Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide
by Thomas Keller
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Book Reviews of Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide
Book Review: An instant classic, but not for everyone
Summary: 4 Stars
This cookbook is a mirror into the reader's own attitude toward cooking.
If you are a professional with all the expensive equipment, a demanding clientele and a pioneering spirit, this book will quickly become an essential reference. If you are a casual home cook curious about sous vide wizardry and perhaps interested in toying with the techniques, you will find this book intimidating and useless. For foodies who have been intrigued by "molecular gastronomy" restaurant offerings, this book may answer a few "How did they do that?" questions. Given the level of creative energy between this book's covers, it is an outstanding value for the listed Amazon price. Understand, however, that as Keller states on p. 38, this book is
"written for the professional kitchen, from one chef to another. No modifications have been made
to accommodate cooks preparing [these recipes] at home, even though some of them certainly can
be done at home with the right equipment"
Recipe mise-en-place is organized by component in a division-of-labor professional kitchen style (not chronologically). All recipes use metric weights, so a digital scale is essential. These stylistic choices are sensible for Keller's audience, but may be offputting to a home cook more familiar with traditional American home cookbook presentations.
Sous vide is, in important ways, both easier and safer than other cooking methods. Some of the advantages include ultra-precise control (and corresponding prevention of cooking errors and waste), extended hold times, intensified flavor, more efficient usage of labor, space and ingredients, and the ability to accomplish certain end results that are impossible with any other approach. Romantics who complain that sous vide reduces the artistry of cooking are ignoring the subjective, analog, soulful decisions that the chef must make concerning ingredients and method before and after bag cooking. In an introductory essay, Keller considers the sense of loss at the diminution of artisanal craft as technology supplants it. This was great writing, truly an artist at his best.
One minor complaint I have with the book is its layout. Too many pictures of serious chefs at work are uncaptioned. Who am I looking at? What am I supposed to learn from this picture? Photos of finished recipes are often a page or two away from the recipe or even from their own caption. There are also artsy "backstage" pictures mixed in, producing a momentary confusion as to what one is contemplating. This is perhaps illustrative of the tone of the book. It's assumed that the reader is going to have the culinary chops to recognize these people (or ones like them) and fit right in next to them cooking obscure ingredients comfortably in a professional setting. Perhaps the effect sought is a coffee table book for professional chefs. I was also a bit disappointed with the layout's trendy approach of having more empty space (big white margins) bordering smaller, lighter type. Bring your reading glasses and good light when you sit down with this text.
Following introductions on philosophy, science and history by Bruno Goussault, Harold McGee, Keller, Jonathan Benno, Corey Lee and Sebastien Rouxel, there in an extended section on Fundamentals, including what sous vide can achieve, basic principles and techniques, safety, use in the professional kitchen, and use in the home kitchen. I found the section on food safety to be particularly valuable and accessible to the home cook.
Over sixty recipes are roughly equally divided into five major categories: Vegetables and Fruits, Fish and Shellfish, Poultry and Meat, Variety Meats, and Cheese and Desserts. Perplexingly, the table of contents lists only these categories and does not itemize the individual recipes. Each recipe generally takes two to three pages, plus a full-page photograph, and involves two or three dozen ingredients, divided into dish components (remember these are complex, composed dishes offered in Keller's restaurants, The French Laundry and per se). An example? "Grilled Octopus Tentacles, Chorizo, Fingerling Potatoes, Green Almonds and Salsa Verde," has 30 ingredients, two pages of instructions including a procedure for peeling green almonds, recipe p. 78-79, photo p. 76, two citations for sources, and one procedural reference to the Basics section. Similarly, "Dégustation de Porcelet, Rutabage Mostarda, Wilted Mustard Greens, and Potato 'Mille-Feuille'" is a tasting of five cuts from a baby pig; this recipe stretches four pages and lists 45 ingredients. The "Basics" section follows the recipes and includes everything from how to make clarified butter to recipes for eight different kinds of stock. Few home cooks are likely to make the composed dishes in their entirety, but experienced or adventuresome readers will certainly come away with ideas for home entertaining or approaches that might prepare only one simplified element from a Keller composed plate. Perhaps you would offer home guests five cuts from a baby pig; weeknight visitors to my home would more likely get pork chops sous-vided à la Keller, with one sauce.
Other than the chapter on safety, perhaps the most useful parts for home sous vide users will be the two closing reference sections. First, there is a marvelous table that lists ingredients alphabetically, specifies how to sous vide the ingredient, and cites a recipe within the text that features the ingredient. Next comes an extended list of sources for equipment and ingredients. This is followed by a more traditional index, then acknowledgements and restaurant staff group photos, for a text of almost 300 pages.
The only comparable text to address the topic of sous vide is Joan Roca's "Sous Vide Cuisine." Roca's text is stylistically quite different and more than a third shorter than Keller's book. The English translation of Roca's book also runs about two hundred dollars, which is quadruple the price of Keller's book. If you can choose only one, Keller's is stronger and a better value.
