Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals [A Cookbook]

I originally came across this book at the library and enjoyed it so much that I ended up buying my own copy. I have been cooking sous vide for almost two decades, and even with that level of experience, these recipes genuinely surprised me. They are still very simple and approachable, but they elevate familiar dishes to a completely new level. Even if you are already comfortable and confident with sous vide cooking, the recipes feel thoughtful, refined, and almost magical in their results. This book is absolutely worth adding to your collection, regardless of your experience level.

Until I had acquainted myself with Sous Vide at Home, I viewed sous vide as one of those cooking techniques that is ideally suited to three or twelve dishes that have almost no currency because they were never cooked before the invention of sous vide equipment. The technique is ideally suited to cooking eggs, poultry, fish, and red meat to a specific temperature - on at which it is safe to eat but where internal proteins have not all contracted to squeeze all the delicious moisture and fat out of the food, leaving it grainy, tough, and dry. Hollandaise sauce, poached salmon, and pefectly seared steaks are the obvious entries for a book on the subject; and they are found here. Author Lisa Fetterman has gone beyond the obvious in revealing the unique potential of the technology. She offers Stout-Glazed short ribs where slow cooking "melts the gelatin" in the meat, melding it with stout for a finger-licking presentation. There's chicken liver mousse presented with figs and sourdough bread. The author goes out of the way to describe how to seal your mousse with duck fat and present it as freshly made two days later. Then there's a version of poached carrots with dill yogurt dressing, that raises new ideas about how one might use sous vide in other poaching methods. It stimulates the imagination: how might I reinvent poached pears? Never mind, that's here, too. These are really good recipes that demonstrate both a powerful grasp of the advantages of this cooking medium and a sophistication in methods for combining a basic food with other foods that might complement it. Other sous vide cookbooks are better oriented to imparting an understanding the fundamental sous-vide rules: times and temperatures for various fare. This one is more oriented to cooking a specific recipe. So it is better suited to a home cook than to a person who is trying to adapt sous vide to cook their own recipes in a more commercial setting. The book is thick, beautifully produced, and richly illustrated. I do wish my eyes were forty years younger, as I can only just read the recipes in bright daylight, the font being small and filamentatious. There is a quirky (wide but not tall) page layout that would be beautiful had it not forced the choice of tiny font size. I bought the spiral bound version form; and I will confess that I regret it. 1) The rings are not of sufficient diameter to gracefully allow the book to be paged through without the pages getting jammed and torn as one pages through it - unless one pays attention as one turns each page. 2) The production quality of the heavily inked pages is so high that I could never cook with the book open for fear of splattering the the artwork. This obviates the reason for buying a spiral bound book. 3) The book designer did not leave ample room for binding the spiral pages, leaving an insufficient margin between the spine and the paragraphs beside it. Overall, this is a luxurious cookbook that just happens to be about sous-vide. It's the kind of thing that tempts one to spend one's free time through a long series of summer and fall weekends just cooking all the recipes in order to explore a new food frontier.

This is a good book and I’ll keep it but I was really looking for something with basic recipes for every day cooking of meats and chicken for a beginner and basic cook. I’m getting more comfortable with my soup vide so will start trying some of their more advanced recipes

Let me preface this with, as a designer, I am a fussy brat about what goes on our coffee table and I HATE reading unless I have a sense that there is something really epic and groundbreaking going on in a book. So, yes, I have read Sous Vide at Home cover to cover, and yes, it will sit on my coffee table for at least the next two months. This book is outstanding. I work in the tech industry currently and about 6 months ago my most brilliant colleage started hounding me about how amazing sous vide is and how it will change my life forever and restore my faith in cooking, etc. etc. etc. My brother in law is a bit of a foodie so I bought him a sous vide device, this book and a handful of vaccuum sealing bags for Christmas... and then I was feeling extra generous that day so I kicked in for the same items for myself ;) So, this book came, and oh my goodness - that cover. A gorgeous silky black background with a mouth-watering steak and what I can only imagine is sea salt scattered artfully acroas the page. Turns out you CAN judge a book by the cover - every recipe inside is as tantalizing and magical as the opening image in this gastronomical page turner. I really appreciate the back stories to each section of the book, the approachable language of the author and the specific invitations to experience new people and cultures through recipes. The Chinese Tea eggs are artful and wonderful and I can't wait to try them. I seriously can't recommend this book enough for a clear and concise intro to the many and varied possibilities of sous vide, and as a work of art for any sitting room focal point. Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your experiences and best wishes in your continued success.

Excelente!!

I have been using Sous vide method during this summer with wonderful results. This book is helping me up my Sous vide cooking greatly. Great recipes.

The book look really good, high quality paper, and the recipes looks yummy!

Es un libro de recetas, sin entrar apenas en los fundamentos técnicos de la cocina sous vide, que es lo que realmente se buscaba en este libro.

L'ho regalato a una cuoca molto piagnola sui libri di ricette. Non ha avuto nulla da ridire anzi è stata entusiasta. Il libro parte dall'abc sulla cucina a bassa temperatura fino a ricette gourmet. Insegna trucchetti niente male e anche a come fare il sottovuoto senza l'apposita macchina. Le foto sono perfette e l'esposizione chiara. ATTENZIONE: È IN INGLESE.