Recipes > Quick MealsFebruary 19, 2005

Creamed Tuna on Toast

I raised 4 children with this old standby recipe and I have never met anyone who didn't like it! First you make a basic white sauce. If you don't know how to do this it's pretty easy:

Add:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour and stir together in a frying pan over medium heat until it starts to sizzle.

Add 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of water and heat stirring occasionally until thickened then stir in 1 can of drained tuna and salt and pepper to taste. Serve over toast. Good side dishes are home fries, green beans, whatever veggies you like. This recipe can be stretched as needed by making more white sauce and you can add more tuna if you like but it is not necessary.

By Kathy Davis

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By
10/21/2010

This is just the best! My very picky family loves this dish. It's easy, quick, cheap, tasty and healthy too. What's not to love! I use whole wheat flour, real butter and whole milk in my white sauce. I also like the frozen sweet peas added. I've only had this on toast but I may venture out of my comfort zone and try it on rice some day.

By
09/15/2010

We grew up on this too! My Mom would put peas and sometimes pimentos in it (for color!). To this day, my brother, who lives with me and is 69, loves it, he'll reheat it the next a.m for breakfast.

By
09/09/2010

I usded to make this alot for my ex Husband but my new husband does not like hot tuna at all but he will eat it if I fix it only because he is hungry. I will fix it for lunch for me today that sounds real good and I was wondering what to eat for lunch on my day off while he is at work. Thank you for reminding me of creamed tuna on toast and it does taste good with peas but I put it over noodles and that was just as good.

By
09/07/2010

How above putting this over pasta or egg noodles along with the peas. Sounds yummy, too.

By
09/08/2009

I think it sounds good, I would like to make it but my adult developmentally disabled daughter wouldn't eat it. I also make gravy with hamburger the same way and after I get the crumbled hamburger browned I take some of it out for her and she eats her mashed potatoes with margerine on them. She just doesn't seem to know what is good. lol

By
09/04/2009

We ate this growing up also and loved it! With white sauce and peas! It was dinner most Friday's during Lent!

I've been craving this recipe and am going to make it for my 7 year old son tonight! He loves tuna from sushi grade to sandwiches!

By
08/02/2009

This was my mom's standby and we loved it and I still make it. My son and husband just love it and I make it with tuna, eggs and peas.

By kathys (Guest Post) 01/23/2009

I am making this tonight (at home). I am a private/professional cook and also make this at work. My mother (who would be 95 now) used to make this for the 12 of us. I make it like she did with cream of celery soup only diluted with a little bit of milk and lots of peas. To dress it up, I sometimes add pimientos, and I butter the toast. My husband (a picky eater) actually asks for this.

By carl (Guest Post) 12/14/2008

If you like peas they go very well in this recipe.

By
10/02/2008

Thanks for this recipe that brings back so many memories...Friday's usual meal for us Irish Catholics...I want to try it for my grandchildren who want me to make Tuna Helper! We also made the white sauce and put hard-boilded egg whites in it. Then served the sauce over toast and sprinkled the yolk over it and called it Eggs Ala Goldenrod! Oh those were the days.

By Diane (Guest Post) 07/29/2008

This is also very good over mashed potatoes.

By shelbel (Guest Post) 07/22/2008

Awesome stuff! I grew up with this and always had it with white rice!

By whatagemcy AT aol.com (Guest Post) 04/20/2008

I enjoy reading every one's response to this good ol' standby... tuna on toast! So yummy so flavorful, so thrifty, and oh so good! I also ate this when I was just a kid. I'll share my opinion, I eat food because it TASTES good, not only because it is inexpensive to prepare. This is "one "of the gems in culinary history to survive. We thank our mothers, fathers, whomever introduced to us creamed tuna on toast!
Deja vu... I KNOW I've been here before. I'm SO happy too!

By Ann (Guest Post) 03/25/2008

I grew up on it too, but I guess we cheated - we used cream of mushroom soup (w/ a little milk to thin it out). Never underestimate the versatility of C. o. M. soup!

By Suzy Chav (Guest Post) 03/18/2008

My boyfriend is a chef in an exclusive London burger king and he loves this recipe. I just tried it. He is so tired of flipping burgers and the only time he eats out is at McDonkeynuts. He is 250 pounds of kebab and burger. I know that some of it will be tuna on toast now at least.

He always did say he wants to be as big as Elvis, I think one way or another, probably more by over eating than by singing, he will get his dream. Thank you for making tuna on toast part of that dream!

