I’m new here, so apologies if this topic has already been discussed. I have recently been given an Anova Precision Cooker (Wi-Fi) as a gift. I downloaded the app, which seemed to install OK. However, while examining the menu options on the app, I noticed that when selecting the menu option for steak, only Brisket appears. There are no other options available – the selection goes straight to Brisket. I am using an Android phone (HTC One M8) and have uninstalled and reinstalled the app several times without any change to this issue. Anyone experienced this issue? If so - and if there is a solution - I would love to hear about it.
Yes - you’re quite right. My mistake as a newbie! I just didn’t scroll down far enough and expected steak to be under beef. I feel much better now. I’m currently using the APC for the first time and no issues so far. Many thanks for your response.
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You’re welcome! 
Enjoy your new “toy” 
Thanks for the welcome. The problem seems to have been the different phone. I checked my app against my son’s Apple version when I first downloaded the app. It appears that all the steak options are under Beef on Apple but in a separate listing under Steak on Android. All sorted now and looking forward to some great food.
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That’s true, they are a little bit different 
Thank you for helping, @mejakm!
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Hi there folks,
I just got one for Xmas and I’m looking for temps and times for topside of beef. As mentioned in this thread the app only shows brisket.
Is there a reference list of other beef cuts (apart from steak) on the app rather than finding a complete recipe?
Feels a bit odd for this not to be on there.
Another suggestion, how about a "translation " feature so the various cuts can be identified from US to UK butchery terminology?
Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas to all!
Best regards
Rick Robinson
Hi right back and welcome to your Anova Community Rick.
I know it’s heresy here, but i advise those new to the sous vide cooking technique to gain enough knowledge and experience so they can abandon thoughtless recipe app-driven cooking and competently cook with confidence. If you were expecting guidance on finding an app to control your cook you can stop reading now.
Bye.
Interested?
We here in North America can’t even reach agreement across regions on the names of various cuts of meat. Not only with US to UK, but adding the international aspect of Anova users plus many different languages is certainly an interesting Anova programmer’s challenge.
In NA your Topside of beef is typically called rump roast, pot roast, sirloin tip, top round and likely various other names according to how well it was cooked. It’s a challenging cut of meat that i would not recommend to a newcomer. Why, because it is often big, thick, and tough.
You ask to be provided with temps and times. Before you can determine them you need some details that only you can provide. That’s where that K-word above is necessary. So if you’re still reading, here we go.
Sous vide cooking is substantially different technique from the conventional cooking you probably have already mastered. Sorry to say it, but you can forget most of that. It’s time for your fresh start.
SV cooking transfers heat in a water bath to airless packaged food at relatively low temperatures over comparatively longish periods of time except for fish and seafood.
Sometimes mercilessly long.
I am only going to address your must-knows here, mostly because i am running out of patience in repeatedly doing this when the highly detailed information is readily available at the following site:
http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html
Read to understand Part I and Part II and all you need to Know will be revealed far better than i can do.
Start with your desired outcome for the selected cut of meat in your mind. Not having mastered para-normal communication i can’t do that for you, neither can an app to my knowledge. You should think about your experience when you will be eating and enjoying it. It will be the degree of doneness as in Rare, Medium-Rare, or the varying degrees of Badly Done: plus how tender you want to enjoy your beef.
DONENESS DETERMINES TEMPERATURE AND DESIRED TENDERNESS DETERMINES LENGTH OF COOKING TIME. I regret the foregoing shout, but you would not believe how difficult is seems to be to have users accept those two tenets of SV cooking.
If there’s a sub-set to the above it’s, “FORGET ABOUT WEIGHT”. That’s very difficult to do for those that don’t have the Knowledge and can’t let go of conventional recipe driven cooking, a lot of which can be wrong.
If you have not yet purchased your Topside, please get a small one. Select its cooking temperature based on your choice of doneness, anything from 131F (Medium-Rare, and recommended) to 150F (Medium-Well or Grey). For your first effort i recommend you cook it for 24 hours for the purpose of evaluation. That about the centre point length of time for a Topside’s 12 to 48 hours range.
There’s one last item for your current Things I Must Do list, Rick. Get and maintain your SV Cooking Journal, a good one. Get a bound blank book, one to be taken seriously and certainly not a file folder with loose papers falling out. You may even want to develop a spreadsheet for your tablet or computer, but it should be available in your kitchen so you will record the details of each cook.
Record the following details in order:
- The date of the cook
- Item cooked, as in Topside roast.
- Item’s maximum thickness in inches (no weight, no length, - just thickness. Don’t clutter your Journal with useless details)
- Cooking temperature of water-bath, or your Anova’s set point.
- Duration of cook in hours
- Comments. Record your qualitative evaluation of the outcome in detail. “Edible” is not a useful detail. If the result was below expectation always record that and your suggestions for improvement the next time you cook that menu item.
If you do record the weight of the item in your Journal you should also record both the planned and the resulting actual number of portions produced. This information will guide your buying decisions for future cooks based on actual results you achieved.
Gain the Knowledge Rick, and do the work so you will amaze family members and friends with the superior quality of your cooking.
Do well.
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Frank, this is an excellent post! It answers in one go so many of the questions those new to sous vide usually have! Kudos!!! This is now going to be a go to reference post for many of the questions we see!
@Rickrobbo this should give you an excellent grounding, but don’t be hesitant to post if you have follow on questions!
Thank you Mike, i appreciate your feedback. I was attempting draw attention to just the basics for the Ready-Fire-Aim users.
Do you think my item was too long and that discouraged Rick?
Perhaps a dozen questions that I’ve seen repeatedly asked in this forum are all well answered by the contents of your post. I think it’s as long as it needs to be, and I think it likely I’ll be referring people to it a lot in the future. A little long but hopefully not discouraging as the information is golden!
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