Newbie Intro: Share Your First Experience, Questions & Comments

You can try pasteurizing your own eggs for the ice cream base. No bag needed, just place the eggs in a 135F bath for 2 hours then chill immediately. It’s what I use to make eggnog now.

Mason jars are also another good method for sous vide cooking things that like to float. But you do need to make sure the lids aren’t screwed on too tight and that can be a little tricky.

I really enjoy my Anova and am sorry your experience isn’t as positive.

Just got my Anova and wonder about cooking times. When it says a steak cook time is 1 to 4 hrs does that mean it is cooked at 1 hr but you can leave it in for up to 4 hrs without over cooking.
We also tried back ribs which said 12-36hrs. We only had about 10hrs but wanted to experiment. At the 10hrs they were cooked but a little chewy but edible. Do they need the full 36hrs to be real tender?
Thank you

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Hey @dolphin - yes you’re right about be able leave the steak for an added couple of hours and it wont change anything. After 4 hours, the texture may change to something less desirable. @nbmartin and @colewagoner might have some insight about ribs!

What temperature did you cook it at?

11hrs @135

If you were going to have it under 24 hours, personally I’d bump it up to 167°F.

Quick question:

I miscalculated like a doofus and ended up sous viding my steak almost 4 whole hours before serving :rolling_eyes: so… the question is. What would you do if you sous vided too early?

  1. Leave it at the 134F temp until it’s time to sear
  2. Take it out in an ice bath > leave it in the fridge > bring back to room temp ?..(for safety?)
  3. Take it out, dry it and leave it out in room temp until it’s time to sear

I’m at a loss here

I’d ice bath it, stick it in the fridge, put it back in the bath, a few degrees lower than what you cooked it at about a half hour/45 minutes before you’re ready for it.
Good luck!

I’d go with option 4.

.4. lower the water bath temp down to about 129 degrees by adding some ice to the meat jacuzzi. Leave the meat in, then when you are ready for it, pull it out, ice bath it, dry it off, sear it and serve.

IMO, it’s better to hold for a short time at 129 than to chill and reheat for a short wait. At 129 it won’t cook anymore and stays in the “safe zone”. Less texture damage done and two less passes through the danger zone.

Got a precision cooker from my Son on Sunday as an early father’s day gift. Did my first Sous Vide last night with some chicken breast & some eggs. That chicken was just amazing!!! I did three breast all a bit different with seasonings, liquid smoke, & sauce in one. Each was so tender and juicy & great flavor. Didn’t even finish them on the stove top or grill. I was just experimenting. Doing more tonight. The eggs turned out great too. 146 degrees for two hours (both chicken & the eggs). Egg yolks were smooth and the whites were not translucent but very custardy. So good!! I’m going to have fun with this! Doing a Ribeye this weekend then a tri-tip. The tri-tip will be the deciding factor. I was born & bread on tri-tips, being from Santa Barbara County. I KNOW good tri-tip. Going to have some fun with this gadget!

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@Timdplumber glad it turned out awesome! I have had sous vide chicken breast before, I personally think it’s great without the sear, too. So juicy, never dry. Let us know how the tri-tip goes (and take pics!)

We’ve enjoyed the cooker, but are less enthused with the software. My spouse remarks that it seems like the software was released before it was ready. Our first cook was simple, just chicken legs and thighs which we then deep fried for fried chicken. Very tasty and tender! Salmon was next, which was quite good, although I do like using an iron skillet as I can get a better pink interior. That will take some more testing. Some vegetables are next, just to see how they turn out.

