10 Best Sous Vide Cookbooks 2020 [Buying Guide]

Your Authors and Guides

Heather
Patton

Jennifer
Trimbee

Samantha
Dewitt

How to Choose the Best Sous Vide Cookbook

Sous vide is a cooking method that involves putting food in sealed in a plastic pouch or glass jar and cooked with steam or a hot water bath at a carefully regulated temperature over an extended period of time. It’s an easy, healthy, convenient way to cooks. Want to know more? So did we! That’s why we researched the best-selling, top-rated cookbooks and put together our sous vide cookbook reviews. Before we get started, let’s look at some important features.

Format: Most of these books come in paperback, though we did find one great hardback option. There are pros and cons to both. Hardbacks hold up a little better but cookbooks tend to get messy and paperbacks are less expensive.

Pages: These books vary in length a lot. They run anywhere from 164 to 498 pages. Bear in mind that all of these books contain a lot of different information. Longer books obviously have more content.

Author: There’s a nice variety of expertise here. Some of these authors are passionate home chefs, others are chefs and restaurateurs who embraced sous vide long before it became trendy. Their approaches are different but they all teach you a lot.

Recipes: The number of recipes varies quite a bit ranging anywhere from 75 to 550! The more recipes, the more options you have, obviously, but you don’t really need a lot of recipes. You just need the right number of good ones.

Year Published: Most of these books were published between 2014 and 2018 which is to be expected as that’s around the time its popularity took off. We found one that was a bit ahead of its time published in 2008.

Explanation of Sous Vide: While all of these books include some kind of explanation about sous vide, some of them are a lot more in-depth than others. We explained further when necessary in the individual reviews.

Top 10 Products

Now that you know a little more about what to look for, let’s move right into our sous vide cookbook buying guide. If you’re in a hurry, make sure you check out our top and budget picks. They’re right at the top of our list so you can’t miss them. These books are all so different, you should stick around as long as you can to make sure you don’t miss anything. Okay, are you ready? Let’s get cooking!

Modernist Cooking Made Easy

Our top pick is Modernist Cooking Made Easy by Jason Logsdon. If you’re looking for a book that has a thorough introduction to sous vide cooking, this one is loaded with useful information. It covers preparation, sealing, and just about everything you need to know about optimal temperatures and how to determine appropriate cooking time. This book contains more than 85 recipes and is put together cleanly so that you can quickly scan through and find exactly what you’re looking for. It includes recipes for a variety of meats, like beef, lamb, pork, sausage, poultry, and even shellfish as well as delicious vegetable, fruit, egg, and dessert dishes. One more thing, there’s also a collection of “Modernist Notes” that show you how to turn simple everyday dishes into upscale meals.

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The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook

Our budget pick is The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook by Vincent Bryant. One of the best things about it is how easy the recipes are to follow. They’re simple, straightforward, and some only have a handful of ingredients, but they’re all delicious. You’ll find recipes for mains, meats, sides, and desserts. That’s not all, there’s also a pretty extensive intro to the art of sous vide. You’ll learn about the culinary history as well as what the benefits of this style of cooking are. You’ll also get a list of all the things you’ll need to get started and some helpful tips and tricks that will help you along the way. This is one of the more recent books we found in our research. It’s in paperback and extremely affordable.

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The Effortless Sous Vide Cookbook

The Effortless Sous Vide Cookbook by Carey Copeling is up next. One of the best things about this one is all of the additional information provided about sous vide at the start of the book. The author explains in detail the sous vide cookers and all its accessories, giving the pros and cons of each one. Plus, the Sous Vide 101 section covers both basic practices and new techniques. There are over 140 recipes in this book, all aimed at making a regular weeknight dinner into something really special whether you’re cooking kebabs, chicken satay, duck confit, an espresso martini, or salted caramel cheesecake. Yes, that’s right, salted caramel cheesecake. One more thing, in the back of the book, there are sections full of information about cooking times and temperatures and some additional resources.

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Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide

Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller has been one of the go-to books for this cooking method since 2008. The author is a famed chef and proprietor of several restaurants who was one of the first top chefs to embrace the method. While this book does have an intro to sous vide and a lot of useful information, it’s really aimed at experienced chefs. In other words, this isn’t a good choice for your first sous vide cookbook. That said, if you’ve been experimenting with it for a while and are ready to step up your game, this book will not only teach you a lot, it will also show you how to cook some pretty impressive meals. Recipes include marcona almonds, piquillo peppers, and cuttlefish tagliatelle with palm heart and nectarines.

