Any new community members here from our awesome holiday deals for the Anova? Curious!
Welcome to introduce yourself on this thread.
I’ll go first - my name is Alyssa. I’m the community manager around here. I love summers, lifting weights, and cooking soups (especially during the winter).
You’ll find a lot of helpful information here. We also have a lot of incredibly helpful members in here who are super dedicated to sharing what they know. Definitely take advantage of all the resources here!
Note: we also have a search function in the community. You’ll find it on the upper right hand corner. It looks like a magnifying glass. This is how it looks like on web:
Haha! I’m sure it’ll come out great. Chicken thighs are good. I also love the way chicken breasts come out with sous vide. Dry chicken no more! Welcome to the community.
Cooking using the sous vide method takes some experimentation to get right. With each cook we learn what works and what we should change. One of the advantages of a community like this one is that you can see some of the missteps that others have made before you.
Since you are getting ready to do a 30 hour cook, a couple questions. What are you planning to use as a cooking vessel? Keep in mind that the more insulated your container is the less work, your Anova has to do. Does your container have a cover? There will be some evaporation.
Another consideration is your counter top. I suggest putting something under your cooking vessel to protect your countertop.
Thanks, SD
For my 8lb beef, I used a metal turkey pan and I covered using tin foil.
I didn’t protect my countertop but that is a good thought.
I’ve just ordered a Coleman cooler that I am going to convert into a dedicated sous vide vessel for larger cuts, that I think will eliminate some of the problems that you have pointed out.
I really appreciate the feedback. I am surely going to have more questions and missteps along the road.
I also just ordered a Coleman Stacker Cooler. That seems to be the best one for using our devices in due to the shallow depth. I have been using a round orange 5 gallon cooler with a hole drilled in the middle for the Anova. It works awesome. Of course, I use mine for ice baths. It will actually stay cold for days.
Hi, I got the Anova as a birthday present from my husband I was thinking about making a sirloin tip roast beef tomorrow (for Sunday dinner). The meat is 1.6 kg (I don’t speak pounds, could it be 3.5 lbs?). My idea: season it with S&P, maybe tie it with a few bacon strips, rosemary/thyme sprigs and rub in some garlic (can’t be too spicy for the kids) cook it for 10-12 hrs in a big pot (French oven), covered with tin foil. Then “rest” it at least 6 hrs at refrigerator temperatures. Finally, I have to sear it at my in-laws! What do you suggest for searing? BBQ? Broiler? What temp and for how long? Thanks for your help!
Got my Anova on the Black Friday sale, and it arrived on Tuesday.
I was so eager to try it I did not even pair it with the App, just used it manually.
I improvised the bath with an old plastic box I had around here (about 3-4 Gallons), used Ziploc (style) bags and clothes pegs to hang them to the side of the box. Covered it the best I could with cling film + foil + bubble wrap (also bubble wrapped the sides) + and old blanket, taking care to not cover the Anova’s vents.
I probably started with too much…
I cooked pork shoulder, beef silverside and lamb shoulder (bone in), all at 60deg C. Took the beef out after 20 hours, raised the Temp to 62deg C and took the pork and lamb out after 24 hours.
Pan seared all three and then… started eating… and then had a problem with stopping eating!
I now believe the hype because I have tasted it and it is goooooood.
The beef was just perfect, I will not change anything in the future.
The pork meat was also perfect though the thick fat maybe could do with either more time or slightly higher temp, I will experiment a bit.
The lamb (my favourite meat) was perfect on the outside and the medium layers. The meat right next to the bone (maybe the last inner 3-4 mm or so) seemed to need more time. As the rest of it was (for me) the perfect texture I will not try the lamb shoulder at higher temp, just longer time.
Even with the inner layer seemingly undercooked, the lamb was finished first (I probably had half of it myself, we’re talking close to 1Lb).
I am very impressed.
