Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Sous Vide: The Authoritative Guide to Low Temperature Precision Cooking

This is one of the best sous vide cookbooks that I have purchased so far, and I use the term "cookbook" loosely since it is so much more than a cookbook. I am an experienced cook that was recently introduced to the sous vide method of cooking with a sous vide cooking unit that my husband got me for Christmas. To learn about this method of cooking, I bought a couple of other sous vide recipe books that were just that - recipe books. Although I do often use recipes for ideas, most often I use my own experience in cooking to modify them. In purchasing "cook books" to learn about sous vide cooking, I was looking primarily for a book that I could learn about the cooking method and use it without the use of a cookbook. This book totally meets every requirement that I have.In this book, Jason explains the basics and how sous vide cooking is different than every other method. He goes on to explain how the foods that you use may require different cooking time, and what determines the times and temperatures that you use. For example, we eat primarily bison for red meat that is much lower in fat content than meat you would buy at the store. This type of meat requires about half the cooking time of store bought meats. He includes a chart of minimum/maximum cook time, and what the consequences are for going over the maximum cook time, He also gets into seasoning, and which are best for this type of cooking.One thing I really like about this book is that Jason doesn't limit recipes to what they are as stated. He encourages you to use your own expertise to change recipes as you desire, and gives options for rubs, spices, etc. He also explains ways that you can convert your favorite recipes to sous vide. As I mentioned previously, this is much more than a cookbook. If you want to learn how to use sous vide cooking, this is definitely the book to buy.In addition to sous vide methods of cooking, Jason also helps by recommending equipment that is most useful for this method of cooking. He doesn't confine his methods to equipment specifically for sous vide, but also suggests equipment that doesn't have to be bought specifically for sous vide, such as cooler containers or stock pots you have on hand. The book also includes time and temperature charts to help you get started on you own.As yet, I haven't tried any of the recipes, but most of them look like they would be excellent. In my opinion, the recipes are a bonus, and the information shared about this cooking method is invaluable.UPDATE 8/05/20:I have had this book for almost 3 years, but haven't referred to it in at least 2 1/2 years. I still recommend this book if you are new to this method of cooking. You can find times and temperatures for sous vide cooking specific foods on the internet, but the chart in this book is more convenient. If you are an experienced cook, you likely have favorite recipes that you may be able to convert to the sous method. In my experience, I have found that some foods can be cooked by a different method that take much less time.At this point in time, I always cook roasts of any kind by the sous vide method. Yes, it takes more time, but the results are amazing. Since we like our roasts cooked to medium rare, I set the temperature to 130 degrees. The amount of time can vary depending on the cut of the roast. Tougher cuts take more time than more tender cuts. For example, when I cook a bison sirloin tip roast, I set the temperature to 130 degrees and the cook time to 12 hours. Since bison is very lean, a beef sirloin tip roast with more fat would take more time - like 15 hours. The beauty of sous vide cooking is that the entire roast, even if unevenly cut, is done to medium rare. You don't get a roast that is well done on the outside and medium rare on the inside. I should also mention that I don't bother with searing the roast after cooking it. When I slice it into thin slices, no one cares if it is browner on the edges of the slices.I have also found the sous vide method of cooking can the good for vegetables, but the cooking times are much longer than other methods. One use of sous vide that I find particularly useful is in heating leftovers that have been vacuum packed and frozen, such as leftover roast. Set the temperature to the original done temperature and the meat is heated but not overcooked. This is the only method of reheating meat I have tried that can do this.I hope this review was helpful for you, and would appreciate your clicking the helpful button if it is.

