Chef Thomas Keller’s Turbot Recipe: How to Sous Vide Fish

Traditionally caught in northern seas, wild turbot is a highly prized flatfish with firm, white flesh and a delicate and mild flavor. It lends itself well to creamy French sauces, like this preparation of petits pois à la française, or peas and pearl onions cooked in a sauce suprême with bacon.

If you cannot source turbot, substitutions include halibut, fluke, and sole (all varieties of the white fish). Most any fish is appropriate for cooking sous vide and served according to your personal tastes. It’s the thickness of the fish, not its length, that determines how long it will take to cook. Most fishmongers will be able to recommend an appropriate substitution based on their daily catch as well.

Chef Keller recommends selecting fish under 1½ inches thick for cooking fish sous vide. Also, cook fish sous vide from cold (i.e., do not temper the fish).

• For sous vide salmon and other fatty fish. General cooking temperatures for most fish that are cooked to medium rare (e.g., fatty fish) range from 53 to 57°C, with an approximate cooking time of 12 to 15 minutes for every ½ inch of thickness.
• For halibut, swordfish, seabass, and more. For more flaky fish or for fish fillets that need to be cooked more well done, cook at 61°C. It will take about 10 minutes for every ½ inch of thickness.

To truly determine whether the fish is cooked perfectly to your liking, it will require some experimentation on your part to find the right sous vide cooking time and temperature.