Sous vide Salmon at 53°C
Salmon is one of these food that are perfect cooked sous vide. The textures is quite different than the salmon that you cook traditionaly, it’s soft and silky.
After reading the post on Cooking Issues about the great primer they were preparing, I was suprised to see that in the chart about the salmon temperature, they were stating that cooked at temperature between 52°C and 64°C they were considering the Salmon to be overcooked.
Obviously I agree that from 55°C, it would be indeed overcooked but 53°C?, I was a bit perplexed. So I went out and bought a couple of Salmon fillet and decided to cook them to check it out.
My first step was as it’s always is with Salmon; To brine it. It has a couple of purpose, the first one is that it’s season the fish, then the brine reduce the formation of Albumen during cooking which keeps the fish pretty. It also makes the flesh firmer and helps in the infusion of flavors.
Anyway, After an hour soaking in the brine, I rinced it, and patted it dry then, I vacuum packed it with Salt(very little amount, remember the brine), Pepper and a bit of butter. I also added a pinch of bouillon cube that I reduced to powder for extra flavor- you need to reduce greatly the quantity of salt when seasoning with bouillon as it is also salted.
I placed the pouches in the bath with my circulator set to 53°C for 25 minutes. I used Douglas Baldwin table of time vs thickness. While it was cooking I cooked some curly Kale, I was going for a very healthy meal, no sauce, just a beautiful piece of salmon and some green. I steamed the Kale in a pot of salted boiling water and then tossed them in a bit of butter, salt and pepper… Finally the salmon was ready.
I admit that the colour wasn’t the colour you’d expect when you cook a salmon medium rare, it was uniform and a bit dull and for a momen i thought that they were right and that the salmon was in fact overcooked, until I tasted it, that is. It was delicious, absolutely perfect, the texture was to die for, silky and smooth. and moist, so moist. If I was blind and had to judge the doneness usine taste alone, I would say that it was perfectly cooked. Although I have to acquiesce to the fact that it was indeed structuraly overcooked, it was falling apart as soon as it came out of the bag, it was so fragile I couldn’t keep the fillet in one piece.
I still kinda wonder if it was due to the temperature or the time of 25 mins that rendered the salmon so fragile. I’ll have to do another test, maybe this weekend. I’ll try 50°C for 25 minutes and 53°C for 20 minutes and see how the fish reacts.
Watch this space….
English
French
[...] I managed to do the second test of sous vide salmon, remember in my previous post “Sous vide salmon at 53°C ” I wanted to see if the temperatures chart for Salmon from “cooking issue” was [...]
WOW – after being vegetarian for the last 15years my
partner and I just starting eating fish again. I decided to
experiment. So I came up with packing the salmon in clip-lock seal
bags and then immersing it in a large pan of water at first
60degrees then latterly 55degrees. I had never heard of sous-vide
or any of these techniques and came up with this temperature of
55degrees completely independently by experiment. I didn’t need to
vacuum pack the salmon – I just pushed the bag under water until
all the air was squeezed out and then used the clip-lock to seal
it. I’m completely astounded to now discover that I was replicating
precisely what you have been doing with salmon. Different only by
ONE DEGREE!!! Most importantly of all. The Salmon is delicious and
has a beautiful soft velvety texture. I leave a 1inch thick piece
foe about ten minutes. Keep up the good work. We’ve got to find a
way to get people off their addiction to 100degrees centigrade.
It’s not a temperature that has any relevence to the cooking
process. All the best, Chris and Carol.
Just learning to use my sous vide kit. Not had great success with beef yet, but chicken breast is delicious and then I tried the above. I cooked a salmon fillet at 50C for 20 minutes and it was the most spectacular piece of fish I’ve had. It melted in the mouth. Was perfectly moist and beautifully tasty.