Recent Modernist Blog Posts Page 7

Getting your sous vide circulator is just the beginning! You still need to learn how to use it, pick out some favorite recipes to try, and browse all the cool accessories you can add on to it!

Sous vide is a wonderful method of cooking that makes it easy to turn out delicious, amazing food that will impress your friends and family. However, there are some basics you should understand before you get started, as well as some more advanced techniques to maximize your sous vide experience.

I'm constantly getting asked what type of sous vide circulator someone should buy. This used to be an easy question to answer because there were only one or two reliable machines but now there are several options, all of which are generally comparable and can get the job done.

I decided to put together this article to help people quickly get an overview of the top circulators. I've focused on the major deciding factors I think are important such as heating power, how loud it is, and the price.

To help with this, I reference a few of our sous vide benchmark tests such as Heating Power (how fast the circulator can heat the water), Sound Level (how much noise does the machine make), and Power Consumption (how much power does the machine use).

We have been recommending the ChefSteps Joule circulator as a Top Pick of ours since it came out. That was based on the specs, its performance in the benchmark tests, and Gary's hands on use of it (as shared in his initial Joule review).

Once the testing and initial reviews were done it went into my stack of circulators so I could also get some detailed hands-on testing with. It took me awhile to get to it since I was in the middle of recipe testing, but once I did, it's been my go-to circulator. Here's some of my thoughts on it.

I was recently given a free Oliso PRO Smart Sealer to test out and review. I've been using it for several months now and here's some of my thoughts on it.

What the Oliso Sealer Is

The Oliso is basically a small "edge vacuum sealer", similar to a FoodSaver sealer. It works by putting your food in a pouch, closing it, and sliding it into the side of the Oliso sealer. The sealer sucks out the air and seals the bag, leaving you with a bag ready for sous vide or stoarge. It lists for $199 but it usually available on Amazon for around $150.

Anova recently announced the launch of their newest sous vide circulator, the Anova Nano. It is slated to be sold for under $100 and weighs only 1.4 pounds. It will have a 700 watt heater, and heat less water, but it should be good for small familes or people just getting into sous vide.

We will provide more updates as the unit becomes available and we can do some hands-on testing with it.

One of the main areas the Anova Precision Cooker was lacking in our sous vide benchmark tests was the heating time. It was the slowest machine tested for several years. Anova has now addressed that by releasing a 900 watt version.

We recently put the Kitchen Gizmo through our sous vide benchmarks.

The first test shows how long it takes the circulator to heat the water. It went from room temperature to 140°F (60°C) in 31 minutes and from hot tap water to 140°F (60°C) in 8.5 minutes.

I was really intrigued when I first saw the Oliso Smart Hub sous vide system. It's a combination of an induction burner with a water bath, kind of like a Sous Vide Supreme on steroids.

I will have a full-review coming up after the holidays, but in the meantime I wanted to share the Oliso's results from our benchmark tests.

How Fast Does the Oliso Heat Up?

Oliso talks about how using the 1500 watt induction burner heats the water faster than most other methods so we were anxious to see how it held up. The first set of tests determine how quickly the circulator can heat the water.

I recently was able to attend the opening of Chow, the latest exhibit at the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD). The exhibit is really interesting and explores the history of Chinese-American restaurants, cuisine, and culture.

They have a ton of historic items from Chinese restaurants and several displays that touch on topics from the first Chinese immigrants up through Panda Express. If you are in or around New York, I highly recommend heading down to the museum to check out everything they have there.

While you should definitely go see the museum yourself, here are a few highlights:

This year for Thanksgiving I wanted to focus on spending time with my family without having to worry about the turkey all day. I'll also be at my mother-in-law's place, which has a smaller kitchen so I didn't want to hog the oven all day.

I looked at a few options and eventually decided to let sous vide come to my rescue! I put this write-up together for other people interested in using sous vide for their turkey, either on a holiday or just a regular night.

The process for sous viding a turkey is a little more involved than just tossing it in the oven, but almost all of it can be done ahead of time, the meat turns out amazing, and it reduces a lot of the stress I always feel when I'm roasting a whole bird.

Safely delaying a sous vide cook is arguably the greatest benefit to having a WiFi enabled sous vide machine, especially if you are often out of the house when you want to start a sous vide cook.

In order to delay the start time, use a combination of ice and water to keep your food out of the danger zone until you are ready to start cooking it. You can learn more about how and why to delay a sous vide cook.

Because keeping the food cold is critical to safely delaying the start time, I wanted to more closely examine just how long a combination of ice, water, and food will actually stay cold when sitting out at room temperature. To accomplish this, I ran a series of experiments that monitored the temperature of the water over time.

The rest of this article talks about the experiments and shares the results.

There's been a whole lot of talk about ChefSteps' new Joule sous vide immersion circulator. Between the lack of a physical interface (hello, smartphone controls!) and the small size, there's a lot of talking points.

For me, the most important aspects are how well it heats the water, and how much noise does it make...hey, I live in a small New York apartment and even a little noise fills the whole place!

We decided to take the Joule and put it through our sous vide benchmark tests to see how well it compared to the other major brands out there. Spoiler alert...it did pretty dang good!

The first set of tests determine how quickly the circulator can heat the water. It went from room temperature to 140°F (60°C) in only 20 minutes and from hot tap water to 140°F (60°C) in just over 5 minutes.

This is a detailed equipment review of the Joule, an immersion circulator manufactured by ChefSteps. They just recently released this WiFi enabled immersion circulator which, when attached to a suitable container, will provide an excellent water bath for sous vide cooking.

If you are interested in getting involved with sous vide cooking, especially if you are interested in a circulator with WiFi, this review will give you all of the information you need to determine if the Joule is the right immersion circulator for your needs.

This is a detailed review of the Anova Precision Cooker WiFi, an inexpensive immersion circulator manufactured by Anova Culinary LLC. This circulator is essentially identical to the original Anova Precision Cooker except that the capability to communicate via WiFi has been added.

This circulator, attached to a suitable container, will provide an excellent water bath for sous vide cooking. If you are interested in getting involved with sous vide cooking, this review will give you all of the information you need to determine if the Anova Precision Cooker WiFi is the right immersion circulator for your needs.

The addition of the WiFi feature to the Anova Precision Cooker provides several benefits - the most noteworthy are the capabilities: 1) to delay the start time of your cook and 2) to provide remote communication with your sous vide machine. Depending on your lifestyle you may decide that WiFi on your sous vide machine would be a "nice to have" but you don't envision that you would use it often. Or you may determine that WiFi is a "must have" to simplify your life as a sous vide cook.

I recently had the great pleasure of covering and attending the StarChesf 2016 Internation Chefs Congress in Brooklyn as part of the press. It's the second time I've been to StarChefs and every time is an inspriational experience. It always has some of the best chefs in the world, amazing panels and incredible workshops.

The theme this year was "What is Progress" and focused on "Defining success in an age of inlfuence and opportunity". It was a very inspiration conference and several people that are making a big difference in their communities were speakers. I highly recommend attending the conference if you are in the food industry in any capacity.

There's too much going on at the conference, but here's some of the highlights I had.