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Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals
A beginner's guide to sous vide, which has been a popular cooking technique in restaurants for years, offering tender and succulent dishes cooked to perfection.
Now, from the creator of Nomiku—the first affordable sous vide machine—comes this easy-to-follow cookbook that clearly illustrates how to harness the power of sous vide technology to achieve restaurant-quality dishes in the comfort of your own kitchen. Discover the stress-free way to cook a delicious (and never dry!) Thanksgiving turkey along with all the trimmings, classics like Perfect Sous Vide Steak and Duck Confit, and next-level appetizers like Deep Fried Egg Yolks. Including over 100 recipes for everything from Halibut Tostadas, Grilled Asparagus with Romesco, and Chicken Tikka Masala, to Dulce de Leche, Hassle-Free Vanilla Ice Cream, and even homemade Coffee-Cardamom Bitters, Sous Vide at Home has you covered for every occasion.
Now, from the creator of Nomiku—the first affordable sous vide machine—comes this easy-to-follow cookbook that clearly illustrates how to harness the power of sous vide technology to achieve restaurant-quality dishes in the comfort of your own kitchen. Discover the stress-free way to cook a delicious (and never dry!) Thanksgiving turkey along with all the trimmings, classics like Perfect Sous Vide Steak and Duck Confit, and next-level appetizers like Deep Fried Egg Yolks. Including over 100 recipes for everything from Halibut Tostadas, Grilled Asparagus with Romesco, and Chicken Tikka Masala, to Dulce de Leche, Hassle-Free Vanilla Ice Cream, and even homemade Coffee-Cardamom Bitters, Sous Vide at Home has you covered for every occasion.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 2016
435 people are currently reading
376 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 23 reviews
January 3, 2018
In recent years the number of restaurants offering meats, poultry, seafood and even vegetables cooked sous vide style has noticeably increased. Sous vide ("under vacuum" as a method has been around for quite some time but it's becoming all the rage in upscale restaurants to mention the method that yields rich and never dry dishes. Now that thermal regulators can be purchased for home use for as little as $150, the method is starting to become more popular with home chefs, and my household is among them. One of the lures for those who are conscious of healthy eating is that sous vide cooks food at substantially lower temperatures than routine cooking methods. For instance, with temperatures substantially below 150 F, you can pasteurize an egg and still have a flowing yolk and egg white with which to make that cookie dough or caesar salad dressing you worry about getting salmonella from when using raw egg. Sous vide methods also allow you to cook protein at temperatures well below those at which glycation occurs. (If you want to know why glycation of protein is bad, be sure to read my review of
Food Pharmacy
.) With proteins slow-cooked under vacuum in a thermoregulated water bath for an hour or two and then only briefly seared to achieve Maillard browning, you cannot find a healthier way to still include protein, especially red meats, in your diet.
Fetterman explains the logic and benefits of the sous vide method and the book is packed full of delicious recipes. I haven't found a bad one in this cookbook yet! I strongly recommend it.
Fetterman explains the logic and benefits of the sous vide method and the book is packed full of delicious recipes. I haven't found a bad one in this cookbook yet! I strongly recommend it.
December 27, 2016
I received this book as an advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was so pleased to be approved for this advance reader copy just one day before it was archived because my brothers, sister, and I had just decided to get my father a sous vide immersion circulator for Christmas. Therefore, I was reading this cookbook from the viewpoint of whether it would be an appropriate gift to accompany the equipment.
What is sous vide cooking? According to the Introduction, “[s]ous vide (French for ‘under vacuum’) refers to a cooking method in which food is sealed in plastic and cooked in a temperature-controlled water bath.” According to the author, who is a sous vide expert as well as an enthusiast, sous vide cooking is a “fail safe cooking technique” that anyone, regardless of skill level or training, can use to turn out perfectly cooked dishes.
