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]o

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.

