Sous Vide Gift Guide
As the gift giving season approaches it can be hard to figure out what to get the cooks in your lives. Here are a few of our recommendations, both in and out of sous vide. We hope you enjoy our Cooking Sous Vide Gift Guide.
Sous Vide Gifts
The Gift of Sous Vide
Want to get someone in your life started on sous vide but can't quite afford the cadillac of sous vide equipment from
PolyScience? There are two easy ways to give them the gift of sous vide.
Sous Vide Supreme makes two lower cost options.
The original and
the Demi. The original Sous Vide Supreme is slightly larger and goes for $400 while the Demi is $300. They are also running several
holiday specials.
Another great way to get them started is through a
temperature controller like Sous Vide Magic. They can hook it up to an existing crock pot or rice cooker and will be all set for sous vide. It is only $160 and you can always get a
cheap crock pot if they don't have one already.
Learning Sous Vide
Know someone who is interested in learning more about sous vide? Our
Beginning Sous Vide book will take them through the whole process, from equipment selection through cooking 100 recipes. It's available as a
paperback,
PDF, or for
the Kindle.
Is someone in your life busy all the time with work and errands? Give them the gift of time with our
Sous Vide: Help for the Busy Cook book. It is also available as
a PDF and for
the Kindle.
Finally, if someone you know has been trying sous vide but is looking for some different recipes then our
Sous Vide Grilling can help them out. It is also available as
a PDF.
Sous Vide Supreme also has several sous vide cookbooks that are shorter and focused around a single subject. You can
view them here.
Sous Vide Add-Ons
Here are three ideas for the experienced sous vide cook in your life.
If they are still using Ziploc bags then a FoodSaver Vacuum sealer can be a great gift. Here is
a good model for under $100.
For an even better sealing experience you can look into a chamber vacuum sealer. The
VacMaster Portable Sealer is highly regarded.
If they have an immersion circulator but are still using it in their everyday pots then you can look at getting them some sous vide containers. These containers are great for saving counter space and keeping their pots free. Here is
a large bin and
a smaller one.
Another staple of the sous vide cook's tool chest is a good torch for searing food. The Iwatani is considered one of the best and comes highly reviewed. Amazon has
the torch for sale for around $40.
Great Cookbooks
There are many, many great cookbooks available and here are just a few of our favorites.
For the person who loves to try new things and wants to know why certain recipes work then
Ideas in Food is a great gift idea. It compiles most of the information from the same-named blog in one handy place, including many thoughts on modernist cuisine dishes. Another great "why" cookbook is
Cooking For Geeks, which looks at all aspects of the kitchen and attempts to explain how they work.
And for a huge look at why recipes work we turn to the original, the
Cook's Illustrated Cookbook which has 2,000 recipes from the last 20 years of their magazine.
If they like to see inside of a restaurant and how their dishes are made you can't go wrong with
Eleven Madison Park, focused on the iconic New York Restaurant,
The Mozza Cookbook, focused on the hot Los Angeles restaurant, or
Momofuku Milk Bar, for the sweets from the popular bakery.
And of course, for the serious cook in your life, there is the new bible of cooking,
Modernist Cuisine. With 2,400 pages covering every aspect of cooking it is indispensable for the cook who wants to know it all.
Modernist Cuisine / Molecular Gastronomy
Whatever you want to call it, the new cooking techniques are pretty amazing. If you know a chef who is interested in finding out more there are several "starter" kits including the
Cuisine R-EVOLUTION which comes with 5 chemicals, 5 tools and a DVD. Another decent kit is the
Kit Artistre, which comes with 50 grams of 12 different chemicals. Either kit is enough for the aspiring modernist chef in your life to get started.
For another aspect of modernist cuisine you can turn to the
iSi Professional Whipper which creates hot or cold foams and whips. It also has
replacement cartridges.
Dehydrating food is an interesting part of modernist cuisine (see
shrimp in cocktail leather) and it is one that has many other uses such a beef jerky, fruit leathers, and "sun dried" tomatoes. There are many options available but
this is the one we use and is only $50.
We hope the Cooking Sous Vide Gift Guide helps you in your holiday shopping, and we also wish you and your love ones will enjoy the happiness and joy of the season!
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