The Preface of the book essentially establishes the author’s bona fides with respect to sous vide cooking. She had become enamored of the sous vide machine while cooking in several of the top kitchens in New York City. Along with her plasma physicist boyfriend, the two MacGyvered an immersion circulator that could attach to any vessel and turn it into a sous vide machine. Over the years, they honed the prototype, did a lot of hard work, and eventually launched Nomiku. The Introduction, on the other hand, presents the goal of the book: to teach people about sous vide cooking so that it will give them the confidence to tackle both large and small culinary challenges and help them become the cook that they never could be. The Introduction also presents a fascinating brief history of sous vide cooking (spoiler alert: it didn’t cross over from laboratories to fine dining restaurants until 1974.) and a brief overview of how to cook sous vide, including some helpful tips like covering the pot of water to minimize evaporation loss and starting with hot tap water to minimize start up time.
The Getting Started section reviews additional equipment required for cooking sous vide, techniques for sealing without a vacuum machine, and safety guidelines. The additional equipment is very straightforward: a large container for the water bath, plastic bags, small weights, tongs and ladles. The author also recommends a cast iron pan or kitchen blowtorch to sear certain foods after sous vide cooking, as well as a time and temperature guide, which is usually in the recipe itself. Curiously, a vacuum sealer is not considered a recommended piece of equipment. There are two recommended methods for sealing without a vacuum sealer: the water displacement method and the table edge method for bags that contain liquid. The food safety section addresses both the question of creating an environment hospitable (or inhospitable) for bacteria and the question of cooking in plastic. The section finishes with instructions on how to make an ice bath to rapidly chill food after cooking, advice on how to use the book, and meal planning and entertaining strategies. It includes food storage instructions (properly cook and chill before refrigerating for a few days) and reheating instructions (drop the bag back into a water bath set at the same temperature used to cook the food for 20 to 30 minutes).
The recipes are the heart of the book. These are divided into several different sections: eggs; fish and shellfish; poultry; meats; vegetables; desserts; cocktails and infusions; and basics, sauces, and condiments. Within each chapter, the recipes are supposed to be arranged from the simplest to the most ambitious in order to teach the reader how to master different techniques and ingredients along the way. Each chapter begins with a table of contents of the recipes in the chapter and an overview of how to prepare the key ingredient sous vide, discussing key times and temperatures. Each recipe begins with a headnote that also discusses the science, the safety issues and/or the techniques involved in the recipe. Following the headnote, each recipe indicates the sous vide time (both minimum and maximum) and the active preparation time (prepping the ingredients as well as additional “conventional” cooking steps). Recipe steps are written in paragraph form, but seem to be very straightforward and easy to follow. There is no fluff or otherwise unnecessary commentary in the recipe steps. Each recipe also has a “Do Ahead Strategy,” which indicates how long the finished recipe can be refrigerated and how it can be reheated. Some recipes are followed by a “Pro Tip” that offers additional advice on how to prepare the recipe, like using a piping bag to make blini or how to sear scallops. There are also sometimes call out boxes which discuss the finer points of cooking, like “Cracking a Sous Vide Egg,” “How to Make Supremes,” and “How to Freeze without an Ice Cream Machine.”
The selection of protein recipes is wide ranging – from poached eggs to butter poached lobster, and from Vietnamese shrimp summer rolls to fried chicken and waffles. There are quail recipes, duck recipes, pork recipes, steak recipes, and even a pastrami recipe. The vegetable recipes range from a beet salad with goat cheese to British style chips. Six different kinds of ice cream are listed in the dessert chapter, in addition to crème brulee, dulce de leche, and a few other goodies. Finally, the drink recipes include three different types of bitters, tonic syrup, ginger syrup, various infused spirits, and, of course, cocktails using these ingredients.
The photography is predominantly in the recipes section of the book. Each recipe seems to have a related photograph that gives an idea of what the finished dish should look like, which is very helpful.
Overall, I thought this book would satisfy my need, which was to give my father a book to work from when he received his sous vide machine for Christmas. There were definitely recipes in the book that he would enjoy, and a clear enough explanation of the sous vide cooking process to allow him to experiment on his own.
I don’t own a sous vide immersion circulator, so I have not attempted any of the recipes in this book. Since I’m planning on ordering this book for my father to accompany his sous vide machine for Christmas, if he attempts any afterward, I will update my review with his opinions and results.