It's not all things to all people, but "Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide" is invaluable in what it offers and an instant classic in its field.
Book Review: Not for everyone but you can do this
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all I'm going to address the topic of whether or not you need this cookbook. If you are looking to cook meals in 30 minutes, buy Rachel Ray's cookbook and be done with it.
If, on the other hand, you are an experienced chef and are looking for a completely new cooking technique then you are looking in the right place. There is an investment required to get the bare minimum equipment needed but you can buy everything you need for under $250.
In order to cook Sous Vide, you need the following:
1) A PID temperature controler like the SousVideMagic 3rd Gen 1500C which costs $139 plus shipping
2) A rice cooker like the Black & Decker 20-Cup Rice Cooker - Stainless Steel (RC866) for $40
3) A vacuum food sealer like the Reynolds Consumer Produ Handi Vac Starter Kit 00590 for $14
4) A propane torch like the Bernzomatic - Turner Brass Propane Torch Kit (TU100K) for $19
5) A fish tank air bubbler for under $20
That's everything you need except for the food ingedients. Yes, there are some ingedients that you'll need to get by mail order but that's no problem. I'm sure if you're reading this you've ordered stuff from the web before.
There is one thing I'm trying to rationalize and haven't fully come to terms with yet: Is cooking with plastic safe? With the exception of Sous Vide, I NEVER cook my food in contact with plastic. I always think of that high school girl who put some plastic wrap in olive oil, microwaved it and sent it to a lab for testing resulting in some really nasty results.
So why would I cook Sous Vide knowing this... The answer is two-fold: first, I'm not subjecting the plastic to high enough temperatures to cause it to leach too many chemicals into my food and second there's simply no other way to do this.
The other concern is bacterial growth during the cooking process. They get around this by saying to use foods you could eat raw. Hmm... Where do I get beef, chicken or pork that I would consider safe to be eaten raw? Botulism thrives between 90 and 100 degrees Farenheight so stay away from that but other food-born bacterias can survive temperatures up to 155 degrees. Generally, most bacteria can't survive temperatures over 130 degree so I feel safe enough.
Under Pressure was not written for a beginner cook; rather, it's just the opposite. The only cookbook I have that is more complicated is Alinea.
I've made many of the recipes in this book and I've adjusted some of the cooking times to my liking. I like the technique but be prepared to wait a long time (up to 2 days) for your food to cook.
If you were wondering about my equipment list, the PID temperature controller regulates the rice cookier to within 1 degree. The air bubbler helps to circulate the water. The blow torch is used to brown up meat to make it look more like conventionally prepared meals.
Update 1/4/10: I replaced the Handi Vac with a FoodSaver V2840 Advanced Design Vacuum Food Sealer because the bags melted sometimes with the Handi Vac at temperatures over 135 degrees. If you're using liquids than you have to freeze them a little before pulling a vacuum and sealing. FoodSaver does not endorse using their product for Sous Vide.
Book Review: So Vague
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm baffled by this book. Who is it for? Keller states that it is written for chefs, thus explaing why there is nothing of use for home cooks. Many reviewers have echoed this conceit, citing as evidence the fact that recipe quantities are often given by weight (in metric units!) rather than volume.
Grams aside, I believe professionals will find little of interest here. There is almost no general technical information like, for instance, details on how to adjust cooking time to compensate for differences in the thickness of the food being prepared. Without this sort of information, the table of cooking times and temperatures at the end, which is often noted as a fabulous resource, is no more useful than a good index, because you must refer back to the recipes to find out exactly how the food was sliced and packaged if you expect to get an acceptable result.
There is little practical information on equipment for the professional kitchen, and none at all on equipment for the home cook. Reading the scant information that is provided, you might get the impression that sous vide cooking can't be done without thousands of dollars worth of professional gear. This is not the case. Many of the quicker-cooking sous vide recipes can be prepared with nothing more than a plastic bag, a pot of water, a digital thermometer, and a watchful eye. For a few hundred dollars, you can cobble up a home sous vide cooker that works quite well for even the extreme recipes, but this book will not tell you how.
No, the truth is, this is just food porn--a coffee table book in the worst sense. It's chock full of lavish graphics illustrating fabulous dishes that you can't make, at least not with the information provided.
I expected better. I'm a reasonably accomplished amateur cook and a collector of cookbooks. Most of the super-chef books are clearly not intended as a guide to the preparation of food. From the playground Bulli tomes, (nyah, nyah, nyah, bet you can't do this) to Ducasse's Big Book, which itimidates subtly through shear volume and a seemingly endless supply of truffles, they let you know that you are out of your league.
Keller's "The French Laundrey Cookbook" is an exception. Although it functions well as a coffee table book, it also contains useful information that can make you a better cook. I've done a blow-by-blow copy of a few of the dishes and prepared a number of others that were colored by the things I learned from it, all to good effect.