By Jennifer (Guest Post) 02/05/2008

I wrote a whole story on Tuna Gravy on Toast re: memories it brings back... (check it out on my "Taste" page of my site, www.jenevansgardner.com)

So nice to know that I'm not the only one who loved this stuff as a child!

By Denise (Guest Post) 01/30/2008

My mom made this when I was growing up; except we always had it over boiled potatoes with butter on them; which was excellent.

By Sandra (Guest Post) 08/23/2007

I am going to have to try this on my husband. He is a professional chef of 32 years, I got to make a tuna noodle casserole once and that was it. We'll see. It might be one of those meals just for me when he is working, like tonight I am having McBeef. He does eat that but turns up his nose at some southern cooking. He is from Denmark and they eat weird stuff like lots of herrings. lol

By lisa (Guest Post) 02/22/2007

lol, never really knew how many people grew up on the same thing. going to try and make today for the first time for my boyfriend so thank you for the recipe

By
10/03/2006

I never had this before untill I was married. (My mother in law made
it. (40 yrs ago)I still make it often. Its good on toast or bisquits
I just make white sauce (alot lol) its so good and hearty I just figure
on a can of drained tuna per person.. trust me, less isnt enuf.
Especially cause we like it chunky not all mushed up. To make it
chunky I make the white sauce.. when its all hot and bubbly I just
turn off the burner and spoon in the drained tuna then spoon the
sauce over the tuna so its gets hot. Then cover the pan.. I use a
deep skillet so I dont have to stir it thus avoiding the mushy effect. By the time I get the plates and side dishs and bisquits ready its ready,... man my mouth is watering now.

P.S. I guess i should add that my white sause is
melt margarine (I never measure) add flour salt pepper
stir till bubbly... then add milk.. stir and turn burner up, stiring
till as thick as desired (we like it thick) I allow one can of drained
tuna per person if you like it chunky.. if not then.. im not sure
since this is how I have always made it.

By
08/27/2006

I absolutely LOVED this as a kid. I had no idea so many others were having it too! My mom used to make it for us kids when she and my dad were going out for the evening and she needed to make something fast and easy. I think she felt guilty for making a "quickie" dinner but we were loving it! I think I'll make some tonight.

By Tim (Guest Post) 08/10/2006

Yep, I had it growing up a s kid too (in Minneapolis), with a nice slice of butter on top to melt in.

By Jenn (Guest Post) 08/04/2006

I had this all the time growing up. We called it tuna gravy. The only difference is that my mom served it over biscuits. I can't get my fiance to try it, but I still make it for myself. Yum! I'll have to try the hard-boiled egg idea.

By Marty G (Guest Post) 06/26/2005

My mother used to make tuna on toast with mayonnaise & chili suace (Crosse & Blakcwell) or catsup, tuna & peas. Does anyone have the exact amounts, etc. This is the only way my family eats this receipe. I make it in a double boiler because that's what I remember my mom doing. But I don't have the recipe written down anymore.

By Shawna (Guest Post) 05/18/2005

I'm so happy to know that I wasn't the only one out there who ate this as a child! Hehehe. I wanted to make it for my family but had never actually "made it" before. We all loved it. Thanks a lot.

By Kathy Davis (Guest Post) 04/27/2005

wow I loved all your replies! You guys are the only people I have ever met who knew about this recipe. I loved your ideas about adding peas and such too. Thank to all of you.

By
04/18/2005

I have made and enjoyed creamed tuna on toast for years. A good addition to this is a couple of sliced hard boiled eggs

By Karen (Guest Post) 03/03/2005

Ilove tuna gravy on toast...thats what my mom called it, made just like milk gravy, when I make it for someone for the first time they think ewwwww but when its done they always want seconds

By guest (Guest Post) 02/23/2005

We have also had this as Chipped beef on toast.
Mom bought that salty dried beef and shreddeded it.

I forgot about this! YUM!

By Kari. (Guest Post) 02/20/2005

I grew up having this and still make it often but I add peas to the tuna and sauce and have hard boiled eggs on the side.

By
02/19/2005

We used to love this as kids. We thought of it as a treat (we didn't know it was dirt cheap). For breakfast, my mom would use the same recipe except she would use hard-boiled eggs instead of tuna--Creamed Eggs on Toast. It's still one of our favorites.

Camilla

By LaniJimB1 (Guest Post) 02/19/2005

We used to have this every couple of weeks. We used the good old faithful cream of mushroom soup and green peas.

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