UPDATE #1 - As planned, we gave my father this cookbook to accompany the sous vide immersion circulator for Christmas. The next night he made a recipe of carrots using the time and temperature in the book as his guide (he improvised his own marinade with blood orange oil, parsley, and dill). The carrots came out perfectly cooked after the recommended one hour at 185F. They had just the right balance of cooked softness and raw crunch to them. My father was very pleased with how easy it was to use the sous vide appartatus, and shortly thereafter started reading the cookbook to learn more about its potential in his kitchen.
I was so pleased to be approved for this advance reader copy just one day before it was archived because my brothers, sister, and I had just decided to get my father a sous vide immersion circulator for Christmas. Therefore, I was reading this cookbook from the viewpoint of whether it would be an appropriate gift to accompany the equipment.
What is sous vide cooking? According to the Introduction, “[s]ous vide (French for ‘under vacuum’) refers to a cooking method in which food is sealed in plastic and cooked in a temperature-controlled water bath.” According to the author, who is a sous vide expert as well as an enthusiast, sous vide cooking is a “fail safe cooking technique” that anyone, regardless of skill level or training, can use to turn out perfectly cooked dishes.
The Preface of the book essentially establishes the author’s bona fides with respect to sous vide cooking. She had become enamored of the sous vide machine while cooking in several of the top kitchens in New York City. Along with her plasma physicist boyfriend, the two MacGyvered an immersion circulator that could attach to any vessel and turn it into a sous vide machine. Over the years, they honed the prototype, did a lot of hard work, and eventually launched Nomiku. The Introduction, on the other hand, presents the goal of the book: to teach people about sous vide cooking so that it will give them the confidence to tackle both large and small culinary challenges and help them become the cook that they never could be. The Introduction also presents a fascinating brief history of sous vide cooking (spoiler alert: it didn’t cross over from laboratories to fine dining restaurants until 1974.) and a brief overview of how to cook sous vide, including some helpful tips like covering the pot of water to minimize evaporation loss and starting with hot tap water to minimize start up time.
The Getting Started section reviews additional equipment required for cooking sous vide, techniques for sealing without a vacuum machine, and safety guidelines. The additional equipment is very straightforward: a large container for the water bath, plastic bags, small weights, tongs and ladles. The author also recommends a cast iron pan or kitchen blowtorch to sear certain foods after sous vide cooking, as well as a time and temperature guide, which is usually in the recipe itself. Curiously, a vacuum sealer is not considered a recommended piece of equipment. There are two recommended methods for sealing without a vacuum sealer: the water displacement method and the table edge method for bags that contain liquid. The food safety section addresses both the question of creating an environment hospitable (or inhospitable) for bacteria and the question of cooking in plastic. The section finishes with instructions on how to make an ice bath to rapidly chill food after cooking, advice on how to use the book, and meal planning and entertaining strategies. It includes food storage instructions (properly cook and chill before refrigerating for a few days) and reheating instructions (drop the bag back into a water bath set at the same temperature used to cook the food for 20 to 30 minutes).
The recipes are the heart of the book. These are divided into several different sections: eggs; fish and shellfish; poultry; meats; vegetables; desserts; cocktails and infusions; and basics, sauces, and condiments. Within each chapter, the recipes are supposed to be arranged from the simplest to the most ambitious in order to teach the reader how to master different techniques and ingredients along the way. Each chapter begins with a table of contents of the recipes in the chapter and an overview of how to prepare the key ingredient sous vide, discussing key times and temperatures. Each recipe begins with a headnote that also discusses the science, the safety issues and/or the techniques involved in the recipe. Following the headnote, each recipe indicates the sous vide time (both minimum and maximum) and the active preparation time (prepping the ingredients as well as additional “conventional” cooking steps). Recipe steps are written in paragraph form, but seem to be very straightforward and easy to follow. There is no fluff or otherwise unnecessary commentary in the recipe steps. Each recipe also has a “Do Ahead Strategy,” which indicates how long the finished recipe can be refrigerated and how it can be reheated. Some recipes are followed by a “Pro Tip” that offers additional advice on how to prepare the recipe, like using a piping bag to make blini or how to sear scallops. There are also sometimes call out boxes which discuss the finer points of cooking, like “Cracking a Sous Vide Egg,” “How to Make Supremes,” and “How to Freeze without an Ice Cream Machine.”