I cooked 3 different meats in the same bath (so saved a lot of time and electricity which is expensive here), on a week day (I am away from home, at work+travel, for 11 hours so I almost never cook on a week day!!) and they came out great, the first time I tried it.
The beef is my most pleasant outcome. I can (and do) cook good pork and lamb in the slow cooker but beef has always been hit and miss (mostly miss…) so I did not even try lately.
Well, now I will!
Time for me now to improve my setup and start experimenting!
I bought one on sale over Thanksgiving. I made a cold vinaigrette asparagus salad that was great. I have wrapped it for myself for Christmas so I’ll have more to say after I “officially” open it…
I would have wrapped the empty box. The Anova would have been in use in the kitchen. Hey, no shame here. I love my Anova. It can’t sit in a box for three or four weeks.
My name is Volker. A couple of months ago I got a Precsion Cooker Wi-Fi as a present from a good friend of mine. It’s amazing! Just bought two more. I’m eager, when the MultiCook-function will be available… Best regards, Volker
I’m a BBQ-addict from germany. Doing Sous-vide for a couple of years with DIY-machines based on Chinese PID-controllers and waterheaters. I am also running a DIY-machine that runs on my WLAN-Thermometer - an open source project I have started a couple of years ago which has had quite an impact in the BBQ-community (http://www.wlanthermo.com).
The DIY-solutions work perfectly but what they have in common is, they are quite big and a bit of wiring is always involved.
So I decided to go for an Anova WIFI for convenience-reason. For a single steak, its much easier just to heat up a small pot with the stick instead of gearing up the big bathtubs!
Yesterday, my WIFI arrived and I was pretty excited about it. Even though it beeing my Xmas-present, I got granted permission by the missus to try it out which I did in the kitchen. Quick unboxing - no youtube video of it - getting out a big pot, firing up the androidapp and the stick and it worked out of the box. Checked it with a calibrated Thermapen and the reading was within .1°. Perfect (whereas I am still missing the calibration/compensation function in the app which I am used to from my DIY-solutions!).
But the fun didn’t last for long as my wife came into the kitchen complaining about the terrible, “poisonous” smell that evaporated from the device (we originally thought it was the packing but it wasn’t). The smell filled up the entire house and even my son came down to check if something burnt! But nothing burnt. It was just the outgassing of some weird chemical stuff from the black rubbery coating of the device and it didn’t stop! That made it impossible to use in the kitchen. I had to repack the thing, wrap it in plastic and put it into the garage. We had to open windows and the front door to get rid of the smell in the house.
At that point I started googeling for the phenomenon and found the report of @michihenning who experienced the exact same thing.
I decided to contact support and made a return-request.
I just hope that I will get a non-stink (not to confuse with non-stick ) version in exchange soon. I actually wanted to use it on christmas-eve…
BTW: I posted this not to talk bad about the product. Feature and buildqualitywise, it looks and performs awesome. It’s just pretty disapointing, if you can’t use your new toy not because it’s broken but because it stinks like a burnt rubbertire…
I will keep you posted on the (I assume good working) support!
Hi, Just got my Anova sous-vide for Christmas from my Wife this morning! I bought them for my 2 sons last christmas and they loved it. Could not believe the pictures they sent me.
Can’t wait to get to the butcher shop tomorrow to get started.
Thnaks for letting me in and all
the help I will need in the future.
Just ordered my Anova from Amazon. It will be here Friday 29th.
I am on the Keto diet and have lost 37 lbs so far. I will be adding the Anova as another preparational tool for cooking my Keto friendly foods.I especially look forward to prepping Chicken with it as well as veggies. I’ll poke around and see what you all do with them that will fit my dietary needs…
- getting out a big pot, firing up the androidapp and the stick and it worked out of the box. Checked it with a calibrated Thermapen and the reading was within .1°. Perfect (whereas I am still missing the calibration/compensation function in the app which I am used to from my DIY-solutions!).