Sous-Vide Tuna Confit Is Much Better Than Canned Food

I have always appreciated a good tuna sandwich. You can make a good one even with mediocre water-filled fish, although you’ll have to rely heavily on condiments and seasonings. The unusual tuna in oil makes the fish stand out even more. But tuna confit ? This fish is so good that it needs almost no mayonnaise (the statement coming from me carries a lot of weight).

Good tuna confit is all about temperature control. The tuna is gently poached in olive oil (or another oil of your choice) until just a little hard, resulting in a very tender and very moist piece of fish. It will put any store-bought items in your pantry to shame and – if you have an immersion circulator – it only takes half an hour to cook.

There are many recipes for tuna confit. Some contain garlic, lemon zest, peppercorns, and hot peppers, but I don’t think this is necessary if you have good peppery olive oil. Drying quickly before the tuna goes to the bath creates a lot of seasoning (and draws out a little water) while still allowing the fish aroma to shine. You can of course add any flavors; Just keep in mind that you are cooking fish in a low temperature and anoxic environment that botulism loves, so you’ll want to eat the confit for a day or two. (You should probably do this anyway.)

For tuna, use albacore if you can. If you can find a loin, that’s fine, but you can use steaks or even kabab chunks. I was lucky enough to find a large loin at the end of the season and took the opportunity to slice it up and watch it at three different temperatures to find my favorite.

Before you even set the temperature, you need to cut the fish into 3/4 or 1 inch thick even chunks. Don’t worry if they are not completely uniform – fish are not perfectly symmetrical – just try (which I hear is very good).

Then sprinkle each piece with plenty of salt. I used table salt (the most salty), but any fine-grained salt will work. It should look like this:

Place the salted tuna slices on a plate and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a heat-resistant bath or container with water and set the temperature. 113 to 121 ℉ will be good; it’s a matter of your texture preference.

I cooked three servings of fish for half an hour each at 113 ℉, 117 ℉ and 121 ℉. As you can probably guess, the higher the cooking temperature, the harder the fish. At 113 ℉, the tuna had a light sashimi quality and bounced back when pressed with a fork, leaving only a slight indentation. At 117 ℉, it flaked slightly when pressed with a fork, although it mostly just slipped under the teeth. The tuna cooked at 121 ℉ was quite flaky, but still very moist and tender. For me, tuna cooked at 113 ℉ occupied an eerie valley between raw and cooked. Tuna cooked at 121 was my personal favorite – perfect for a sandwich, but tuna cooked at 117 would be excellent in nicoise salad.

Although I chose to keep the tuna confit in an old jam jar, I prepared it in a freezer bag. It’s much faster without the thick glass and to be honest I ran out of clean mason jar lids (jam jar lids don’t close well enough). Since you will be cooking fish at a fairly low temperature, there is no need for extra thick vacuum bags. Ziploc will work fine.

Sous-Vide Tuna Confit

Ingredients:

• Fillet or steaks of albacore tuna, at least 1/2 lb
• Salt
• Olive oil

Instructions:

Cut the tuna (loin or steak) into 3/4 or 1 inch pieces. Sprinkle each piece with salt on all sides, then place the pieces on a plate in one layer and let salt in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. In the meantime, bring the water bath to the desired cooking temperature (see above) using the submersible circulation pump.

After 20 minutes, rinse off excess salt from the tuna and pat dry with paper towels. Place the tuna in an airtight freezer bag (arrange it as evenly as possible), then add enough olive oil to coat the tuna as you hold the bag over the counter by its top corners. Dip the bag into a water bath and secure the excess over the edge of the tub. Cook for 30 minutes.

After half an hour has passed, remove the bag from the sous-vide tub and either enjoy the confit while warm, or place the bag in the ice bath for 15 minutes to chill. After cooling, transfer the fish to a jar or other sealed container. Strain the remaining oil in the bag to remove unsightly globules of fat before pouring it onto the fish. Tuna confit can be refrigerated for up to a week.