The selection of protein recipes is wide ranging – from poached eggs to butter poached lobster, and from Vietnamese shrimp summer rolls to fried chicken and waffles. There are quail recipes, duck recipes, pork recipes, steak recipes, and even a pastrami recipe. The vegetable recipes range from a beet salad with goat cheese to British style chips. Six different kinds of ice cream are listed in the dessert chapter, in addition to crème brulee, dulce de leche, and a few other goodies. Finally, the drink recipes include three different types of bitters, tonic syrup, ginger syrup, various infused spirits, and, of course, cocktails using these ingredients.
The photography is predominantly in the recipes section of the book. Each recipe seems to have a related photograph that gives an idea of what the finished dish should look like, which is very helpful.
Overall, I thought this book would satisfy my need, which was to give my father a book to work from when he received his sous vide machine for Christmas. There were definitely recipes in the book that he would enjoy, and a clear enough explanation of the sous vide cooking process to allow him to experiment on his own.
I don’t own a sous vide immersion circulator, so I have not attempted any of the recipes in this book. Since I’m planning on ordering this book for my father to accompany his sous vide machine for Christmas, if he attempts any afterward, I will update my review with his opinions and results.
UPDATE #1 - As planned, we gave my father this cookbook to accompany the sous vide immersion circulator for Christmas. The next night he made a recipe of carrots using the time and temperature in the book as his guide (he improvised his own marinade with blood orange oil, parsley, and dill). The carrots came out perfectly cooked after the recommended one hour at 185F. They had just the right balance of cooked softness and raw crunch to them. My father was very pleased with how easy it was to use the sous vide appartatus, and shortly thereafter started reading the cookbook to learn more about its potential in his kitchen.
January 22, 2017
Beautiful photos and accessible recipes; easy to read cover-to-cover. The eggs florentine are fantastic.
October 14, 2020
Food has changed. Cooking has changed. Now we must choose our guides to show us the new ways of creating fantastic meals, and one of my favorite guides is the visionary Lisa Fetterman, who has such dynamic zeal for the act of cooking that it is hard not to follow her ebullient lead. Sous Vide at Home gives every home cook the techniques and recipes they need to revolutionize the way they make food.
Hugh Acheson [A New Turn in the South]
Lisa is an obsessive visionary who just wants to make the modern world a tastier, inspired place. As a curious home cook turned neurotic chef, bringing professional techniques into the home kitchen is always a thrill. The ability to cook sous vide with an immersion circulator on and off the clock excites me to no end!
Christina Tosi [Milk Bar]
Sous Vide at Home is a welcome introduction to the most important kitchen innovation of recent times: precise low-temperature cooking, which makes it easier than ever for chefs and home cooks alike to get consistently delicious results.
Harold McGee [On Food and Cooking]
Hugh Acheson [A New Turn in the South]
Lisa is an obsessive visionary who just wants to make the modern world a tastier, inspired place. As a curious home cook turned neurotic chef, bringing professional techniques into the home kitchen is always a thrill. The ability to cook sous vide with an immersion circulator on and off the clock excites me to no end!
Christina Tosi [Milk Bar]
Sous Vide at Home is a welcome introduction to the most important kitchen innovation of recent times: precise low-temperature cooking, which makes it easier than ever for chefs and home cooks alike to get consistently delicious results.
Harold McGee [On Food and Cooking]
December 26, 2017
Not the bok I was looking for
I was looking for a book that explains the technicalities of SousVide rather than a recipe book. So this book wasn’t useful to me.
I was looking for a book that explains the technicalities of SousVide rather than a recipe book. So this book wasn’t useful to me.
March 19, 2018
Great recipes. Some seemed a little off on timing or temperature. But that's easily adjusted for my personal tastes.
April 19, 2018
Please See My Full Review at:
https://bibliothecaeclecticus.wordpre...
https://bibliothecaeclecticus.wordpre...
August 12, 2018
Recipes are all for gourmet type meals with exotic ingredients. If you looking for more casual meals, thus is not the book.
December 30, 2018
Enticing beautiful pictures, but less useful information like temperatures for safely cooking different foods.
December 31, 2018
I wish there was a chart of common foods and times, but otherwise this is a good intro.