If you want to learn to cook sous vide, Google is your friend. "Under Pressure" will not teach you what you need to know to get started--professional or amateur.
If you already know the basics and have assembled the right equipment, you may be able to glean a few useful techniques and recipe ideas from it. And it is pretty. I think that's the point.
Book Review: this might be a long review...
Summary: 5 Stars
the french laundry cookbook is one of my favorite books, but i thought id never be able to do most of the recipes in it when i first looked at it. after time, as my experience grew, and constantly referring back to the book, i find myself now able to do most of those dishes in it (though i havent tackled head-to-toe yet) and looked at the book more as a place to get ideas from. "under pressure" seems like the same type of book.
when i opened this book i felt the same experience i felt opening the french laundry. the books pretty much even look the same. neither are designed with the home cook in mind.
that said, most of the recipes can be replicated at home, given the right equipment. i seriously doubt anyone is going to buy a chamber vacuum sealer (costing up to or exceeding 5 grand) or an immersion circulator (costing over a grand) but there is hope for people on a budget, like myself.
i, myself, have been doing some sous-vide cooking at home and at work for about a year now. i tested the way the technique can change the texture and taste of food. the results i got ranged from disasterious to sublime. i never had a real guide to sous vide cooking (not being able to spend over 200 bucks for the only book printed on the subject). but now i do. but i dont have the expensive hardware that this book calls for, but im pretty sure i can get the same results they get on MOST of these dishes.
its true, food savers and chamber sealers are alot different. you cant get the results of a "compressed" watermelon (as in the steak tartare)using something you got at target, but you can get the same type of pork belly. with the old foodsavers, you werent able to seal food with a liquid (unless you froze it and then placed it with the food in the bag). the new ones, allow you to seal with liquids and marinades, so most of the recipes are do-able.
and it is true, a sous vide magic wont give the same results as a immersion circulator will give you as far as the poached egg is concerned. but it will allow you to get pretty much the same reults you would get from the braised veal cheeks.
i use a foodsaver V2860 and a Ranco temperature controller, with a plug-in electric burner at home (at work we got the Rational combi) and found it relatively easy to do the "glazed breast of pork with swiss chard, white wine poached granny smith apples and green mustard vinaigrette" at home.
and as far as the "molecular chemicals" used in this book, you can easily get them online from the places they refer to on the sources page in reasonable quantities. you wont need to buy a 50 lb bucket of transglutaminase in order to do them.
this book isnt for someone wanting to make a 30-minute meal. nor should it be. its for someone who takes food and cooking SERIOUSLY. as with the french laundry, this book is strictly dedicated with a serious hobbyist and the professional chef in mind.
Book Review: Recommended with Some Reservations
Summary: 4 Stars
Thomas Keller is one of the great American chefs. His restaurants French Laundry and per se are two of the finest restaurants in the United States. So when Thomas Keller comes out with a new cook book, chefs and foodies take note. Addressing the new hot topic of Sous Vide preparation makes it an even more compelling.
"Under Pressure" is two books in one. First and foremost it is a compilaton of Keller's Sous Vide recipes. Second, it is a "How To Manual" for all those interested in learning more about the Sous Vide technique for preparing food. This book's real strength is as a recipe book. Keller is an extraordinarily creative chef and his recipes are fascinating to dissect. However, to execute these recipes one needs to have access to a vacuum sealer and a hot water recirculating machine. The expense of this equipment places these recipes beyond the means of most people. Only a privleged few will ever be able to recreate the recipes laid out in this book.
My reservations are with the "How To" aspect of this book. Thomas Keller is a great chef but his knowledge of the basic food science of Sous Vide cooking is seriously lacking. Botulism is a real issue when preparing food in an anaerobic environment. Understanding the time and temperature continuum is essential to producing safe food. The single greatest weakness of this book is that he does not adequately address this issue. For anyone who really wants to understand the basic food science of Sous Vide cooking, check out Sue Ghazala's text book on Sous Vide production.
Finally, the following are quibbles but nevertheless are illustrative of the books' weakenesses. Sous Vide means cooking under vacuum and not under pressure. Canning is an example of cooking under pressure. Bruno Goussault may have invented the term Sous Vide but the American meat industry has been producing vacuum packed meat cooked in hot water baths for many decades. Most of the cooked deli meat you can purchase at a supermarket is prepared in what is essentially a Sous Vide production. What is new is that bench top hot water reciruclation machines have recently become available to chefs. It is important to remember the term Sous Vide is a term coined by Bruno Goussault and popularized by Cuisine Solutions the company he works for. It is a new name for a very old process. Finally, this is not the first book written in English about Sous Vide. Sue Ghazala and Joan Roca's book proceed this book by a number of years. Putting these quibbles aside, "Under Pressure" is the best book available in English on this topic.