Best Sous Vide Cookbooks: Beginners to Advanced
We’ve all been there. You get so excited about a new cooking appliance. You research it heavily. You splurge while shopping to ensure that you get the best one along with all the most important attachments. Then you get home and realize that you have no idea how to actually use the thing. It happens to all of us and it can be especially common with something as tricky-to-learn, yet easy-to-master as a sous vide machine. Countless people purchase or are gifted a sous vide machine with the best intentions and then never bother to actually learn how to use it. Don’t let this be you. Sous vide is something that everyone can and should learn to use. The secret is finding the right source to teach you the secrets.
Getting started with sous vide cooking can be a bit daunting for those without experience, even though this revolutionary method of cooking is actually quite easy to learn. It’s important for beginners to read up on the sous vide process in order to obtain the best performance from your device and to ensure safety. That almost goes without saying. On the other hand, even those who are experienced with sous vide can learn incredible tips and new mouthwatering recipes to add to their own sous vide cooking arsenal. There’s always room to grow your sous vide skills and deliver even more incredible meals.
While I do encourage sous vide enthusiasts to research information online, having a sous vide cookbook in your kitchen is an absolute must – especially for the quick and easy sous vide time and temperature chart. That will save you so many times in the middle of a sous vide session gone awry. This book will become your new favorite cooking companion and something that will get you out of more jams than even the best college roommate. So, without further ado, here are the three cook books that every sous vide chef should have on their shelf.
Top 3 Sous Vide Cookbooks
I compiled a short list of the best sous vide cookbooks for every level of experience. Whether you’re a beginner or expert, these amazing sous vide cookbooks will help you perfect your cooking. Best of all, some of these come available in PDF to download. So, even if you don’t have much shelf space to share, you can still enjoy these books from an iPad or even your phone! There’s really no excuse not to bring at least one of these wonderful books into your life.
1. Best for Beginners: Learn Sous Vide: Beginner Cookbook
Many people look for a PDF version of a cookbook if they keep a tablet or touchscreen laptop in the kitchen to reference as they cook, and many people print out their favorite recipes from the PDF to put them into their own cooking scrapbook. So, I went out of my way to make sure the book was available in that format. You really don’t have an excuse not to own this book! You’re already on my website, so why not take the next logical step.
2. Best for Intermediates: Sous Vide at Home by Lisa Fetterman
Lisa Fetterman, the founder of Nomiku, created one of the most impressive cookbooks that I’ve ever seen. Sous Vide at Home comes in a hardcover version for just over $20 and includes creatively mouthwatering photography that will make you desperate to get into the kitchen. Some of the recipes contain a few cooking techniques outside of sous vide which may be a bit more advanced for a few home cooks, however the ingredients are all relatively normal and do not require you to find a specialty grocery store to shop for. So, it’s approachable even if it assumes that you pick up the book with a certain amount of skill in the kitchen already. This is one of the few cookbooks that are worth the buy for the images alone! We had the pleasure of interviewing Lisa just before the launch of Sous Vide at Home; take a quick look at our interview with Lisa to see a preview of two recipes from the book! After scrolling through that preview, you’ll understand why this book deserves to be in your kitchen.
3. Best for Advanced: Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, by Thomas Keller
Thomas Keller is a remarkable chef who really needs no introduction for anyone versed in the ways of sous vide. He’s a vital part of the the James Beard Foundation and has won many prizes for his cooking including Best Chef in America in 1997. He also holds a total of 7 Michelin Stars from 3 restaurants. So, this guy knows what he’s talking about. In the 90s, Keller began experimenting with sous vide cooking, eventually leading to the Under Pressure cookbook in which all of the recipes were prepared in his actual restaurants. In this cook book, Keller discusses a few tips, cooking times and temperature, safety, and of course, recipes. The recipes covered in this book offer some of the finest sous vide cooking that’s ever been achieved. Master this book and you’ll be able to serve up the type of meals that people spend their lives chasing. So, it’s certainly worth a read. However, it is worth nothing that the book itself is definitely for advanced sous vide cooking and rarely ideal for the everyday home-cook. You may want to master recipes in the other two books before diving into this one. But once you are ready, Keller’s dishes will change the way you think of sous vide cooking forever!
