Go to the Recipe: Sous Vide Salmon
I tried this last night.
Even with the frozen Salmon that I could find in Puerto Rico it came out amazing.
Thanks
Wilson, that's great to hear! I made it myself last night as well. It was delectable! Did you accompany it with a side dish? Green pea mash? If you haven't tried that recipe, it's a must!
ChefSteps got me in the habit of brining my fish. With salmon, especially, I find it makes a huge difference over un-brined product when searing. Any reason it isn't used at 50* sous vide?
Someone please correct me, since I don't really know what I'm talking about, but Chef Steps generally says to avoid putting any salt in the bag when prepping for sous vide. I seems they will put other spices, but always avoid salt.
Yes, that`s right...
Because salt is hygroskopic and it would take out the water of your food...
I did this last night and was so excited with the results! A bit of oil, bourbon, and dill went into the bag with the salmon filet, served it up with a baked sweet potato and herbed risotto. Super delicious, can't wait to try Sous Vide with NY strips - thanks, ChefSteps!
it work on frozen salmon ?
I got my Anova yesterday, and tried this today. Turned out great! Thank you!
I am curious, ChefSteps guys: what is your choice of pan for pan-frying fish using high heat?
I was gifted a Sansaire for Christmas, and jumped right into the fray! This was the most perfect essence of salmon. So perfectly cooked, and it melted right in my mouth! Thanks for the classes - I look forward to my sous vide journey. :-)
I notice that you don't recommend brining to prevent the albumin (in this recipe and others, including the level up presentation article). Here you don't address it at all and in the other one you suggest using oil. I'm using a fair bit of oil but getting a ton of albumin (which isn't sticking, but also isn't easily coming off the fish).
Any thoughts? Reasons to not brine?
True, since salt tends to draw moisture out of your food, it sort of defeats the purpose of cooking sous-vide which normally yields ultra juicy meat.
Further, but I might be wrong here, salt would probably act as "meat-glue" at some point during the cooking process, which you also want to generally avoid when you have a bag full of meat.
My little High School Culinary class did this recipe for our state competition this year. They killed it! Thank you for all you do. It's so nice to have this spot to go to as an instructor and show another way to make things. It is invaluable in the classroom when you live in a rural place with a low budget.
Made this over the weekend. Fantastic! Both pea mash and this salmon are now house recipes. Per usual with ChefSteps recipes, more flavor was need, so I added soy sauce to the salmon and olive oil in the bag. Also topped with herb butter made with herbs from mashed pea recipe. Did not get enough albumen to be a problem, and the oil siphoned 90% of it nicely away. I may try brushing the rest away with small basting brush next time. Seared 45-60 sec in hot blue steel pan with Olive Oil. A bit of a challenge getting the cooked salmon out of bag without hurting presentation. Long spatula did the trick in the end. My 7year old devoured the salmon in 3 min flat.
so cool!!! I'ii do it
Wow! This helps explain sous vide so much! It will really help me try out this teriyaki salmon (http://bit.ly/teriyakisalmon) that is done sous vide as well.
I need a little help guys, the salmon came out amazing. But when I tried to seer the skin, the pan just ripped it right off. Its not because I didn't leave it on long enough, because when it ripped it off the skin was already charcoal. I left it on for about 1min max. I tried it with a regular stainless steel frying pan and another in a non stick skillet. Both same results. I used olive oil, medium high heat. Any ideas? I'm thinking could my heat have been too high, should I lower the heat a bit and leave it on longer? But then my salmon would start to cook Thanks for the help and replies
If the pan wasn't hot enough when you put the fish in, the skin may not cook right away and fish proteins seem to love sticking to a pan as they cook. When I sear fish skin, I normally test the temperature of the pan by dripping in a few drops of water first. If the drops sizzle away, the pan isn't hot enough to be sure. If the water droplets start racing around the pan without sizzling (the bottom of the droplets is evaporating so quickly that it lifts the rest of the droplet off the pan's surface), then I know it's reached medium-high heat and I blot the drops with a paper tower, add oil, and then sear.
The best
dont use olive oil for high temperature sears, try vegetable oil
How do you suggest that a home kitchen deals with the left over fishy oil? I would like to recycle the bag to another cooking, but just don't know what to do with the extra oil! Hesitant to even landfill it in the bag. (You can guess that I don't have a "frying" kitchen, so it's a new problem for me!
Loved the results!!!!
Here is my creation: Chu Chee Salmon. So good!
how about grape seed oil? Or canola oil? for high temp sears?
Sorry for coming so late. The idea is to brine it for one hour at least, in the fridge, in a 9% solution, but IN A DIFFERENT RECIPIENT. You then discard the brine, tap dry your salmon, and sous vide the heck out of it!
Olive Oil works fine for high temp sears or deep frying.
As the International Olive Oil Council has stated:
When heated, olive oil is the most stable fat, which means it stands up well to high frying temperatures. Its high smoke point (410ºF or 210ºC) is well above the ideal temperature for frying food (356ºF or 180ºC). The digestibility of olive oil is not affected when it is heated, even when it is re-used several times for frying
They reccomend a oil temp of 175-190c olive olive for frying fish.
how can we avoid that white jelly thing when cooking salmon?
