Go to the Article: Tips & Tricks: Dry-Cure for Perfect Fish
will have try before sousvide!
Cool! Thanks for the great tip. Do you recommend any particular salt and sugar OR are you talking about just a good kosher salt and pure cane granulated sugar?
What's the role of the sugar in the cure?
Will this work for scallops too?
Is the sugar really necessary? I'm not a big fan of adding sugar to my food.
Great technique for quick brining the fish. I’ll have to try it instead of the soaking method.
To answer a few questions, yes, it will work on scallops but be careful as scallops are very delicate and if you let it go too long, you may not like the results. The salt acts to denature proteins such as albumen so that you won't get that white scum that forms when you cook fish and the sugar is hydroscopic, which means it will draw water out of the fish to concentrate the proteins and hence the flavor. Using white sugar is fine and using it for only a short period of time won’t allow much to soak into the fish. Sugar is excellent at this job...Any one that has worked in a protein chemistry lab knows about using dialysis tubing and sugar to concentrate proteins in a liquid.
Noticed that non-teflon non-stick frying pan in the video. What is it? Thanks!!!!
I like to use Sodium Chloride and Sucrose.
Wow! Super useful.
To make it taste less salty
I have a marinade I use that is soy sauce (salt), white wine, brown sugar, garlic and ginger. I wonder if the salt and sugar do the same thing in a marinade.
Does this work well with fish I am going to sous vide?
To my eye, it looks like the "GreenPan" - http://m.target.com/p/greenpan-lima-12-hard-anodized-covered-fry-pan-gray/-/A-14219675 -- which the manufacturer claims has a "Thermolon™ healthy ceramic non-stick surface". (I just picked up a set at Costco, 10" + 12" skillets for $40.)
One question. What if I was to use this method way in advance? If I was to cure any fish, say grouper, on Monday for 20 minutes, but didn't actually cook the grouper till Wednesday? Would the time in between make any difference, regarding texture and flavor?
Do you need to cook the fish immediately after rinsing it, or can you store it in a cooler for a couple of hours?
Stupid question, but still... Does it work for other meats, e.g. poultry and pork? I would try it except your reply is a definite NO.
I premix my salt and sugar first and use soft brown sugar to the ratio of 75% salt to 100% sugar by weight. But I only use non-iodised salt/natural sea salt (or Kosher salt). You need the sugar to offset the saltiness
It adds no sugar to the food nor salt for that matter – read (buy) McGee book and look it up he is the expert.
I don’t waste my time with marinating much these days, it doesn’t get the flavour in very far, and brining is best as it allows good penetration.
I use the same brining process (wet or dry) even when Sous Viding the fish, doesn’t matter but quite often I will brine it down and then vac pack it for later use – after washing all the residual off.
A suggestion however which I use all the time, once you have washed off your fish particularly salmon, turn it flesh side down/skin side up and using a sharp knife scrap the bottom till its dry. That way you get the moisture off and the rubbish that’s attached to the skin makes for a wonderful crisp skin.
If they are still cooking on induction that's not a Green Pan, there aluminum.
I really love sous vide salmon. I crisp the skin in a hot pan after sous vide. Is there a way I can incorporate this technique? Do this before the sous vide cooking? Will it still work?
В нашем ресторане мы используем эту технику в салат с тунцом! Филе тунца засаливаем в соли и сахаре в пропорции 40/60 общего весса сухих ингредиентов и оставляем на 2,5 часа, получается просто шикарно!
What do phosphates like SHMP or STPP actually do to the fish?
Can't see any directions (iPhone), are they hiding from mobile view, or is it only on the video?
The video has the instructions XD
It's almost the exact same process required to make gravlax, but with much shorter curing times.
Thank you J. I will take a look at Costco.
They would firm the fish up making it more juicy too.
You would do this step before cooking sous vide then sear per usual. You should notice a big difference. I hope you give it a try!
This would work fine for other meats, but your beef and pork will firm up and "ham" a bit. The salt firms up the flesh, so if you want that for pork or beef, certainly give it a try.
A couple of hours is fine really, the longer the fish sits, the more the salt will move into the interior and be less dramatic on the exterior.
Is there any way to download the video. My internet service can be very spotty, and I'd like to be able to view the video when I need to, regardless of whether my internet is up.
The fish would become pretty tough possible. If you want to be able to scale this technique and cook things later. I would pop all your fish in a big ol tub of equilibrium brine, that way you can just pull portions as needed and they would all be very consistent.
Check it out.
http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/equilibrium-brining
It would work perfectly for SV fish, and you would cure it before cooking. But honestly it improves fish that will be cooked with any technique.
They totally do the same thing to the fish, salt is salt(with the exception of some modified commercial salts) and sugar is sugar when it comes to brining.
This will totally work great for scallops. You dont have to add the sugar, but it will taste very salty and if you use a lots less salt, it will take a lot longer.
Will this work on my brother's hand? Wasn't sure how to prepare it for a while but this gives inspiration.
:P
I would google search how to save youtube videos for offline viewing.
The pan is actually made by Zwilling, which is a part of the Henckels empire. Here is a link http://www.zwillingonline.com/64010261.html Cheers.
