Do you use one? There are several types at varying prices.
Thanks!
I have the bluetooth anova that can connect to an app.
I like it and use it probably once a month. My roommate uses it 2 or 3 times a week. I find it works best for meats that I can sear after they’ve cooked. I also use it to pasteurize eggs pretty regularly so I can make flips, meringues and other things that use eggs but aren’t necessarily cooked after.
I don’t think it works particularly well for desserts or vegetables, especially since everything takes so long. I’d need 3 to do a side, main and dessert since they all always go for different temps.
For those like me who have no idea what in the world it is. LOL
I’ve also got the Anova although if I was looking now, I would take a good look at the Joule as well. The Joule doesn’t take up as much space in a drawer but it also doesn’t have built in dials so you do need to use a phone app to turn it on.
It’s definitely been one of the few kitchen gadgets that was worth the money and more. We use it several times a week for fish, meat, eggs, vegetables…
- You can cook everything to a precise degree of doneness. Steaks will be perfectly cooked edge to edge. Eggs and vegetables can be cooked to a texture you can’t get any other way.
- You don’t have to worry about timing. Instead of trying to make all the dishes finish cooking at the same time, you just throw some steaks or whatever in the sous vide a few hours ahead of time and then do a little searing when you’re ready.
- You can cook a lot of food at once and then warm it up later in the week without overcooking it.
On the other hand, it’s not the right tool for weeknight dinners if you don’t start cooking an hour or two ahead (fish and shrimp can be done in 45 minutes)
yes. I use it mostly for stuff like pork chops/loin and chicken breasts. I know the risk of foodborne illness is pretty low, but it adds a bit of reassurance when you cook a chop medium to medium rare. sure beats the shoe leather people think you have to cook pork into.
Heh. I have three. I was an early adopter, getting involved with the Anova unit before it was available for sale. I purchased a second Anova as a back-up and as a way of cooking for parties and such. Both Anovas are Bluetooth and WiFi enabled.
I also have a Hamilton Beach 6 quart sous vide cooker that can also be used like a crock-pot.
Yes!
~Max
You can do some very nice desserts this way to. I have done both puddings and brules. Not sure that pudding is any easier, but if you are already cooking something throwing in the bag with the pudding is easy. Brules or cheesecakes you need little caning jars but it is fun application of the sous vide.
Yes, great for lamb chops, steaks, pork chops, some fish. I agree with Inner Stickler that it works best, when you can do a quick high heat sear after you’re done with the cooking.
Thanks, are there any recommendations besides Anova?
I’ve done pulled pork a few times at a low temperature for 72 hours, then a quick char in a blazing hot oven.
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Moving thread from IMHO to CS.
If you’re just starting out an want to experiment, one method is to fill a cooler with hot water (usually five degrees hotter than the final cooking temperature to account for heat loss), put in your sealed food, close the lid, and wait. I wouldn’t do it for any long cooks, but for something that takes an hour or less it should work fine.
I use my Anova several times per week. Even over complicating the process of making something as simple as burgers in the hunt for perfection. It is a great little device.
The best steak I ever ate in my life was sous vided. (Is so a word, that I just made up.)
I did some research into them last year before my wife vetoed the idea. “We don’t need any more gadgets in this kitchen!”
Anyway, many reviewers liked the Anova, but some didn’t like having to use their phone to run it. The one I was considering getting was the Instant Pot offering, since the only thing I anticipated cooking with it was meat, and I wouldn’t have minded (too much) spending ~$80 for a single use device, but wouldn’t spend over $100.
You don’t need your phone to run Anova. That allows some advanced control, but all you really need is to set time and temperature, which you can do right from the machine.
the other thing they’re useful for is if you need to quick thaw something. you can just set the circulator to a temperature below ambient so the heater never turns on, and the circulating (cold) water will thaw your whatever pretty damn quickly.
I’ve been using sous vide for almost 10 years and I highly recommend it. It makes it easy to cook any kind of meat to perfection. My favorite way to show it off is to make duck confit that I cook for ~8 hours; it’s almost foolproof. I’ve also used it to temper chocolate.
If there’s one down-side to sous vide it’s that you end up using a lot of plastic bags. I use resealable (aka Ziploc) bags as often as possible but I can still only get a few cooks out of them.
This is the one I use, along with a small Igloo Playmate. Works perfectly, and everything I’ve tried to cook this way has turned out fabulous.