tuna steak with skin on?

[sanglier]

So: a friend hands me a beautiful, fresh from the Gulf of Mexico tuna steak. Thing is, the skin is still on. Should I grill it as is with the skin on one side or remove it? Seems like the skin side won't get cooked as evenly if it remains. Thanks!

[wattacetti]

I'd remove the skin. That allows you to cook the tuna to the point you want, and to lavish some attention to make some fine tuna crackling to eat in front of the others.

[sanglier]

Thanks for the feedback! I opted to remove the skin. I marinated the tuna in oregano-infused olive oil, salt and pepper and lemon juice, then grilled it to medium. Had it on killer chile cheese bread from Zingerman's with black olive tapenade and butter lettuce. A most delicious open face sandwich!

[wattacetti]

But you cooked the skin, right?

[sanglier]

No, though I love my pork cracklins, the idea of charred tuna skin didn't move me. I know, you're giving me the rasberry! Maybe next time, thanks for the input!

[DavidPalmer]

I love crispy skin on fish. If you want it rare to mid-rare, I would sear it skin side down for 2 to 2 1/2 minutes, flip and repeat. Unless the skin is a half inch thick, it should cook pretty evenly.

[scubadoo97]

Agreed the skin will not affect cooking times by much. Tuna skin is a bit thick and is not eaten as much as skin of other fishes here in the US. My advise is to keep it as rare as possible unless you really don't like rare tuna.

Also it takes very little effort to remove the skin so if you don't want to deal with it take it off.