Roasting a tuna head

So, I went fishing out in Montauk yesterday and managed to pull the line out of every striped bass I hooked. However, I was lucky enough to be around the boats when a charter came in from a tuna trip and was given the head of a 8o+ pound yellowfin tuna. I had seen an episode of Bizarre Foods where a bluefin head was roasted in Japan, so I want to try and recreate the dish. In that episode, the head was simply roasted for four hours. Now, my question is, anyone know about what temperature I should roast at? The episode doesn’t say and I’ve had people tell me 200-225, 300 and 350. I’m thinking more like 200-225 given the long cooking time, but has anyone here done this before?

Here’s the head:

Here are the two videos of the Bizarre Food episode. The first one really begins about 2:30 into it and the second video is from the start.

Ask and you shall receive I just got off the phone with Andrew and here is the skinny. The head was roasted for 4 hours at 350 degrees this however was about a 40lb head to start your head is now where near that weight so please plan accordingly. He also mentioned a fast roast salt pepper and sake then roasted at 450-500 best method for the collar. Hope that help he also said by far the best FISH he had ever had.

Here is one other recipe I have for this:

  1. Make tuna sauce by mixing 6 cups soy sauce, 3 cups water, 2 cups mirin, 2 cups brown sugar, and 4 minced garlic cloves, in a large saucepan. Simmer until reduced by 1/3.
  2. Add 1/2 tuna sauce and 1/2 water to a pot, and bring to a boil; insert the tuna head and steam for 1/2 an hour.
  3. Remove tuna head and place in oven, set to 350-degrees. Baste with tuna sauce, and bake 1/2 an hour or until browned.

Thanks so much, Larry! Really, really helpful and right from the man himself!

Yeah, he really does seem to enjoy it in that episode, so when someone offered me a free head from a tuna that was just caught that day, I jumped at it. Had it going for the last 20 minutes at 225, so I just bumped it up to 350 and will start checking on it after about an hour an a half and will keep a close eye on it from then on. Will report back.

this sounds sooooo friggin good.

please post pics when it’s done.

So, it turned out well. I cooked it at 350 for about two hours after Larry chimed in and the meat was nicely moist. Plenty of different flavors and textures to the meat in the head, much of it tasting like tuna collar, which was still attached. Wasn’t much a fan of the darker meat which has more blood content, but Zimmern was right, the stuff behind the eye is pretty damn good. You have to like the flavor and texture of bone marrow, though.

As you’ll see from the pictures, plenty of meat in the head. Should I be able to get another head sometime, I think I’ll marinate it, or baste it with a sweet soy/mirin mixture as I think the flavors will lend itself well to the tuna. All I did this time was add a little salt and pepper. All the liquid you’ll see in the pan came from the fish.

that is some serious shit. look awesome.

thank you.

Yeh; whatever. Just don’t be bringing one of those nasty things to my apartment in mid-October when you visit.

Oy.

(just kidding; well, kinda…)

That looks good!! I wish I was not land locked sometimes.

Well, you know, Chicago is famous for its beef, so I’m thinking barbacoa, baby!

Tony Bourdain always says that the head/face is the best part – I think he was mostly talking about mammals but in Asian cooking fish heads are prized.

It is hard to get a sense of scale, about how much meat did you end up with? A couple of pounds? Was it particularly succulent or delicious?

It’s amazing to me that a thread about an item almost no one will ever have the opportunity to acquire would get this much traffic.

You don’t have a lot of Chinese supermarkets in Duck and Beaver Land?

i’d imagine this would be very easy to acquire. it’s just the head of a fish.

reach out to any seafood vendor and tell them you want it. might take a few days.

for the chinese, the fish head is a specialty. Some restaurants in LA are prized for their ability to cook it. DELICIOUS! The best meat on the whole fish is the cheek!

That’s not the point. What does someone who lives in Topeka do?

I’ve often wondered about that.

What I would do is move.

Agreed, LOVE the cheek. That head looks amazing. I love good head. [snort.gif]

I think I got about three or so pounds of meat, but my head also had the collars attached and some meat behind the head. That said, the meat on the face was pretty rich as there’s a lot of fat in there. Imagine a lot of collar and cheek meat. The meat on the top of the head was especially nice.

Btw, one more pic since it scares me a little.