Newbe with beginner questions

Anova Precision® Cooker First Cook Essentials
1

Hi,
Brand new to the forum and Sous Vide cooking but looks real interesting. A few questions to get started:

Seems like this is time consuming, are there was to minimize the time?

And is there a way to control the heater without Blue Tooth? Assume the whole idea is temperature and time. is the correct? Would one need to wait until the water was heated to desired temperature prior to putting food in?

Thanks for the starter points!

Seevee

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That depends on what it is that you’re trying to accomplish. As you note yourself, “the whole idea is temperature and time”. Both play a part in the nature of the finished product. Changing either one will alter what it is that you end up with.

Absolutely. There is a manual control (thumbwheel) on the unit itself, and if you get/have the Wi-Fi model you can use the mobile app via that connection.

Not always, though doing so makes it easier to determine how long the food should be in the bath.

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@Seevee also here’s a few helpful links on how to use your cooker manually:

  1. How To Start The Timer On The Anova
  2. 1st Cook: Can I Use Anova Manually?
4

Another thing to note with sous vide cooking, although many things take a long time to cook to perfection, it is unattended time. You can drop your package of food into the warm bath and pretty much forget about it until it is done.

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Seevee, there are many benefits to SV cooking with few unfavourable aspects, but it’s not for everyone. If you are new to SV and find it time consuming something is likely wrong with the way you are using the technique. SV cooking requires planning and unlike conventional cooking it it can’t be rushed. The time required is what it is. You have to do the work to learn the technique.

The whole idea, and similar to conventional cooking techniques, your essential cooking decision factors are the following:

  1. the product being cooked,
  2. size of product, usually its thickness, and sometimes its mass,
  3. desired degree of doneness appropriate to the product,
  4. cooking temperature selected to achieve #3,
  5. length of cook to achieve #3 along with and equal to the desired degree of tenderness, texture, “chew”, or mouth feel.

Therefore, by adjusting each cook to those variables you can achieve great outcomes customized to your precise expectations, but you have to do the work.

For short cooking times or small items add your food when set temperature is met. For long cooks it matters not.

If you find SV cooking time overly time consuming you are either cooking inappropriate products or somehow not availing yourself of SV’s following significant benefits;

  • advanced precision cooking that achieves superior results,
  • remote monitoring and fine tuning of your cooking process,
  • discrete batch cooking, and
  • cooking that does not require your constant attention.

If you bought your Anova as a high-tech egg boiler you wasted your money.

Do the work and you will be amazed at your results.

6

The App works with the Bluetooth models as well - only difference is that the wifi unit makes a connection to the Anova cloud, so you can access your APC from anywhere that you have a data connection (be it wifi or cellular). Obviously, with bluetooth, your phone has to be within range of the APC.

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Yeah, I know that. The question I answered was:

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Heh, ok, if you want to be THAT particular, then, no, you can’t. You need bluetooth to pair the APC to the app in the first place. :stuck_out_tongue:

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I thought this would interest you. Read #2.
AlyssaWOAHAnova Community Manager
1d

@Seevee also here’s a few helpful links on how to use your cooker manually:

  1. How To Start The Timer On The Anova3
  2. 1st Cook: Can I Use Anova Manually?8
10

Ooh… I remembered back in those days when time mattered the most when sv-ing… Was doing a manual cook on the stove with a pot and thermometer and goin in and out of the kitchen every 5-10 minutes for 1 1/2 hour to maintain the temp for my steak.