^^^ I'd tell this guy to use Google so he'd actually learn something, but he probably doesn't understand Google, either ("Duh, uh...I dunno, the whole Google thing sounds quite dumb to me").
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Anova Wi-Fi Precision Sous Vide Cooker Becomes First Cooking Device Available in Apple Retail Stores
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^^^ I'd tell this guy to use Google so he'd actually learn something, but he probably doesn't understand Google, either ("Duh, uh...I dunno, the whole Google thing sounds quite dumb to me").
This thread is full of people that have zero idea of what sous vide is and have never tried it, making comments that simply make them look silly because of their lack of knowledge on the topic.
Some research and a sampling at a fancy restaurant (or at a friends home) and then you can speak about it, but until then you simply look silly making lots of assumptions that are simply untrue.
Some research and a sampling at a fancy restaurant (or at a friends home) and then you can speak about it, but until then you simply look silly making lots of assumptions that are simply untrue.
I am a chef by trade and although I have not used this specific product I have used the sous vide cooking technique extensively.
Sous vide translated to English means "in a vacuum" and in general, the cooking technique refers to cooking food items in a vacuum at a low temperature for long periods of time, usually in a water bath. Time and temperature need to be controlled hence the advent of equipment like the one in question which can get very expensive up to thousands of dollars.
You also you need some way of vacuum bagging the food items, we use professional cryvac machines costing thousands of dollars, however a foodssaver unit costing $75-$150 will work for home use.
There are several reasons to use the sous vide cooking technique.
1. Tough cuts of meats, short ribs, pork cheeks etc., can be cooked over long periods of time breaking down the connective tissues that make them tough, essentially tenderizing them. You can do the same thing with braising, but the lower temperatures of sous vide can fully cook something like a short rib and maintain a pinkish color instead of the grayish color of braising. You can also sous vide with much less liquid which as a chef is important because we tend to use expensive products like veal stock and wines to braise with. The down side is that you don't have all that liquid the meat was cooked in to reduce, concentrate favors and glaze the finished product with.
2. Another reason to use this technique is control Doneness (rare, medium etc.) and quicken pickup times. For tender cut of beef, filet, ny strip, ribeye for example you can sous vide to a specific temperature, then finish off on a grill or sauté pan to caramelized the outside. I find there is a textural difference from traditional methods that I am personal on the fence about regarding beef products, but I love the technique for chicken. You can sous vide a skin on chicken breast then finish off in a pan, crisp and brown the skin perfectly in a fraction of the time it would normally take with less chance of burning or drying out the meat.
3. for tougher cuts like top rounds, flat iron or hanger steak, the sous vide method breaks down the connective tissue more than traditional cooking methods and tenderizes the meat. Searing the cut after sous vide caramelizes the outside for flavor and results in a more tender eating experience.
4. Sous vide is great for making perfect soft or hard boiled eggs and poaching vegetables without getting them soggy. For example I want to pickle some squash which is too hard to cold pickle. If I simmer the squash, it gets too soft on the outside before the center is done. If I sous vide before pickling the texture is improved and a better product is created.
Sous vide translated to English means "in a vacuum" and in general, the cooking technique refers to cooking food items in a vacuum at a low temperature for long periods of time, usually in a water bath. Time and temperature need to be controlled hence the advent of equipment like the one in question which can get very expensive up to thousands of dollars.
You also you need some way of vacuum bagging the food items, we use professional cryvac machines costing thousands of dollars, however a foodssaver unit costing $75-$150 will work for home use.
There are several reasons to use the sous vide cooking technique.
1. Tough cuts of meats, short ribs, pork cheeks etc., can be cooked over long periods of time breaking down the connective tissues that make them tough, essentially tenderizing them. You can do the same thing with braising, but the lower temperatures of sous vide can fully cook something like a short rib and maintain a pinkish color instead of the grayish color of braising. You can also sous vide with much less liquid which as a chef is important because we tend to use expensive products like veal stock and wines to braise with. The down side is that you don't have all that liquid the meat was cooked in to reduce, concentrate favors and glaze the finished product with.
