Do you happen to you use your Anova (or any sous vide cooker you might have) in unconventional ways?
For example, to prepare food for your pets or to warm baby milk? I am curious to find what other interesting ways the Anova has been used by our community. 
Excellent suggestion Alyssa.
It drives me crazy to see moms heating milk or formula in a microwave. It practically guarantees indigestibility and then they wonder why their infant is cranky and spits-up.
I know, nurses do it too, but it’s still wrong.
Why does microwaving formula or milk practically guarantee indigestibility? Further, if a microwave causes that, why does my son get cranky and spit up more often when we warmed his on the stove in water?
Brian, microwaves alter the molecular structure of the sugars in milk so that an infant’s gut enzymes can’t completely digest them. You never want to heat the formula or milk so much that it changes colour indicating the sugars have cooked. That’s why using your Anova is so useful, its precise control.
Maybe you have noticed that microwaves similarly alter starches making them tougher.
If your son tolerates heating your his milk on the stove i suggest you ask your Paediatrician about it. If he’s older than a few months perhaps he has adapted to the modified sugars and is able to digest them and he has lost his natural digestive enzymes. If he had a course of antibiotics that could be a cause.
Infants are born with the necessary enzymes to digest human milk. Human milk changes over time introducing new digestive enzymes to your child. That’s one of the reasons it’s superior to formula.
I have not noticed any textual change to any starches that i wouldn’t have experienced through more conventional means of hearing. Did you have any sources of unique alterations of sugars/starches with the microwave? He tolerates either one, however we notice less upset when heated in the microwave.
There’s numerous articles of peer-reviewed information in the scientific literature over the past 40 years. Anyone focusing on human nutrition will assist you.
All the peer reviewed sources I’ve read indicate that there are no unique changes, that’s why I’m asking for them.
When making rum and raisin ice cream I cook the custard at 87 C for an hour and a half. I then vacuum seal the raisins with rum, switch off the anova and put the raisins in the water. I find this helps the raisins soak up the rum. Later, even next day I recover the raisins make the ice cream with the custard and add them when transferring the ice cream to a freezer storage box.
Brian, things change, - like i understand that coal is now a clean fuel.
i no longer work in a children’s hospital so you are likely a lot more up to date than i am on matters of Clinical Nutrition. However, i still see signs on the microwave ovens in hospitals that they are not to be used for heating milk or formula for infants, so now it just might be a Patient safety matter to prevent scalded tiny mouths.
I maintain the Anova’s gentle and thorough heating would be a more suitable heat source without causing the hot spots microwave ovens do.
Scalding a child’s mouth is an absolutely real danger of using a microwave to heat up milk. They heat things up far more rapidly than more conventional means due to how they work. However, you leave a bottle on the stove top too long, you’ll achieve the same thing. Please note that I’m not arguing with you, you seemed to have more knowledge than i did, and am always willing to learn new things from whoever knows something i don’t.
My wife is a certified aromatherapist. She is continually brewing natural cleansers, waters, lotions, and potions.
She uses our Anova to “brew” extracts of herbs. She also makes tinctures.
The “controlled heat” is vastly superior to stovetop cooking or waiting forever.
Having worked in what at the time was the largest Paediatric teaching hospital in North America with 9 PhD’s in Clinical Nutrition i did pick up a bit of practical knowledge, couldn’t help it.
I recall that parents were advised that infants tolerated cooler food temperatures than parents expected. Not right out of the fridge, but just above room temperature was ok. 98.6F is ideal.
Also, expressing a few drops of milk or formula on the back of the hand was safer than testing for temperature safety on the less sensitive inside of the wrist.
Microwave ovens create hot spots so give the bottle a good swirl to stabilize food temperature.
Oh that’s really interesting and never heard of the Anova being used in that way. I’m actually curious about this. Has she always used the Anova for her natural products? Or was there ever a way she had done it differently?
In the “old days” … it was always time (a lot of time) and guesswork.
I use my trusty old Anova One for cheesemaking. It allows me to maintain the perfect temperature for whatever culture I’m using. Works good for yogurt, too.
I have used it successfully to decrystallize honey. Low and slow, never more than 110*. Length of time depends on how much you have.
I have used it to warm up sake. Turns out very nice. I have also used it to heat water up mold mouth guards.
Only when you overdo them. You can not just set your MW and let it run, do it in steps.
I use two circulators to heat my dish washing water on days when the solar HWS is not adequate.
Oh wow that’s definitely a new one for me to hear. I don’t have solar HWS - so my knowledge of it is pretty much nonexistent. Is it intermittent? Why would it not be adequate sometimes?