4. Best Basics: Sous Vide at Home by Lisa Q. Getterman
The Modern Technique was written by the CEO of Nomiku Lisa Q. Getterman, who you might be familiar with based on their wide variety of sous vide products. As such you can expect that the recipes included in this book were informed by a long history working specifically with this technique. It also covers basics and best practices – including pasteurization. This is one of the things that is hardest for new blood to get their heads around. After all, how can a roast chicken that registers 145 degrees internally be done? Fear not though, because this book includes a handy quick reference chart to correctly gauge timing, temperature and power consumption.
We were particularly impressed with the curated list of recipes in Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique. Many cooks emphasize quantity over quality when working on a cook book. Sous vide is a very specific method of cooking and not every standard recipe needs to be translated with this technique. We very much appreciated that the recipes in Sous Vide at Home were carefully considered and designed to extract the very best from sous vide cooking. Keep in mind that this means the recipes in here will go far, far beyond standard western fare in an attempt to highlight nuance. If you’re instead looking for familiar recipes with a sous vide twist then Sous Vide Guy would instead suggest a different cook book!
5. Best for Scientists: The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by Kenji López-Alt
Kenji López-Alt is a household name for many thanks to his excellent Youtube channel and deep, science-based knowledge of cooking techniques and temperature control. The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science is a fine addition to pretty much any recipe shelf. In particular Sous Vide Guy recommends The Food Lab to those looking for a deep dive into beloved American dishes, plus a few wide-ranging selections for the adventurous.
This cook book it also, quite literally, the definition of a tome. At almost 1,000 pages you can expect to find not only detailed recipes, but gorgeous photography as well. The Food Lab is also an award winning cook book, including the James Beard Award and the IACP Cookbook of the Year. López-Alt specializes in the ‘whys’ of cooking as much as the ‘hows.’ With that said, this is not a guidebook for classically trained chefs. The Food Lab: Cooking Through Science is less interested in revisiting classical techniques such as the slow caramelization of onions. Rather, López-Alt aims to iterate on existing cooking techniques with new ideas. Naturally, your mileage may vary if you are instead looking to find modern replacements for tried and true techniques.
FAQ
Is a sous vide cookbook necessary?
Sous vide cookbooks are a great item to have on hand, especially for beginners. When you start with sous vide there are a lot of unknowns to consider. One of the things that spooks people the most is the lower temperatures that familiar foods are cooked at. Having a sous vide cookbook on hand that includes educational information on the ‘whys’ as much as the ‘hows’ can be a great aid for those just starting out. With that said, it’s entirely possible to pick up the basics without buying a cookbook.
What is the best sous vide cookbook for beginners?
Some of the best sous vide cookbooks for beginners include Sous Vide at Home by Lisa Fetterman and America’s Test Kitchen’s Sous Vide For Everyday.
What’s the deal with the time ranges in recipes of sous vide cookbooks?
The time ranges in sous vide cookbooks allow you to cook your meal to a precise level of doneness. In short, sous vide cooking gets away with a lower than typical temperature range as the food is also pasteurized during the cooking process. This means that due to a combination of steady heat and long cooking times the vast, vast majority of potential pathogens are killed. The minimums in these recipes often refer to the bottom of this effective range, while the maximum is as far as you want to go before risking over cooking.
What should I look for when choosing a sous vide cookbook?
It might sound paradoxical, but one of the things we look for in a sous vide cookbook is applications outside of meat and vegetables. Sous vide is an excellent all-arounder for those looking to explore the kitchen. Limiting this technique to just steaks, for instance, dramatically short sells sous vide’s frankly magical desert making prowess. Sous Vide Guy suggests looking for a combination of recipe variety and scientific backing. Pasteurization charts are also extremely useful, and sometimes come as an inset within these kinds of cook books.