Kalorik Sous Vide Immersion Cooker Stainless Price: $99.99 Shipping Options:: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 3-5 business days (Wednesday, Nov 09 to Monday, Nov 14) + transit Condition: New
My understanding is that these are really to be in water only (the grains will probably clog things up). Beyond that though, with enough insulation and enough time to get there it can hold anything at temperature.
This thing has got more than 26% poor reviews on Amazon.
There are many units out there that work flawlessly…this just doesn’t happen to be one of them !
As a chef, I know a good Sous Vide cooker is a lot more $$ than this !
Not anymore. Yes, the industrial immersion cookers came be much more but very capable machines have recently been coming in around the $200 range - Sansaire, Nomiku, Anova, Joule, and others. Yes, there’s the VacMasters for $400 and the PolyScience for $400-1200.
Good to see some folks with experience here in these things. I’m surprised to see that an immersion-type unit is even used in a professional environment. How would you compare this current offer to Woot’'s earlier offer for the Nutrichef Sous-Vide Immersion Circulator Cooker?
I’m sorry, but I have so many questions. As you can tell, I’ve never used sous vide. Are you folks rating this unit poorly because of others’ reviews or because of the price? Or is there something else, wattage, for instance? Is it because in professional restaurants bath-type units are more commonly used (I do not know that as a fact, but only from photographs I have seen)?
Would you guys have any other helpful hints or thoughts for those of us who might never have used or maybe not even seen sous vide previously? Anyone?
Actually, if you read the reviews, you will see they are for multiple appliances, not just the sous vide. It seems the crockpot is the least liked item.
However, there are several sous vides for sale at the $99.00 price point on Amazon so I won’t pull the trigger for this model since free shipping and potentially no tax make them cheaper.
I agree with norconkm, the grains will clog up the impeller. Once the circulator can’t circulate it won’t be able to maintain the proper temperature in the mash. If you can get by with a bit less volume (I believe 24 quarts is the max pot size the recommend) you might want to look at a Paragon Induction Cooketop, it has a wireless temperature probe that’s used to maintain temperature at a programmed set point.
Sous vide was invented back in the 70s in a French restaurant called Trois Gros. The benefit of sous vide is that you’re able to control the cooking temperature down to the degree, which can very important depending on what you’re cooking. Examples:
Steaks can be done to your preference without flaw - 135F for medium rare, etc. Season your steak as desired, put it in a bag (more below), put in the water bath at 135F for about an hour. Take out, pat dry and put on a searing hot pan to put a nice crust on it (aka browning aka Maillard reaction).
Eggs cooked to the yolk v whites consistence - they cook about 1F difference.
Some benefits:
Food is cooked to the desired temp throughout v well done on the outside approaching desired doneness on the inside (that bullseye look).
near fool proof - If you forget to take it out, there is very little impact because the food stays at the desired temperature so you can’t overcook it. The longer you sous vide, the more moisture you’ll lose but the diff between 1 hour v 1.5 hours isn’t much.
What you’ll need:
some sort of bag system - you can use freezer bags but you need to make sure all the air is out because you want the food as close to the water as possible and you don’t want it to float. I use a foodsaver to vacuum seal the food and bags
a big pot
a pan for searing - cast iron is nice. A recent device called a Searzall - a device on a blowtorch that will put a superhot flame so you can direct the heat on your steak, chicken, etc.
One thing I’ve recently learned how to do is make creme brulee with it (you’ll need some small canning jars). I’ve made a lot of creme brulee and this way is the best I’ve ever made or had anywhere - see Chefsteps.com. They also sell a sous vide cooker - the Joule.
wait a minute. This thing is for cooking food in plastic bags? So you buy a TV dinner and toss it in a pot and heat with a big aquarium heater? You guys are too sick.
I recently bought an Anova on sale for about $150 and I love it. Sous vide steak finished with a quick char is the best I ever had. For those folks who think this is an immersion heater , it also has a circulating pump. It could probably work with grain if you covered it or the grain with a heatproof mesh.
The only circulator I know of that requires the use of a phone app is the Joule by ChefSteps, all others can be set using controls located on the circulator. The display on this one looks suspiciously like the display on an Anova Precision Cooker, I would guess that you set the temp using the scroll wheel (on the side of the display on this one) like you do on the Anova. I’ve personally found the bluetooth/wifi connectivity feature to be of very limited value.
I can’t speak for this model, but I can speak to sous vide in general since a lot posters seem to be unaware of it.
Sous vide is a great way to cook. Your meats come out perfect every time, and poultry is always juicy but fully cooked.
It has tons of other applications as well - I use mine for precision temperature control in chocolate making, for example, and often use it to make set-and-forget dulce de leche.
You will also need either a vacuum sealer & bags, ideally, or freezer-safe Ziploc bags that you can create an OK cooking bag with by pressing out all the air and then sealing (usually by immersing it in water all the way up to the zip line).
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