Julia Child may be best known for her rich French cooking — she once said “If you’re afraid of butter use cream” — but when it came to lunch she was decidedly more down-to-earth. And while she had no qualms with complicated recipes she also had a knack for kitchen shortcuts. Many of her cooking tips and tricks are simple additions that can give dishes a big boost in flavor and texture without a lot of extra work. For example Julie Child uses a little of the water you boil potatoes in to thicken the dressing — and she also has a few handy ideas for tuna salad sandwiches.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Cooking With Jack Show | 2021-03-02 23:00:11 |  9,659 Views |
Julia Child's Tuna Sandwich
Her favorite tuna salad for sandwiches takes a similar approach. She adds a few simple ingredients to canned tuna to elevate the lunch dish from mundane to sublime enhancing both the salad’s flavors and textures. Author Dorie Greenspan wrote in The New York Times Magazine in October 2020 about a lunch Child made her when the two collaborated on a project years earlier that featured “a great sandwich full of unexpected flavors.”
Julia Child started her lunch dish with canned tuna in oil instead of water a choice we couldn’t agree with. Our top pick for canned tuna is Ortiz White Tuna in Olive Oil which is perfectly seasoned and richly flavored — it’s just one of the canned tuna brands we ranked from worst to best. Child then pureed the tuna with mayonnaise and added a variety of toppings that made the salad bright and crunchy.
Greenspan recalled that the dish had lemon juice and vinegary pickles for "spiciness" plus salty capers onion and celery. The latter two were finely chopped and gave the salad "crunch." This recipe is by no means labor-intensive but that doesn't mean you shouldn't make time for the necessary prep work of chopping up the ingredients. This is just one of Julia Child's cooking tips that turns any meal into a work of art. Other additions to her tuna salad included salt and freshly ground white pepper. While Child liked homemade French mayonnaise which (not surprisingly) was richer for her tuna salad she preferred store-bought Hellman's mayonnaise.