July 25, 2020
As fas as cook books go this is a wonderful find for anyone new to using the sous-vid method for cooking.
March 15, 2023
Sous Vide custard ice cream base is so much easier. Who knew?
July 7, 2023
My son uses the sous vide with his Papa. Got this for them. Sous vide steak with wood fired pizza & ceasar salad all made at home is really good
August 7, 2024
Great book, easy written and lovely visuals.
September 23, 2025
Had some interesting recipes but not enough I was interested in. Stars are based on how many recipes I was personally interested in trying out.
July 26, 2020
Excellent
Great book for a beginner or advanced in sous vide cooking. A great place with lots of good info and history.
Great book for a beginner or advanced in sous vide cooking. A great place with lots of good info and history.
August 12, 2016
Original review can be found at: http://www.nerdprobs.com/books/book-r...
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**
To be honest, when my husband gave me a Sous Vide as a Valentine’s Day gift, I thought it was at little ridiculous. I know they come in all shapes and sizes, but mine is one that you stick in a stock pot and tighten to the side. I thought “Well this is silly. If I want to cook something I can just do it the old fashion way” But I am here to tell you it is a marvelous invention and makes amazing food every time. When I saw the cookbook in the request area of NetGalley I knew I had to get it and expand my abilities with the Sous Vide. The cookbook did not disappoint.
The cookbook starts with eggs and ends with sauces and condiments. Everything in between is amazing. Obviously, I didn’t cook every single thing in this book but the multiple ones I tried turned out really well. To name a few I tried: Quick Pickles, Homemade Tonic Syrup, Home-Infused Gin, and the soft boiled eggs. I did alter the Quick Pickle recipe to have a little less red pepper flakes. I have three small children and they are not a fan of overly spicy food. If you want a perfect soft boiled egg every single time, this is the way to go. Gone are the days where you have to guess whether or not the stovetop boiling water method has made them hard-boiled or if they are hardly cooked. The author makes this book easy to understand. Even the most novice of cooks can do it. All of the instructions are easy and most of the ingredients are easy to find at your local supermarket. I did have to order some cinchona bark off Amazon to make the tonic syrup but other than that everything else I either had on hand or a quick trip to the store would fix.
All in all, the book was a winner. I will certainly be keeping this book around and referring to it for my meal planning. What I love about the Sous Vide is that you set the temp you need to cook at and it holds the water at that temp indefinitely and the food will not over cook. So I can make, for example, yogurt and it will keep the milk at a constant 115 degrees for as long as it takes and it will not go over that temp. Kudos to the authors for making an easy to understand cookbook about a fantastic and (now) indispensable part of my kitchen.
**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**
To be honest, when my husband gave me a Sous Vide as a Valentine’s Day gift, I thought it was at little ridiculous. I know they come in all shapes and sizes, but mine is one that you stick in a stock pot and tighten to the side. I thought “Well this is silly. If I want to cook something I can just do it the old fashion way” But I am here to tell you it is a marvelous invention and makes amazing food every time. When I saw the cookbook in the request area of NetGalley I knew I had to get it and expand my abilities with the Sous Vide. The cookbook did not disappoint.
The cookbook starts with eggs and ends with sauces and condiments. Everything in between is amazing. Obviously, I didn’t cook every single thing in this book but the multiple ones I tried turned out really well. To name a few I tried: Quick Pickles, Homemade Tonic Syrup, Home-Infused Gin, and the soft boiled eggs. I did alter the Quick Pickle recipe to have a little less red pepper flakes. I have three small children and they are not a fan of overly spicy food. If you want a perfect soft boiled egg every single time, this is the way to go. Gone are the days where you have to guess whether or not the stovetop boiling water method has made them hard-boiled or if they are hardly cooked. The author makes this book easy to understand. Even the most novice of cooks can do it. All of the instructions are easy and most of the ingredients are easy to find at your local supermarket. I did have to order some cinchona bark off Amazon to make the tonic syrup but other than that everything else I either had on hand or a quick trip to the store would fix.
All in all, the book was a winner. I will certainly be keeping this book around and referring to it for my meal planning. What I love about the Sous Vide is that you set the temp you need to cook at and it holds the water at that temp indefinitely and the food will not over cook. So I can make, for example, yogurt and it will keep the milk at a constant 115 degrees for as long as it takes and it will not go over that temp. Kudos to the authors for making an easy to understand cookbook about a fantastic and (now) indispensable part of my kitchen.