Typically the white jelly (aka albumin) results from high temperatures while cooking. To avoid this, you can cook with oil in the sous vide back so the albumin will leak off into the oil instead of remaining on the fish. Hope this help!
I'm not a salmon fan. When I eat sushi, I give my salmon to my daughter. With this recipe, I could eat Salmon every day, it's simply amazing! I used the salt/sugar cure ahead of cooking and then cooked exactly to the recipe. A quick sear and they were ready to go. No fishy smell in the kitchen and amazingly perfect salmon on the plate. Follow the directions and you'll be happy!
I am not normally a salmon fan (I like all other fish and LOVE tuna sashimi) but wow. This was so good. I have made salmon via sous vide in the past and it had less of the robust salmon smell that I don't like on a plank, but I think the combination of the crusty skin and the Mash really made the entire experience so much better. The textures of the crunchy skin (which I normally never eat on any fish), the great texture of the fish, and then the mash flavors and textures were amazing complements to each other. It also plates very well - the colors are so distinct. I did not cure ahead so I will try it again using that method to see if there is a difference. The only downside is the fish by itself lacked a lot of flavor so the seasoning post-sear is important unless you are really eating all three (skin, fish, mash) together in one bite.
We had great quality salmon that was caught in alaska on a trip and then flash frozen on site, so I imagine much of my success came from a great quality fish, but I also kept the heat quite high on the sear and the skin cooked up beautifully.
I did get quite a bit of albumin on the surface despite a fair amount of olive oil. I think I needed even more oil.
I've tried this according to the time/temp directions a few times now, and the salmon comes out with an unappealing, mushy texture. Any ideas why that would be the case? Seems to be working out for everyone else!
Can you give us more info on your process? I've done this twice and it was stunningly good. Try the ChefSteps trick of sprinkling with salt and sugar 30 minutes before cooking.
Sous vide for the first time - stove top method. Totally worth my wait. I look forward to Joule's international release!
Did you package the fillets with the vacuum method rather than the water displacement method? I find that the pressure of the vacuum method causes most seafood to turn to mush. The water displacement method is perfect.
Thanks for the replies! I've been using the water displacement method, and have been letting the filets sit covered in salt and sugar for 10 minutes before cooking. On the last try, I let them sit for 20 minutes, and the texture was improved, but still not as described here. I've been wondering if it's a product issue. I usually buy Atlantic farmed salmon, as it's usually on sale at Whole Foods, and it seems to be a little fragile.
I made sous vide salmon (Atlantic) for the first time; used the salt and sugar method first, cooked at 122 degrees for 45 minutes with only olive oil in the bag, made a green pea mash; I topped the salmon with a brown butter cream sauce with tarragon, Italian parsley, and leeks.The sauce was balanced with lemon and maple syrup. The meal was unreal; my guests said it was the best salmon they'd ever had. Considering I have never cooked salmon before.....Note: I did use the water displacement method. Thanks again Team Chef Steps
I absolutely love sous vide salmon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good afternoon everyone! This and most sous vide recipes are meant to be seared and finished as soon as the cooking process comes to an end. But what about if you want to hold it until the following day? A simple sear will not heat the inside. Nuke it in the microwave? Seems counter productive. Convectional oven? Please let me know if any suggestions. Thanks! Absolutely loooove your site BTW.
50C was perfect! Made some Atlantic salmon with the asparagus gribiche recipe from the Gjelina cookbook, subbing Kewpie mayonnaise for eggs because I straight up forgot to buy any.
Guys!. Have you try to reheat chilled salmon on microwave and then sear it?. If someone has an idea of % power to use please?
Why don't you re-heat it using sous vide again? Should be perfect to control the temperature and at the same time keeping all the liquids in the food. You just can't overcook it. I believe that there is a video where Chefsteps is demonstrating that with pork meat or a steak.
Can i transfer a piece of salmon that was vacuum packed with a foodsaver and frozen, directly from the freezer in to the waterbath or do i have to let it defrost first and then rebag it ? Trying to save a bag and some time, but I am not sure if this method would kill me somehow with bacteria growth or something.
Brining the salmon before cooking it sous vide will help inhibit the secretion of white protein, known as albumen, and will give the fish a vibrant pink color. Because the brine must be ice cold, you should use crushed ice. If brining the salmon, do not add additional salt when cooking.
I suggest not using a very strong tasting olive oil. It can leave quite a weird taste and odour on the fish. Neutral oils or even butter are probably much better suited.
Just reheat to temp with sous vide, it should take 10-15mins to reheat most things.
You can sous vide from frozen, I do it all the time. Just add more cook time.
I did salmon and halibut in the same pot. Salmon was over cooked and halibut was excellent. I noticed the whitish fat forming on the top of the salmon long before the end of cooking time. I should have taken it out then. In fairness, I probably had a fillet thinner than I indicated in the app when I was setting up to cook.
You're totally good to go direct from frozen, it's just gonna take maybe 50% longer in the sous vide bath. Put some salt & pepper, some herbs (I like dill and/or tarragon), probably some lemon zest, and a little oil on your fish in the foodsaver bag before sealing it up, and you are good to go straight from the freezer. This makes for a real timesaver weekday meal.