2. Another reason to use this technique is control Doneness (rare, medium etc.) and quicken pickup times. For tender cut of beef, filet, ny strip, ribeye for example you can sous vide to a specific temperature, then finish off on a grill or sauté pan to caramelized the outside. I find there is a textural difference from traditional methods that I am personal on the fence about regarding beef products, but I love the technique for chicken. You can sous vide a skin on chicken breast then finish off in a pan, crisp and brown the skin perfectly in a fraction of the time it would normally take with less chance of burning or drying out the meat.
3. for tougher cuts like top rounds, flat iron or hanger steak, the sous vide method breaks down the connective tissue more than traditional cooking methods and tenderizes the meat. Searing the cut after sous vide caramelizes the outside for flavor and results in a more tender eating experience.
4. Sous vide is great for making perfect soft or hard boiled eggs and poaching vegetables without getting them soggy. For example I want to pickle some squash which is too hard to cold pickle. If I simmer the squash, it gets too soft on the outside before the center is done. If I sous vide before pickling the texture is improved and a better product is created.
um, the dork thing wire is the temperature sensor that works with the dork thing to regulate the temperature of your crockpot. the dork thing is just a controller, and you must have a crock pot or rice cooker or an electric roaster (my personal favorite) to hold the water and provide the heat.
with the Anova, the device provides both the heat, a circulating pump to keep the heat even throughout the water, and the temperature controller. all you need is a pot or a beer cooler that will hold the Anova, and food, and water. a crockpot is not required.
that said, one of the virtues of sous vide is the very wide margin of error for time, and the very tight control of temperature.
someone who needs to monitor their sous vide cooker from afar might also want to buy a device to monitor whether or not they left the cooking gas on when they left for work. and check it often.
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actually, it's a bit faster. the heat transfer in water is much faster than in air (put your hand in a 200 degree F oven, then put your hand in a 200 degree F water bath. which will you tolerate longer?) The water does take longer to heat than the same volume of air, but you don't need that much water for sous vide, and often, you can start with hot water from the tap, which cuts down on time. also, you put food into plastic bags, and then take all the excess air out of the bags, to provide the best heat transfer (without the insulating properties of air) through the plastic bag.
some people use ping pong balls on the water to decrease evaporation. I just use foil or plastic wrap over the top of the pot, especially if it is going to be a24-72 hour cook. otherwise, it really is not that much of an issue. if you really want to conserve energy, get a beer cooler, cut a round hole in the top that will accommodate the immersion circulator, and go to town. even if you don't, though, it can't be that much worse than routine cooking on a stove.
Others who? I hope it was someone knowing anything about sous-vide.
It's not that you're "incorrect"; you're too far off to even make sense, so of course to you it sounds dumb. As dumb as being opinionated without knowing enough about what you're opinionated about.
I'd say you're also too unintelligent to even be a troll, but hey, I'll try to educate you a bit. For free, too!
And here's the problem with your ignorance. When you cook, you don't really care about heating the air; you care about heating the food to a certain temperature. If you have to heat the food by heating its surrounding air, you are inevitably heating differently the outside and the inside, and you have to be careful with the time and temperature used. If you use a too high temperature, you'll end up burning the outside while the interior is still raw. Too low a temperature, and the interior might get cooked, but the exterior might get too dry or whatever. And it all depends on the shape of the thing to be cooked.
An example: to cook meat, you usually don't really want to make it hotter than say 80ºC. And yet in an oven you'll use a much higher temperature, so when the insides get to 80º, the outsides are effectively burnt - which is taken into account (caramelization, etc) and/or "compensated" for with sauces, etc. It can obviously be done, but it's complicated, and needs a good recipe/good cook to manage the process and find the balance.
With sous-vide, the meat is packed air-tight, so it's as closely as possible surrounded with water. And water transmits heat much more readily than air. So you heat the water to the goal temperature (say 80ºC to cook that meat; that is, a low temperature relative to what would be the temperature in an air oven), the meat gets immersed, and stays in the water for as long as you want - one advantage I have seen mentioned about sous-vide is that, since the meat is packed that way, it can't get dry even if you kept it 24 hours in the bath. And since the temperature can not go over what you set, it's cooked exactly as you want it. No overcooking, no burning. No smoke.
So it's as close as possible to set-and-forget.
Note, I have never cooked sous-vide, I have just read A BIT about it. Now, couldn't you have done so before publishing your ignorance?
Yay, who doesn't love grilled cookies! Or grilled rice dishes!
If you have an Apple Airport Extreme, forget ever being able to connect this thing via wifi!