February 23, 2017
I received this book, for free, in exchange for an honest review.
This book was much better than I expected. I expected a sous vide book to be dull and textbook like.
I didn't expect much in the way of tips, especially non sous vide tips. I valued these tips (e.g. on judging doneness) and the book's high level concepts (for example, bag up fat+herbs so that the fat absorbs the taste while cooking) the most. I also liked the egg recipes, especially the whole egg mayo.
Whole egg mayo allows me to cook faster and waste less egg (or worry about finding an egg white only recipe).
This book contains non sous vide steps which enables it to contain a very broad array of recipes.
That being said, you probably don't want this to be your only cookbook, though it could be your only sous vide cookbook.
This book was much better than I expected. I expected a sous vide book to be dull and textbook like.
I didn't expect much in the way of tips, especially non sous vide tips. I valued these tips (e.g. on judging doneness) and the book's high level concepts (for example, bag up fat+herbs so that the fat absorbs the taste while cooking) the most. I also liked the egg recipes, especially the whole egg mayo.
Whole egg mayo allows me to cook faster and waste less egg (or worry about finding an egg white only recipe).
This book contains non sous vide steps which enables it to contain a very broad array of recipes.
That being said, you probably don't want this to be your only cookbook, though it could be your only sous vide cookbook.
November 1, 2016
As someone who has been curious about incorporating sous vide into my home cooking experience, I welcomed the arrival of this cookbook.
Each page demystifies cooking with the radically new technique, makes it relevant to the home cook.
According to Fetterman, soups and vegetables benefit from sous vide. Mayonnaise is made less risky when the sous vide process pasteurizes the eggs. Ice cream, anyone?
As for entrees, I admit, I am not bubbling over with enthusiasm. I would cook the Carne Asada, the Siracha Chicken and Chicken Tikka Marsala. But not duck. And never octopus.
This cookbook left me hungry for more. I hope there will be a second "helping."
I received this book from NetGalley.
Each page demystifies cooking with the radically new technique, makes it relevant to the home cook.
According to Fetterman, soups and vegetables benefit from sous vide. Mayonnaise is made less risky when the sous vide process pasteurizes the eggs. Ice cream, anyone?
As for entrees, I admit, I am not bubbling over with enthusiasm. I would cook the Carne Asada, the Siracha Chicken and Chicken Tikka Marsala. But not duck. And never octopus.
This cookbook left me hungry for more. I hope there will be a second "helping."
I received this book from NetGalley.
November 16, 2016
Accessible sous vide!
Simple and straight forward intro to sous vide with terrific, yet unintimidating, recipes that range from meats, desserts, sauces and cocktails. I'm a lazy person and accidental foodie. I have been in love with sous vide since buying a precision water circulator for the incredible ease of making truly great steaks, salmon and chicken breasts. However, I needed inspiration and ideas to venture into more interesting directions - while keeping in my mind my laziness and lack of culinary talent. Love the book! The eggs florentine and easy hollandaise sauce alone make it worthwhile.
Simple and straight forward intro to sous vide with terrific, yet unintimidating, recipes that range from meats, desserts, sauces and cocktails. I'm a lazy person and accidental foodie. I have been in love with sous vide since buying a precision water circulator for the incredible ease of making truly great steaks, salmon and chicken breasts. However, I needed inspiration and ideas to venture into more interesting directions - while keeping in my mind my laziness and lack of culinary talent. Love the book! The eggs florentine and easy hollandaise sauce alone make it worthwhile.
August 18, 2016
I NEED a sous vide immersion cooker in my kitchen! This book is incredible-- I want to try every recipe. And I can't... which is akin to torture. I am thinking about eggs in a whole new way, and every picture is beautiful, perfect.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.
October 17, 2020
Yes, I'll be buying this one after checking it out from the library. Great writing, very knowledgeable about the subject (she and her spouse invented the first home-cook geared sous vide machine), art book quality photography, and inventive recipes - what more can be said?
Displaying 1 - 22 of 23 reviews