On the downside, the fact that the app only allows one to one connections is silly. We share cooking duties and have an old iPad (by the way, no iPad designed app? really? Or at least allow it to rotate, that just requires you to design screens in landscape) in the kitchen. We can’t connect all three, only one. When we tried to set up Wi-Fi, we created an account and verified it, then the app said no account existed. It took a day or so for the account to appear. Once we set up the app with Wi-Fi, we tried to connect Alexa. The Alexa skill requires log in, and once again, no account existed. After some googling, we found that you have to sign out of the app and then sign in the alexa, then sign back in the app. Of course, the app has no forgotten the Wi-Fi settings… These continuing annoyances take away from the beauty of the process and how fun it can be. I have also read that the ice bath process is gone, which would be great for us as we are busy during the day. The software REALLY needs to take into account multiple chefs at home that want to be involved in the process.

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I have a noob question before it even arrived. I ordered the Anova 2nd Gen WiFi 900 Watts

  1. What is the max size container you can use for this?
  2. Is there a container you guys recommend (amazon link would be most helpful). We’re a family of 5.
  3. After some reading I will be buying the TS8000 torch on Amazon becasue you need this to use the more expensive attachment Searzall Does the community agree with the TS8000 or is there something else I should be considering?

Thanks,
Gaspare

Ahhh! Welcome to the Anova food nerd family! :slight_smile: @gaspipe1

  1. The device can circulate up to 5.5 gallons of water.

  2. I mostly use a deep sauce pot because I am one person, but I’ll on occasion use something like this.

  3. I’ll let some of the other community members answer this since I don’t use/own a torch!

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Well it seems this thread is the perfect answer for 1& 2:

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Well, kinda. That thread had a link to this thread (which has a LOT of information):

But, getting back to your max capacity question - it really depends on a few of things:

  1. Is the container insulated
  2. Are you using pre-heated water
  3. What you’re filling it with

You can use much larger (very big camper coolers for e.g.) vessels when they’re insulated, provided you do your PC the HUGE favour of pre-filling it with hot water. You really don’t want to over-task your PC. These appliances are engineered for a range of uses over a reasonable life cycle. If you make it work too hard, you’re likely to shorten its life.

(also, taking a BIG camping cooler, getting it to temperature, then filling half of the volume with frozen pork chops…you get a notion for how bad an idea this would be??) :slight_smile:

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I haven’t used mine yet so I don’t know what I’m talking about :wink: but what kind of vag did you put such a large piece of salmon in?

This text will be hiddenHello all.
Best Father’s Day gift today.

Just finished my first Sous vide cook with my WiFi Anova cooker
Flap steak
127* for 1.5 hours
Then seared on my grill!
Came out tender and juicy.
More towards Rare, I wanted medium rare.
Next time I’ll try 130* for the same time.

Hi there! This is my first post, so I hope I won’t do something wrong.
I’m simply amazed! :heart_eyes:
I got my precision cooker two days ago and tested it yesterday, for dinner, starting with something super-easy for a total beginner: sous-vide salmon.
It turned out to be awesome, so tender and juicy. I followed the recipe I found in the Anova collection and ended it 1-2 minutes in a hot pan to sear. It was delicious :yum: I’m adding some pictures to show.
I was also amazed on how quick and easy the setup was: it immediately connected to my bluetooth and my wifi router as well.
There’s nothing better than a good start to keep your spirits high and want you go on with more and more recipes!


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One of the keys to “filling the tank” is to make sure you account for the mass of what you will be submerging, so that you don’t overflow the vessel. As for weights, there are several vendors on eBay and Amazon.com offering weights that are covered with silicone which are quite good. I think I paid about $8-$10 for a set of two and purchased two sets.

Apples are floaters to begin with, and depending on the size of the apple, a one-pint mason jar filled with water should be sufficiently heavy when placed inside the bag to keep it submerged. You don’t mention what kind of “tank” you’re using, but you can get all sorts of things like pizza screens or cake racks at the restaurant supply stores that you can put other weighty objects on and use those to hold the food under water.

Many kinds of less dense pork items (cushion meat, ribs, tenderloin) will also float during sous vide cooking (and even the vacuum sealed bags may inflate, compounding the problem), and you have to make sure they remain in the water bath.