Tuna Confit Recipe: How to Confit Tuna

Tuna confit is tuna cooked in a large amount of olive oil and aromatics like garlic, fresh herbs, and citrus. The confit method is similar to a poach because they are both gentle cooking methods for meat and seafood. The result is flaky tuna with flavors from the additions to the olive oil.

High-quality, extra-virgin olive oil is essential since a tuna confit recipe calls for so much of it. Yellowfin and ahi tuna are the most common options for tuna confit. Jump to recipe.

Technically, “confit” refers to food preserved by cooking in its own fat. Duck confit is the most famous type of confit, and it consists of duck legs that cook gently in a vat of melted duck fat. However, the more colloquial definition of confit is any food that cooks large amounts of fat, usually olive oil.

Alternative confits include Yotam Ottolenghi’s confit garlic, Chef Thomas Keller’s confit eggplant, and Dominique Crenn’s confit tomatoes.

Before refrigeration, humans needed a way to preserve food. Hunters and cooks dating back to the fifteenth century made an early confit by heavily salting the legs and wings of birds before submerging them in fat and storing them in a cool, dark place to ripen for months. What started as a form of food security became a highly regarded culinary technique used by French chefs, who then exported confit around the world.

Use the tips below for making fatty and flavorful tuna confit.

1. 1. Cook the aromatics in the oil first. To get the most flavor out of aromatics like garlic cloves, shallots, fennel, or fresh thyme, cook them in olive oil for a few minutes before adding the tuna. The aromatics infuse the oil with their flavors, making them easier for the tuna to absorb.
2. 2. Keep the temperature low. The confit cooking and preservation method is a low and slow process. Keep the olive oil at a very low simmer to prevent the aromatics from burning and the tuna from cooking too quickly and potentially drying out.
3. 3. Make sure the oil covers the tuna entirely. The whole point of confit is to submerge the food in the fat, so add enough olive oil to cover the tuna. To achieve this, ensure the pot is big enough to accommodate that much oil, plus the oil displacement from adding the tuna. If needed, add more oil throughout the cooking process to keep the tuna covered.