P.S. I forgot to mention that the salt should be non-iodized. Iodized salt contains either potassium iodate or potassium iodide and that can add a slightly bitter taste when it is used to cure or brine food.
Is there a gauge of how much salt and sugar to put? Like a ratio maybe?
Thanks for the tip! I will have to try this to see how it affects steamed fish. I steam all my fish these days and of course that makes for super moist fish... this process would reduce the initial moisture level, which then gets replenished by steaming, so I wonder how this quick cure will affect overall flavour, if at all. (and maybe cooking time?) I look forward to experimenting. Cheers,
I tried this today and the result was amazing. Thank you guys for all your help with all these easy tricks.
25% sugar to salt
Does it cost to join chef steps?
Not that I know of unless you enroll in a specialty course. However, since I am part of the majority of users who never read the terms and conditions....for all I know ChefSteps has reverse mortgage my cooking soul.
I’ll try it on a burger, so that I can add a little bite to a sous-vided burger in addition to the firmer texture that searing brings.
Thank you.
Is that ratio by weight?
Oh! Thank you for stepping in and correcting that.
Exactly
I've been using this method for years on fish and white meat, and it transforms eveything. It's fantastic on chicken, duck breast etc. The ONLY way cook moist turkey, great on pork and lean veal. It doesn't work for me on red meat. However the timings and quantities are different for white meat than for fish. You want the salt to pull out the moisture, dilute the salt and sugar and give them a ride back into the meat (salt imbalance). It takes somewhere between 2-3 hrs for a chicken breast or pork filet. Then the entire cut is flavoured and it remains moist in cooking SV or any other method. You should not wash the meat after dry curing. Keeping in mind that all the salt stays in the food you sprinkle the amount of salt you would have used to season the same cut plus a bit. For pork I use 2 part salt for 1 part sugar and for chicken 3 to 1.
Interesting. How does is this method compared to brining it in salt and sugar (tip from Modernist Cuisine)?
First post to CS, love this site! Just tried the curing method with both fresh, wild caught sockeye and Scottish farm raised salmon. The thinner, less fatty portion of sockeye benefited more texture and flavor-wise versus the farm raised cut. However, in both instances there was a noticeable improvement (as evidenced by my daughters devouring of hers!). Went with 1 part white sugar to three parts kosher salt for 20 minutes. Cooked sous vide at 118 degrees F for 30 minutes, then finished in a hot skillet with a little coconut oil. I took the skin off and fried it in the oil, making nice strips of salmon-skin "bacon" to top the filets as a crispy garnish. How can you miss with that?
Next time, if we use the thicker farm-raised salmon, I will cure it longer, maybe 45 minutes given the thickness of the meat. I think that may make a more pronounced difference.
We were tempted to eat the fish straight from the cure and rinse, the color popped and the texture was so firm and appealing. Glad we waited until the finish, best salmon I've had so far. Can't wait to try this with other fish! Thanks for the great content, keep it coming!!!
Brining takes much longer and the results are inferior to dry cure both in flavour and moisture. There is one brine I use for pork which works as well: Coke and lots of salt overnight.
coke and salt??? due tell more...
i brine pork overnight with orange and pineapple juice and liberally coat the pork with cumin and salt. very good results...
wonder if that play button at the top could have been made orange to hide it just a bit more?
The acidity in coke tenderizes the meat and the salt and sugar flavour it. Try it on shoulder butt or loin, even ribs. I last used it for wild boar back loin and got a perfecty moist and very tasty result. (SV 3 hrs at 140 with a Cavados sauce). You don't taste the coke, no worries.
You do this salting technique even after brining?
No either brine or dry cure.
It is completely free to join chef steps. I would say over 90% of their content is free as well. A couple of items are available in some specialty courses, but even then, after some time has passed, some of those recipes become free as well.
I try this technique today with a few Salmón portions. I liked a lot the texture of the fish after the dry-cure (15minutes) its so nice, the flavor and the texture after cook its so tender and juicy. Nice tip!
Looking good, Raúl. Glad this worked out well for you and thanks so much for sharing images.
cool !!!
There is no charge to join ChefSteps, Patty. We have some paid classes, but most of our content is free. Welcome to the community!
В каком ресторане, подскажите?)
I'm thinking you could do an equilibrium brine, sous vide after a day with or without the brine, freeze excess filets in their brine, pull them out when desired and sous vide or prepare in traditional ways. At least that is what I am trying with the an abundance of king mackerel just caught. Mackerel is not a flakey fish, of course, like snapper or scamp, but does cook to a nice white flesh. The locals invariably fry it, but the difficulty is avoiding an overly chewy texture, which proved to be the case with a few samples we held back. So I did one filet sous vide last night with the equilibrium brine replaced with oil and lemon thyme that came nicely and served with a veloute bumped up to a white wine sauce. The night before I did a filet that was only in the equilibrium brine about 8 hours and smoked on the grill. The brine did help, I believe, but the filet was not quite as moist as the sous vide, as one would expect.
Wouldn't you smoke all your mackerel? Nothing better than a smoked mackerel finished on the BBQ.
It Is gravad lax, they just don't seem to know this...
And the classes that require payment are well worth it.
What about conpoy? Dry cure, and slowly dry?
