Sous vide fish -any one have tips?

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

Hi

I have only recently started to use my Anova. I am finding that when I cook fish it releases quite a bit of juice and white bits. Should I be brining the fish before cooking it? Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks

Susi

2

You would release juice and white bits if you were cooked too. :wink:

The ‘white bits’ are albumin (yeah… the same stuff as egg whites) it is one of the proteins contained in fish (and all other critters).

The juice is juice. Most fish have high water content flesh, although this varies from species to species. It would be helpful for diagnosis if you told us some more particulars about the fish you are cooking.

Brine would assist in getting salt into your fish, but I’m not convinced that it benefits in more ways than that. You’re adding water to an already high moisture flesh. Plus, adding water would be diluting the flavours in a delicately flavoured item. But, I have to say I don’t cook a lot of fish.

3

Thanks for your response Ember. It just seemed that the fish was losing juices and perhaps moisture because of this. So what you are saying is that this is normally what happens when you sous vide fish? Thanks for clarifying what brining does. If it gets salt into the fish does this not mean it would lose less fluid and retain moisture and flavour? I guess I will just have to try with the brining and see what happens.

Kind regards

Susi

4

Rather than using a wet brine, you could use a dry one. Salt the fish and leave it to weep and then reabsorb the flavours (in the fridge of course, particularly with fish). Care would need to be taken not to leave it too long as fish cures so much faster than red meat.

5

Personally I’ve followed the inbuilt guide for salmon, and have had no complaints. May I suggest rather than worrying about the appearance of a lot of juice, take a look to see if the fish is still moist and of a good texture when you’re eating it.As long as the fish itself turns out ok, you can ignore the byproducts. Good luck!

6

Susi, if the moisture and albumin bothers you you can give the fish a quick brine before cooking. 10 minutes is enough to fix the albumin. It’s most noticeable on Salmon, Tout Filets and Arctic Char. I don’t bother with other fish.

A lower cooking temperature will reduce it too, but with an associated softer texture.