The reviews are scaring me! Do you have to have a wifi connection to use this devise? Can you use the cooker manually?
You can use it manually, you do not need to have it connected
DD, they scare me too.
As long as you are not afflicted with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, in my opinion wifi is absolutely not helpful.
Get one, put down your phone, and get cooking what will be your personal best-ever in many menu categories.
In 3 years of frequent use i have not yet had a reason to operate my Anova remotely. It has been perfectly reliable without my attention to it.
Your most significant challenge will be to adapt to a new way of thinking about how you are cooking and get on with making great meals.
The longer I use mine, the less useful I find the wifi connection. I find it much quicker to dial up a temperature on the head of the unit. Other than for eggs and seafood the timer function isn’t needed.
You don’t need wifi, to be honest. it’s a waste of money, and just doesn’t work. looks like it never will. And don’t expect stellar support. These guys haven’t EVER updated the firmware.
It’s an interesting cooking technique, but food cooked with real heat tastes totally different. The chemical reactions that take place when you you use proper heat create a myriad of complex and interesting flavours you just don’t get with sous vide and never will. And simply browning the outside is simply cosmetic, and doesn’t really impart any flavour.
I hardly ever use mine, and when I do, like today, I’m always disappointed that so little has happened to fix the problems and update the firmware.
My advice? Don’t bother. It’s just another gadget that’ll sit in your cupboard most of the time.
The only way to describe Anova’s software efforts is as “incompetent”.
I strongly disagree with that assertion. There are lots of things where sous vide excels and makes things easy; conversely, doing the same things the conventional way can be very difficult or time-consuming.
Some examples:
- making yoghurt or cheese where precise temperature control Is essential
- slow-cooking things such as brisket, Adobo pork belly, beef cheek, or any other kind of braised dish
- making paté or other things that are normally cooked in mason jars: egg bites, jams, etc.
- steak or chicken breast that is dialled to the absolutely perfect degree of done-ness
Sous vide is one tool among many for cooking good food. It does some things extremely well, others not so much. Use it for what it is good for.
Simon’s assertions that for cooking there’s “real” or “proper” heat are absurd. All heat energy is real no matter how applied. My Anova allows me to precisely cook to my preferred outcome repeatedly, and without the distraction of remote control.
It appears he missed the class on the Maillard Reaction. A correct searing technique results in a great many thermal and oxidative flavour enhancements.
My advice, put down the phone and get cooking.
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Hi @Simonz
I agree with your statement regarding the WiFi being essentially unnecessary for most people, but every other statement you made is either factually erroneous or an opinion with which I disagree! I hope at some point you give sous vide a try again and get the kind of results that I’ve experienced. It’s really been a game changer for me!