Sous Vide - Salmon

The next round in my sous vide experiment is Salmon and the principles are the same as before. Hot water, something in a sealed bag & time. Temperature will be 125F and time will be a relatively short 40 minutes, which is perfect for mid week meals where taking 2 hours or longer to cook a steak isn't feasible.

You'll need:

• Salmon fillet. I left the skin on.
• Salt & Pepper

And:

• 8 qt. saucepan
• Cast iron skillet
• Oven thermometer

In the picture below I have the cast iron skillet under the pot but with a short cooking time of only 40 minutes I don't think it is necessary.

Step 1) Start by taking the salmon steaks out and letting them come up to room temperature. Season them with a little salt and pepper at this point. I chose to leave the skin on so that when I seared it after cooking I could have that yummy crispy skin.

Step 2) Preheat the oven to your target temperature, in this case 125F. I have read about using lower temperatures so I shot in the middle of the range of what others were using.

Fill your pot with hot water and put it on the stove at a medium-low temperature to bring the water up to 125F.

Step 3) Place the salmon into zip log bags and either suck out all of the air or lower them into the water and let the water push the air out. The temperature will drop a few degrees so leave it on the stove on medium-low heat to come back up to 125F. I described my ghetto vacuum technique in more detail in the Steak Sous Vide post.

 

You want to make sure they are fully submerged and as long as you got all the air out they should not be floating. If they are, put a ceramic mug in there to weigh them down. Next just put the whole affair in the oven.

Step 4) Time to go prep whatever you are serving with this. I made a garlic aioli to put on the salmon and a garlic and asiago cheese orzo for a side.

Step 5) Time to take them out and sear them. They will be very tender and if you fat finger it reaching into the bag they will just fall apart. The pictures below only show 1 fillet and that is because the first one I was not gentle with and it just fell apart.

A quick sear is all that is necessary, I think I seared them for no more than a minute. If you take the skin off I would certainly sear it for less as salmon cooks very quickly and you don't want to over cook it at this point.

 

And there it is. It isn't steak but damn it was incredible. Moist like you dream about, and slightly flaky.