Canning Tuna
Tuna may be canned either pre-cooked (bake/steam) or raw. If you pre-cook it, you will need to add water or oil to jars, leaving 1-inch headspace. You do not add any liquid to the jars if you process raw tuna. You may add ½ teaspoon of salt per half-pint or 1 teaspoon of salt per pint, if desired. In place of the salt you may choose to use powdered chicken bouillon, or add garlic or jalapenos; it depends on your personal taste. Consider using vinegar in place of water on a paper towel when cleaning the jar rims, then wipe with a dry paper towel. This helps to remove any fish oil prior to placing the jar lids to ensure a good seal. Process tuna in a Dial Gauge Pressure Canner at 11 pounds of pressure OR in a Weighted Gauge Canner at 10 pounds of pressure. Both half-pint and pint jars are processed for 100 minutes.
WSU has several great publications for preserving seafood: PNW194 Canning Seafood and PNW586 Home Freezing of Seafood. If you don’t have the manual for your pressure canner, you may want to read/print, PNW421 Using and Caring for Your Pressure Canner. Both publications can be downloaded or purchased directly from WSU Extension Publications at: https://pubs.extension.wsu.edu/.
This information was adapted from a post by C. Koehler on the WSU Grays Harbor County Extension website.