This book did a good job for me with dispelling the major mysteries of Sous Vide. I am very excited about and very new to this kind of cooking. The book got me up to speed on Sous Vide. It covers all of the basics like timing, safety, equipment, techniques, etc. and for that it was very sufficient and well written. He has many sensible suggestions based on much experience with the technique. (Like you absolutely do not need the most expensive and elaborate gear to get going!) Nothing much really on the history and evolution of Sous Vide but the next book in my education-(The Essential Sous Vide Cookbook by Sarah James) promises to fill in that gap and others.The book is very well organized with each major category (Beef, Poultry, Fish, Vegetables, etc. having its own section of recipes with an explanatory introduction to the peculiar requirements of each particular type of main course at the beginning of each section. It has many useful and necessary reference tables and I have a host of little colorful Post-It tabs festooning the book at all the sections which I will review as I actually methodically continue to go through all the different recipes. It's very exciting! And that's the other great thing about this book: it is a great reference. I read it through once but it was a lot to integrate all at one time, so as I actually continue to cook all the different recipes, I will re-read each appropriate section thus cementing the techniques and information in my memory through experience.I am not very interested in this "Modernist" thing which seems to be a Foo-Foo fad with all kinds of arcane artificial ingredients and weird techniques. I thought the term "Modernist" was just a creative verb on the cover, but after reading the book I now know that it is a noun and a whole "new" THING. Kind of a silly, over the top thing, if you ask me. But I can't fault the book because it has "Modernist" plastered all over the place! Besides, the recipes look very tasty- if a little small and Foo-Foo. (but that can be fixed :) And I look forward to trying most of them and perhaps enlarging, modifying and simplifying them as I progress.I am intensely interested in the revolution now taking place in farming and ranching where people are beginning to recognize how bad feedlots, hormones, GMO, hybrid food, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and all the other corporate evils inflicted on us through our food are. Considering what's being put into our food, and how separated we have become from the real origins of that sustenance, is it any wonder that there are so many obese, un-sane, and dead people from disease nowadays? In Europe they call it Franken-Food and you can say a lot of things about Europeans but they seem to be much healthier than your average American! I believe it is because of our ridiculous, unnatural and even toxic food production system. Europeans shop daily and cook fresh and they don't tolerate Franken-Food and it shows. We should all educate ourselves and reject it also!!! We don't even have to shop daily to eat fresh because of vacuum bagging and canister technology which preserves vegetables for up to two weeks and frozen meat for months without freezer burn... which is then perfectly prepared for Sous Vide cooking......We need to embrace grass fed, grass finished meat, Organic produce and more Farmers' Markets!!! And do not buy the GMO CRAP in supermarkets! The natural stuff is rather expensive now but the more people buy REAL food, the lower the prices will be. And anyway the cost in dis-ease and malnourishment is FAR more expensive than Organic, in real terms. Before the '40s 'organic' is all we ate! There was nothing else! Have you ever noticed that there are almost NO obese people in old photographs? Now, 3/4s of us are overweight or fat and unhealthy! Big clue there!I love all the new synergies between old ways and new technology transforming the food landscape! They say that there is nothing new under the sun but this Sous Vide stuff seems like a pretty new and wonderful thing to me!!! Combine all the benefits of Sous Vide with the new small farm, small, personal ranchers and home grown homesteaders and you have another BIG weapon in the revolutionary battle to regain our health and sanity. Simple, real food, grown organic and happy with love and a direct connection to real, living soil cooked in 21st century ways is the ticket laddie! - as Scottie would say... :)

I've been cooking sous vide since I discovered the beer cooler hack several years ago. A few months back I purchased the latest model of Anova's circulator. I purchased and downloaded this book to my tablet. It is very thorough and covers all the topics related to cooking with the sous vide method. This book gives you a very good look at times, temps and food safety. I am an avid cook and find it convenient to use in the kitchen. Although I have made a number of the recipes included (which are divided into sections by main ingredient like beef, pork, poultry, etc) and enjoyed them, I primarily use this book as a time and temperature guide and as a inspiration to create my own recipes. Yes, you can use the web to find sous vide recipes but the times/temps for the same cut of meat for can be all over the place. For example, BBQ Ribs - lots of recipes tell you to cook them for 12 to 24 hours. 24 hours? At that extreme if you try to pick up a rib the meat would just fall off the bone. I want a rib with some chew, not pulled pork. Drop them in at 156 degrees for 8 hours, take 'em out, paint on your BBQ sauce and toss them under the broiler or onto your grill. Best ribs ever. My smoker is very lonely.

Great recipes and information essential for sous vide cooking

O livro contém a técnica do uso do sous vide muito bem explicado, com tabelas de temperaturas e tempo ideais para cada tipo de carnes, vegetais, etc. Nem todas as receitas tem fotografias e as existentes poderiam ser mais bem elaboradas.

I got my sous vide last week, and have made a different meal from this book every day. It is a wonderful cooking method, and Logsdon has put together some great flavour combinations. My cooking has improved dramatically.

An excellent introduction to sous vide cooking, with procedures and the reasons for them well explained. There are useful guides to temperatures times etc. and plenty of recipe suggestions. As someone who has only recently started to savour the delights of sous vide cooking I regard this book as my "bible" and a source of guidance and inspiration. I heartily recommend it to anybody interested in sous vide cooking.

a good, solid, well made book. The information in it is current, and the recipes easy to follow. Jason Logsdon has a easy to read writing style which makes this information easy to understand and come to terms with. If you have an interest in Sous Vide cooking, or in Modernist techniques that can be readily implemented in the home kitchen, then this is a very good book to have on your kitchen shelf, eve, if for no other reason, than for the extensive reference tables in the back of the book. I decided to make the Preserved Lemon Confit Recipe, p 194, which took me in a direction I've rarely explored and I'm very happy with the result. I'm sure you will be too.

Great starting point for the novice.