Modernist Cuisine At Home — Finally!

As soon as Nathan Myhrvold’s Modernist Cuisine came out, I yearned for a practical version. I really wanted access to all the detailed research their team had done on sous-vide cooking (and other cooking techniques I already use like pressure cooking), but a foot-wide, $500 encyclopedia wasn’t what I wanted in my kitchen.

Now they’ve extracted the best, and most useful, bits into what is still a very large hardbound volume, but it is well-organized, well-indexed and clearly explains ingredients and techniques. Best of all, they’ve cherry-picked the recipes that are most useful to the home, casual or even restaurant cook, leaving out the ones which require the ultra-expensive gear that are in the full version.

Even better, the recipes themselves are also printed in a washable, tear-resistant, spiral-bound volume that is ideal for leaving right where the cooking gets done. Without a doubt, this is the new sous-vide bible for aspiring practioners. You can pick it up at Amazon for the still-breathtaking price of $132. It will save you more than that in wasted ingredients, since instead of experimenting with every combination of techniques you can start with what they’ve already learned.