eGullet Sous Vide Thread Indexed

"The eGullet thread" is a much referenced and almost mythical thing in the sous vide community. It was a message thread on the eGullet website that was several hundred pages long and filled with information about sous vide and the evolution of our understanding about it.

A lot of the progress was driven by Nathan Myhrvold, who went on to publish the definitive guide to modernist cooking, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking and Douglas Baldwin, who published the Practical Guide to Sous Vide and the book Sous Vide for the Home Cook as well as many, many other contributors.

For a long time this was the only real way to understand what sous vide was and how to cook it, especially for the home cook. Digging through hundreds of pages of information wasn't an easy task but several people in the community helped to write about and compile the subject matter.

We helped build upon their information with our "Cooking Sous Vide: A Guide for the Home Cook" book, the first sous vide book aimed directly at the home cook, and this website, and more recently our new book for home cooks Beginning Sous Vide.

Now, eGullet, along with a legion of volunteers, has finished an index of that thread. This makes the information available in it much more valuable and I'm sure many hidden nuggets will come to the surface now.

In my opinion it's still not the most intuitive way to learn about sous vide but if you're serious about learning the technique and the science behind it then you should give it a read. I'm sure even the most experienced sous vide cooks can learn something valuable from it. It's also a great look at how a new culinary technique can go from an obscure "restaurant only" thing using very expensive equipment and slowly evolve into something home cooks can do with a beer cooler and zip lock bags.

You can access the sous vide thread index here: eGullet Index.

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This article is by me, Jason Logsdon. I'm an adventurous home cook and professional blogger who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. I've explored everything from sous vide and whipping siphons to pressure cookers and blow torches; created foams, gels and spheres; made barrel aged cocktails and brewed beer. I have also written 10 cookbooks on modernist cooking and sous vide and I run the AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com website.

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