Books on SV for beginners

One of my parents' friends got a circulator for Christmas and they want a book on the subject. Physical media. I haven't looked for such a book in quite some time. When I got into it, Modernist Cuisine at Home (or the full MC) was about the best printed resource around. What's good now?

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Comments

Minh_Huynh_48807

Best one IMO - Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller.

Good inro to SV - Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals by Lisa Q. Fetterman

MC series are good but a little to much for anyone just simply looking at cooking sv without trying to fully understand the underlining science but that is just me.

Cheers!

FrankM_3301

Good ideas in Keller book, but I question times and temps.

Brandon_Byrd_40557

Yeah, I'm not nuts about the Keller book. It was never a very good general reference or beginner volume for the uninitiated. More an insight into how Keller and his team(s) were using the technique at the time. The book's primary virtue was that it was written early, but that's also its biggest drawback now. I'm sure that many of that a lot of their times/temps/techniques have changed since the book was written.

America's Test Kitchen just came out with a book on SV. I wonder how that is. They seem to produce some legit content.

Jack_Mayer_85396

Just the other day I ran across a book on Amazon; Mastering the Art of Sous Vide Cooking. Might be worth checking out and its only $15.

robert.c.brown15

I thumbed through this last time I was in a book store and it looked good.

https://www.amazon.com/Sous-Vide-Home-Technique-Perfectly/dp/0399578064/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1546522143&sr=8-5&keywords=sous+vide+cooking

tshewman

The MCAH is still an excellent resource. Jason Logson has a good get off he ground book as well. Not as familiar with ATK's books. Have Thomas Keller's (first one I purchased), recipes are more advanced and general SV techniques are a little more advanced (though still approachable), but strongly question temps and times.

DiggingDogFarm_65362

In addition to MCAH, Balwin's stuff is a good start and most of it is free. Another free resource, largely based on Baldwin's work: http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/_Documents/scienceandtechnical/sous_vide_food_safey_precautions.pdf Baldwin's book "Sous Vide for the Home Cook" isn't too bad, but over-priced—IMHO.

Minh_Huynh_48807

With sv cooking, I find that we tend to be to keen on temp and time. I do understand the need to have common knowledge of the safety zone. For me, sv is a tool to ease some pain about monitoring temp when cooking but traditional techniques in the kitchen still need to complement something that has been sv'ed.

To often I hear sv as an easy way to bag, cook, forget about it and ready to eat. It is true if you base yourself on the science but rarely would I just take something out of a sv and eat it like that. Therefore by using other techniques such as searing on pan or BBQ to finish would typically bring your protein to regulatory temp/safety zone. As such, I think that time & temp and time can only be correlated to the intended texture you are seeking for.

IMO Keller's pushes the boundaries of what could be acceptable. It should be used as reference/ideas on how far you could push sv but for someone that has accustom to it. Food safety has always been a concern in the food industry and sv only mix the cards a little without really solving the safe to eat or not question.. as per industry standards, maybe not... but from a home cook that is seeking to experiment, it might be worth a look.

Again this is my opinion. Please take it with a grain of salt as I am known for someone that could basically eat anything raw when handled properly. There are more and more resource available so it will only get better with time.

FrankM_3301

I don't disagree. I would not recommend the Keller book to SV beginners though. I tend to agree with Brandon's assessment.

whenric

Dave Arnold is publishing a SV book at some point, but who knows when it will actually come out...

fisher23

From what I have seen, my sister just got her first Joule, ATK's new book is pretty good. Covers the basics and has some recipes/guides. I would recommend it to any newbie.

dylanmanningke10_1450043

I have just read "Sous Vide at Home: The Modern Technique for Perfectly Cooked Meals" and I must say that this book is really awesome!

stephaniesmith_1493395

I have read a lot of books like this one, and I am still very bad at cooking. Honestly, I regret the time I spend on reading it. I believe that you don't need to read an entire book to understand how to cook. You can just find a summary, some short-version of it, and not waste you time. Now I am only reading summaries. By the way, recently I needed to read hamlet, but I found everything about it here https://freebooksummary.com/category/hamlet-thesis-statement and decided to not read the whole book. It was just great, because it has saved me a lot of time.