Precision Cooker

I do all the cooking for the family, and I cook a large variety of meals, except steaks. For some reason, I could never cook any steak so that it ends up juicy, and tender. I default to the well-known quote, “a man has to know his limitations.” For me, steak dinners required a trip to the local steak house; and even they were seldom consistent with their steaks, but always pricey.Then I discovered sous vide. I now have steaks at home once or twice a week, and always perfect; never tough or dry, and always done exactly medium.This Anova unit is great. It is simple to set up and adjust the settings. The primary function of this product is to maintain a constant water temperature for hours at a time, and it does it perfectly. I do not use the smartphone app, because it is so simple to set up, and monitor as is.To date I have cooked, NY strip, ribeye, T-bone/porterhouse, chuck pot roast (24 hour cook time), pork chops, chicken, and cod fish. Another plus aspect of sous vide is that with the high prices of steak, you have no fear of making a mistake when cooking your steak. In addition, I only buy choice cuts. There is no need to pay extra for prime cuts when you use sous vide.My recommendations for accessories: Buy a plastic container with lid, I use the EVERIE Sous Vide Container 12 Quart. I also bought the EVERIE Weighted Sous Vide Rack Divider, very handy. Many people mention that you do not require a vacuum sealer for sous vide, but I highly recommend it.Personal thoughts on my new sous vide experience. I have taken the same cuts of meat or fish, prepped and separated them into two sealed bags, froze one bag and cooked the other fresh. I saw/tasted no difference between the two; another convenient plus. I like to add one hour cook time on frozen meat, 10 minutes on fish. Note, all my steaks are 1 ½ to 2 inches thick.I found for my tastes, 140 degrees is perfect for all my steaks and pork chops. Times vary from 4 to 6 hours. For cod fish, 135 degrees for 40 minutes. Of course everyone will find their perfect preference.As expected, YouTube has excessive sous vide videos. I found the most useful overall information from the series called “Sous Vide Everything.”After cooking your meat, you will want to sear it. This is my method: I use a simple skillet, and high smoke point oil, above 480 degrees. Therefore, your choices are clarified butter or avocado oil. I heat just to smoke point, place the meat in the skillet, cover with a heavy metal bacon press, and sear for only 30 seconds on each side.To anyone who likes a thick cod fillet, the sous vide method excels, perfect every time. Of course you can add your favorite fresh spices into the bag, and or lemon slices. I may or may not sear the cod depending on the meal. My latest attempt, I covered the cooked cod with sautéed leeks and crème fraiche.I highly recommend this product to all those who enjoy cooking.

I bought this item to replace an Anova Nano that stopped holding the temperature reliably after about 4 years of very regular use. I suspected the issue was build up of minerals and such in the heating element, so I bumped up to this model since you can remove the skirt to clean the heating element properly. I also wanted a wifi connection just so I can monitor temp from another room.I compared to the Joule which is definitely slicker looking, supposedly a bit quieter, and a more impressive app. It also seemed quite fun to use Alexa to control it. What my choice came down to though was that the Joule requires the app - can't just set the temp and start cooking from the cooker. Sous vide is not complicated, just set the temp and walk away. I don't worry about setting a timer because part of the whole point of sous vide is not worrying about over cooking. So it seemed like I might have fun with the app for a bit, but then be frustrated that I had to pull my phone out or walk through multiple Alexa questions just to hit start.I've seen other reviews that complained about the wi-fi being unreliable or difficult to configure. Mine connected without any problem and seems to be working fine. Maybe Anova made some recent fixes? Not sure what else other people might have been experiencing.This one is a bit louder and bulkier than the Nano. The size really doesn't make any difference because you're just connecting it to the side of a container. I actually kind of like having a bit of sound from it, just to remind me that it's there. I typically have music going in the kitchen anyway, so I don't really hear it.For those who haven't tried sous vide yet, it's absolutely the best way to cook pork and beef. I've tried chicken, fish, vegetables, etc, but I don't see any different in results for those. The entire cooking challenge with beef and pork is getting them to the right temp and not overcooking - especially with a thick filet mignon or pork chop. Absolutely no guess work with the sous vide. Don't even need to brine your pork chop because it's going to cook slowly with the salt. I don't bother marinating my tri tip in advance because it's going to slow cook in the marinade.Where you will hear different opinions is the best way to brown the meat after roasting. I've tried various methods. Torch tends to dry out the meat and give it a bit of chemical flavor. Barbecue works great, but I have to heat up the entire thing and go outside. I used to use cast iron skillet, but it's so darn heavy. I now use a Ninja non-stick pan (absolutely love those things) with a healthy amount of butter on heat. While the meat is browning, I continuously scoop the melted butter up over it. Just a minute or two for absolute perfection.

I decided to try some sous vide cooking on a whim and this seemed like a good choice for a beginner's unit. The price was right, the brand is well respected and the reviews were good. I wanted to stay with a known brand for this since it's a an item that you plug into an outlet and then submerge in water. Thus the build quality really matters here.It's pretty simple. Attach to a pot filled with water, plug in, set time & temp and hit "play". It heats up the water very quickly and then keeps it very stable. I checked the temp with a good thermometer and it was spot on.Put my bag-o-food in it and an hour or so later took it back out. Seared the food and it was great. I tend to overcook chicken and this chicken breast was very juicy. Just right. I have played around with some other recipes (chicken satay and spiedies) and the meat was perfectly cooked. I don't really see the point of doing steaks this way since I like the flavor that cooking over charcoal imparts, but maybe in the dead of winter.I think this is a great little device to dip your toe into sous vide with. I also can't really see any reason that I would want to upgrade either though. It does what I need and is nice and compact.I haven't used the WiFi yet, don't really see a need for it honestly.