will tofu "work" instead of the egg.

Tuna salad is best on an English muffin with a slice of cheddar or American cheese toasted under the broiler. But I do like it with potato chips as well…but not in a sandwich…I scoop the tuna salad into them like a dip. Chicken salad also good this way.

In addition to sweet pickle relish, sugared jalapeños or even just the hot sugar juice liquid is an excellent addition. A good sprinkling of curry powder is delicious too, with apple and celery. To bind it all together a spoonful of Hellman’s Mayo and a bit of rice wine vinegar.