New to sous vide questions

Anova Precision® Cooker
1

I haven’t purchased an Anova yet, but have a few questions before I pull the trigger

  • I frequently cook pork chops from Costco. I think there are 8 to a pack and they are about an 1" thick. Is this something the Anova will handle or would I have to do in a few cooks?
  • since the meat is sealed and you can’t use an instant read thermometer, how do you know how long to cook and when the meat is at temperature?

Thanks for the help!!!

2

If your pork chops are packed in a single layer there is no time difference between cooking a single chop or many. The idea with sous vide is that you’re cooking at the same temperature that you want the interior of your finished item to be (in the case of chops or steaks this tends to correlate to the ‘doneness’). For a chop or a steak you’re looking at a short time frame for the heat to penetrate to the centre of the item.

There are several guides that will help you select a time appropriate to your cut of meat, so there should really be no need for checking your chops with an instant read thermometer. However, you can still do so if you are cooking in Ziplock type bags rather than a true vacuum seal.

As well as recipe guides in the Anova control app for iPhone or Android and on the Anova website there is also some good information available on the SeriousEats website and ChefSteps website that will help you no end.