How Do You Pasteurize Fish with Sous Vide - Ask Jason

I get a lot of great questions from my readers. In order to help out everyone else I'm answering some of the most popular ones here on the blog. Have something you need help with? You can ask me on Facebook, contact me directly, or view all of the Ask Jason questions!

I've only tried cooking fish a couple of times. I did salmon to pasteurization once, since I'm feeding a young kid. And it dried it out a whole lot. What are your favorite approaches to fish and what types of fish hold up best to sous vide?

- Mike La Charite

Note: The following article is an edited transcript from the video.

How to Sous Vide Fish

A lot of people are disappointed cooking fish with sous vide and I think that's because there's several ways fish are prepared. Two of the main ones are more gently cooked methods like poached or steamed fish, and higher heat methods like grilled or pan-fried fish.

For good grilled fish, I always remember when I was in Boy Scouts when they would cook rainbow trout. They'd catch them, clean them, and they would throw them on the grill. And it would be nice crusty skin on one side and a few little grill marks on the top, and that's all that would go into it. It was amazing and super flavorful.

Sous vide halibut chimichurri sauce 5

To try to replicate that with sous vide is almost impossible. You're talking about something that's 1/2 maybe 3/4 of an inch thick and only needs to be grilled for 2 minutes per side to cook through. So it's almost impossible to replicate that crusty outside if you have pre-cooked it with sous vide.

Which Fish are Good with Sous Vide

However, there are a lot of types of more gentle fish preparations, such as poached or steamed fish. And sous vide excels at making this type of fish.

Dashi swordfish overhead green

Sous vide is also great at low temperature preparations, such as lightly cured or slightly warmed fish.

Some of My Favorite Sous Vide Fish Recipes

Those are some of my favorite sous vide fish recipes. They mainly focus around gentle poached fish or low temp fish dishes. If you want more pan fried or grilled fish, then cooking it sous vide often isn't the best way to go.

For more information you can read my comprehensive article on how to sous vide fish.

Want to Get More From Sous Vide?

Do you worry you're not getting the most out of your sous vide machine?

Quickly level up your sous vide game! Make perfect meats, master searing, and discover the sous vide times and temperatures you need to make everyday food amazing and impress your friends and family with the Sous Vide Quick Start email course!

Sous vide salmon carpaccio 5

How to Pasteurize Sous Vide Fish

Cooking fish to pasteurization with sous vide is something that normally isn't done. The only time I really heard of it being done consistently is when I went to CREA / Cuisine Solutions and they showed me some of the new products they are working on.

They do work with one, two, and three star Michelin restaurants and on the other hand, they make all the sous vide egg bites from Starbucks. So they kind of do these mass consumer sous vide methods and they also do this really high-end consulting. So one of the products they do is pasteurized salmon. And they cook it at a 140°F (60°C) until it's pasteurized, they chill it and then they provide it to restaurants only to be used in cold applications.

Sous vide swordfish romesco sauce raw

They think, as Mike said, that it gets dried out and so it doesn't work for them in hot applications, but for using salmon in a salad or tuna in a salad, they will cook to pasteurization for those because it will last a really long time. But they're not going to give you a hot salmon fillet that's been pasteurized.

So what I do with fish is I only eat fish that I would feel comfortable eating raw - you can read What is "Sushi Grade" Fish for more information. And it's interesting when you talk about the temperatures in sous vide versus in traditional cooking. Because people think "well, I wouldn't eat raw fish from the supermarket" but almost every time they are searing or pan frying or grilling a fish, they're not bringing it up to a high enough temperature. So they are eating it basically raw from a safety standpoint.

But when you talk about sous vide they're like oh, well, it's only at 120°F. It's more in people's heads. And that's where they think sous vide might be more dangerous, where the traditional methods they're using are just as "unsafe" as sous vide.

Sous vide swordfish romesco sauce

You're not pasteurizing the fish when you're pan frying it unless you're really cooking the crap out of it and most of us that like good food wouldn't enjoy that fish anyway. So only eat fish you feel comfortable eating raw and cook that sous vide. And if you really need it pasteurized you can sous vide salmon or some types of tuna and eat it cold, or just know that it's going to be overcooked.

Sous vide swordfish corn bean salad 6

If you like this you can get more than 85 inspiring recipes to get you on your way to sous vide success. It's all in my best selling book Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide - Get Your Copy Today!

Like this?
Have questions or comments about it?
Let me know in the article comments below or on Facebook!

Related Amazing Food Made Easy Articles

All tags for this article: Ask Jason, Sous Vide, Sous Vide Fish


Jason logsdon headshot This article is by me, Jason Logsdon. I'm an adventurous home cook and professional blogger who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. I've explored everything from sous vide and whipping siphons to pressure cookers and blow torches; created foams, gels and spheres; made barrel aged cocktails and brewed beer. I have also written 10 cookbooks on modernist cooking and sous vide and I run the AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com website.
Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links on this site might be affiliate links that if used to purchased products I might receive money. I like money but I will not endorse something I don't believe in. Please feel free to directly go to any products I link to and bypass the referral link if you feel uncomfortable with me receiving funds.
placeholder image

Cookie Consent

This website uses cookies or similar technologies, to enhance your browsing experience and provide personalized recommendations. By continuing to use our website, you agree to our Privacy Policy