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The Everyday Sous Vide Cookbook

Our next pick for best sous vide cookbook is The Everyday Sous Vide Cookbook by Jamie Stewart. It begins with a quick start guide to sous vide that includes a basic history and explanation of what this technique entails. There’s also a thorough time and temperature table that even breaks the information down according to how thick cuts of meat are. Recipes in this book are broken down into several categories, including vegetables, poultry, beef, and desserts. There’s even a section for vegan recipes. Most of the dishes in this book focus on using good fats, fresh vegetables, and lean proteins. If you’re looking to make a change in your diet and want to try something different, check this one out. You’ll find delicious dishes like pesto pizza, baked farfalle with chicken, and Italian style tortellini.

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My Joule Sous Vide Cookbook

While this book by Jessica Michel mentions a specific sous vide cooker, the recipes and information in My Joule Sous Vide Cookbook can be used with whatever appliance you have in your home although the initial explanation of the cooker itself will vary depending on the model you’re using. This book gives a lot of great tips and tricks that will have you cooking like a pro. You’ll learn things like how to choose the right plastic bags and how to make sure you’re using the correct temperatures. That’s not all, it includes 101 amazing recipes like slow braised beef short ribs, perfect BBQ pulled pork shoulder, flourless chocolate cake, and even how to make the perfect poached egg. The recipes are broken down by the main ingredient with the exception of breakfast dishes.

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Sous Vide Mastery

Another great source for sous vide recipes is Renee Dufour’s Sous Vide Mastery. Actually, this book pretty much gets right down to it with only a brief introduction to the sous vide method before jumping into the recipes. And this book has a lot of recipes, 300 of them to be exact. They’re organized really well. Breakfast dishes are first. From there, the recipes are organized by the main meat ingredient. You’ll work through poultry, pork, and beef before getting to more exotic meats like rabbit, frog legs, oxtail, an venison. There are seafood and soup recipes as well as vegetables, sides, and desserts. This is a really good choice for someone who has some experience with sous vide and already understands the basics. If you’re ready to try more dishes, this is the one for you.

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Sous Vide Cookbook

Another sous vide cookbook that’s great for someone looking for a lot of recipes is Michelle Dorrance’s Sous Vide Cookbook. Like a few others we came across in our research, this book is better for someone who has a little experience with sous vide rather than a beginner. While there is short intro with the history of and science behind this cooking method as well as some very useful questions and answers, this cookbook is mostly about the recipes. Why do we say that? Because there are 550 of them. The recipes are organized into 9 chapters that cover breakfast, poultry, and red meats. That’s not all, there are even chapters specifically for vegan recipes, dessert, cocktails and infusions, and stocks, sauces, and rubs. There’s also an index that lists all the recipes alphabetically for easy locating.

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Sous Vide for Everybody

Our last pick is Sous Vide for Everybody, a collection from America’s Test Kitchen. Not only does this book explain sous vide and the history behind it, but it also does the same by telling you a little more about America’s Test Kitchen itself. Basically, America’s Test Kitchen is made up of more than 60 cooks, editors, and specialists. They test recipes over and over, varying techniques and ingredients every time until they find the best version. So, you can be sure that the 75 recipes in this book are pretty great. It starts with basics like how to soft cook an egg and moves into more complicated dishes like prime rib and eggs Benedict. There’s also a list of useful conversions and equivalents for volumes and weights as well as temperature.

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Sous Vide Cookbook, Miller

Terry Miller’s Sous Vide Cookbook is up next in our list. This one has 120 delicious recipes that are both easy to make and delicious. Each recipe also has a nutritional breakdown that shows you the number of calories, fats, proteins, and carbs are in each one which is perfect for people on a diet that requires diligent tracking. All of the recipes are aimed at taking the food you eat every day and making it more delicious without putting in a lot more time and effort. Miller also gives a thorough breakdown of the sous vide method including a guide to the necessary equipment, common cooking temperatures, and even a history about where it originated and how it benefits you. If you’re a beginner, you’ll really love the author’s useful tips to help get you started.

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About the Author

Samantha Dewitt

Expert Researcher and Writer

Samantha Dewitt is a lead researcher and writer for GeekWrapped, writing under a pen name. She gets excited about pet, baby, and science products and has over 12 years of experience.

Best Sous Vide Cookbooks

Top 10 Buying Guide

Our Recommendations

Modernist Cooking Made Easy

The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook

How to Choose the Best Sous Vide Cookbook

Top 10 Products

Modernist Cooking Made Easy

The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook

The Effortless Sous Vide Cookbook

Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide

The Everyday Sous Vide Cookbook

My Joule Sous Vide Cookbook

Sous Vide Mastery

Sous Vide Cookbook

Sous Vide for Everybody

Sous Vide Cookbook, Miller

About the Author

TOP PICK

Modernist Cooking Made Easy