Hi, I just got my new Precision Cooker and I’ve used it twice.
First time was salmon. Turned out great. I poach salmon all the time, and this was better. Consistently fabulous flavor and texture. 122F for 40 minutes in a ziploc bag.
Today for lunch: corn-on-the-cob. Very good – as good as can be done with traditional methods. Certainly doesn’t justify buying a second unit for corn, but when the first isn’t in use this is good.
Third dish is “baked” apples – cooking now. I’m having trouble keeping the apples and bag from floating. Spoons in the bag aren’t heavy enough. Ended up clipping the bag to a glass dish and dropping that to the bottom of the tank. I’m now in the market for glass beads, pie weights, or whiskey stones.
Tonight will be a strip steak.
Comments: the manual doesn’t mention filling the tank with water. Seems like that’s important.
The “Min” and “Max” water level markings should be much more prominent.
@“Reuel Nash” Thanks for starting a newbie discussion! How’d the strip steak turn out?
I’ve heard glass beads do work well but didn’t think of whiskey stones, which I do have so I’ll have to try those out. Great idea. I’ve also positioned large spoons go keep the bag wedged down. It’s helped most times.
Will make a note of the manual’s exclusion of filling the tank with water so it’s included in the next revision - thank you!
I have not used the app (would be the Android one if I did). I’m not seeing a lot of reason for it. I have a “cheat sheet” for times and temps inside a nearby cabinet door. I have timers all over the kitchen – microwave, over, and on my phone. I can hear the beep when the unit reaches temperature from all over the house.
I’ll assume that the app has the “cheat sheet” built in: that I can select 'chicken --white meat" and it will set the right temp and time. I still need to know well ahead of actually doing that what the time will be for planning purposes.
Perhaps the app is smarter than that: I tell it I want to eat white meat chicken tonight at 8pm. It tells me I need to start the machine warming up at, say, 5:45 (perhaps with some history of my tap water temperature and how long it takes to heat to temp in my container), then put the chicken in at 6, fire up a pan for searing at 7:50, etc., and controls both the machine and me(!) to do that. I do all that in my head now.
@“Reuel Nash” I’ve seen a lot of requests for the time/temp guide feature and we have a thread on app feedback where our community members are sharing their thoughts and suggestions. The one you mentioned is a particularly popular one so it’s definitely on our list
@“Reuel Nash” Also, when getting started, was there anything in particular that you would have liked more information on? You mentioned the missing step for adding water to the pot, and also the min/max line prominence - anything else that may benefit other new Anovies who come across this thread?
Probably not critical, but perhaps some guidance on dealing with the unit after use would be good. How to remove and drain it. Whether to wait until it’s cool, etc.
Maybe some guidance on how long it will take to heat the water, as starting point. “Five quarts of 70 degree tap water will take about 20 minutes to get to 185 degrees in an uninsulated container”.
@“Reuel Nash” That’s a very good idea about post-use care. If the best case is to leeave it submerged until it’s cool, perhaps the thermometer readout should stay on for 10 minutes after the cook has finished so we the users can determine if it’s cool enough to remove, or a “safe to remove” alert sent to the mobile app?
After the first success with salmon, I decided to serve some to guests. I cooked 1.8 lbs of salmon the same way: 122F for 40 minutes in a ziploc with salt and pepper. Fabulous. It would have been difficult to poach this large a piece and get good results.
I received my Precision Cooker on Wednesday and my first cook was eggs to put on top of brisket hash. They turned out well and even my wife enjoyed them
My second cook was last night. I had a couple of filet mignon already vacuum sealed in the freezer so I cooked them at 135 for 3 hours and then seared them on the grill. Mine was perfect but my wife thought hers could have been a little more done. I did give hers extra grill time, but apparently not enough. Maybe next time I’ll cook hers first at 140 and then reheat it near the end of cooking mine.
@“Ron Lewen” That is a really beautiful photo! Glad you enjoyed! Maybe your wife isn’t used to the perfection of sous vide yet? I’ve cooked sous vide for family and friends many times and I often get the question about food being undercooked from the home sous vide first-timers – they are always shocked with how juicy it is! Maybe they are just used to me overcooking things though, lol.
@"Reuel Nash" Also, when getting started, was there anything in particular that you would have liked more information on? You mentioned the missing step for adding water to the pot, and also the min/max line prominence - anything else that may benefit other new Anovies who come across this thread?
One thing I noticed is that it seems to have an easier time holding the temperature steady when I placed the vessel on a plastic cutting board and covered it with another small plastic board. Using a vessel larger than you think you need will also make it easier to maintain a constant temperature. I cooked carrots last night at 180° F and using hot tap water shortened the heating time considerably.
Today we are having pork tenderloin and another batch of carrots along with a Brussels sprout salad. Today the pork is not brined as a baseline. I have another one that I am going to equilibrium brine to see how much different it tastes.
Got my Precision Cooker on Wednesday and a ribeye from Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) to give it a go. Prepped the steak with kosher salt, pepper and a pat of butter in the bag, set the cooker at 130F for 2 hours and finished on a cast iron skillet at high temp. I guess I don’t need to tell this group that the results were amazing. Now I know how those high-end restaurants can get their steaks perfect every time. I can’t wait until it warms up enough to finish steaks on the grill.
Here is my first real meal. Pork tenderloin and carrots both cooked with the Anova. Carrots were done a day ahead of time and refrigerated. I reduced the sauce and the carrots were heated through again. The pork was delicious. I will be having leftovers for dinner tonight. [missing image removed]
Hi Josh,
just got my PC as a Christmas present and so first cook will be pulled pork for the New Year’s Eve Party. I am using the Apple app on a WiFi PC and have got going ok setting time and temp from the app. i cant see how to monitor time and temp from my iPhone as the cook is in progress. also, does the cook end automatically, or do i need to do it manually??
none of these questions seem to be covered in te manual or on the FAQs
thanks
I’m running an WiFi on the 'Droid ap, but I assume the Apple one will be the same. The PC unit itself will beep when done and go into a holding pattern while giving a multi-beep every few seconds. My Droid tablet has been in sleep mode each time a cook finished, so I didn’t get a notification on it, but I assume you will get a notice on screen much the same as you do when the device is hot.
Monitoring time and temp seems to require having the Ap open, which is a bit of a coding failure by my way of thinking. You should be able to have a live widget on your home screen which displays the 3 important numbers, ie) Current temp, Target temp and Remaining time. Perhaps this could be done in the next update.
My first cook . . . .4 x Sirloin Steaks via WiFi app recipe (53.9C for 1 hour). Looking for Medium Rare, and while very juicy, was more medium (no pink bits). The steak was about 2cm thick. Just 30 secs a side in a sizzling pan for presentation.
Any suggestions on how to better gauge temperature/timing would be very welcome.
