I'm as pleased as you are. So well designed that i have it clamped on a pantry shelf...and the shipping tube is saved and used for travel.

I do not extend the cooking time. But a rest period of a half hour or even an hour has been fine. Saves some 'timing' time when working on other things.

(rest meaning leaving alone). Until i'm ready for it.

I was using it quit a bit last spring for lots of experimenting but i spend the summer months with the of-set firebox smoker and braising the old-fashioned way because i enjoy it...i'll go back to it this winter.

And a great company. I have only called once when i was not sure about the cleaning and drying or how important...and it rolled off my counter onto the floor, yikes. (i could not get the base cover off but they walked me through it)

We have a winter dish that i know will improve with this. It was always a simple but complicated timing issue. Fast and furious for the final 10 minutes.

The Inova will solve that. I'm convinced.

I also had great response from them during the run up to the current immersion circulators. At a time when they were swamped, they were very responsive.

I haven't used mine enough because of other issues that have limited my cooking, but I think it's lots of fun. I want to try some of their mason jar ideas. One thing I've been thinking about is oats. I love the flavor of "real" oats, but not the patience. Add to that, the only way I'll eat them is if they're firm enough for the spoon to stand up. I'm thinking that a long cook in a jar might be just the thing... Much better than stirring regularly for half an hour or more.

When I was first researching how to use it and learned the way the caterers do, the clouds parted, the sun shone on the land, and angels started to sing. Doing the all the prep two days before service, then vacuum sealing, makes a large quantity of fussy food a snap! Then the circulator bath, where dinner being pushed back an hour is no problem, makes day of a joy. Even though I rarely have more than a couple of dozen people to dinner nowadays, it's a perfect solution to the lack of joy that roast turkey gives me.

The only part I don't like is the increased humidity in the kitchen. I don't have another really good place to set it.

To me sous vide does not have to mean only long cooking time and low temperature cooking.

It means cooking with certainty at a specific exact temperature and cooking time to assure food safety without having to worry about overcooking or under cooking.

Sous vide cooker does not put out a lot of humidity because it operates well below boiling point and you can keep it covered.

dcarch

FOAS, did your lovely wife finely adjust to the weird texture of Sous Vide meat?

Ann - I haven't experimented a ton, honestly, but what I have found is we're happier with a steak that has been cooked for an hour versus one that's sat for a couple hours or more. The notion of "can't overcook" holds true for temperature only, not texture, hence my sticking to minimal cooking times now. IMO and IME of course.

From the results in my own kitchen, we'd prefer say a thick strip steak perfectly cooked with conventional methods than sous vide, but for us "perfectly cooked" means primarily medium rare throughout, and that can be slightly tricky to perfect. If we preferred a rare center like you do, I wouldn't bother with SV.

My favorite application is probably thick cut pork chops. With pork I'm not interested in a temperature gradient, I want the center cooked and the outer sections not dried out. Pretty foolproof with SV, and I've not experienced the textural issues I have with beef.

Another success has been lobster. While I find the low temps often recommended off-putting, using the high end I can thoroughly cook the meat without risking the outer parts getting overcooked.

Of course these are obstacles that a decent cook can overcome, SV just makes it brainless once you nail down your preferred time and temp.

As of yet I've not found anything that I prefer specifically because it was cooked sous vide, just things that are easier not to mess up using it.

Dcarch, my own experience with the Anova immersion circulator is that it does add noticeably to the humidity in my kitchen, even with a minimally sized bath. It's evaporation, not steam. :) I haven't tried covering it yet. I'm not sure it'll make a big difference in the long run, but theoretically some of the evaporant will condense on the cover and drip back into the bath, right?

FOAS, I agree about the texture. In my turkey breast experiments, I found that it could be cooked through and nasty soft, cooked through and a similar texture to perfectly roasted, or cooked too long and getting mushy. I figured out an optimum timingj/temp (which is somewhere in my notes, but not here). The great thing is that hour leeway. That's brilliant! Some of my other experiments have been with weird foods and I haven't perfected anything.

I think we need another name for things that are cooked in a circulator bath but not vacuum sealed. Or call the mason jar thing sous verre or dans le verre or something.

Plllog - I agree about the humidity. With my homemade version I generally use a cooler with lid a la dcarch, and when I open it there's a waft of wet air. The inside of the lid is dripping with water which runs back into the bath, so it's obviously helping. When using my Anova in a pot, the setup is on the stove with the range hood on low. I've seen people just cut a hole in the top of a cooler and plop the Anova through there. Every time I sous vide I think that I really need to come up with a perfect sized and shaped container for family cooking. Something lidded that will maximize circulation and minimize the amount of water needed to heat up. Shouldn't be a hard one to figure out, just need to spend a few minutes thinking about it

I'll let you worry about the mason jar terminology, but what we REALLY need a name for is the liquid that shrinks out of the meat. Over on eGullet (and probably elsewhere) they talk about the "bag juices" and that majorly turns my stomach!

The cooler with the hole is an interesting idea for a contraption. :) Theoretically less electricity due to better insulation? What I haven't been able to figure out is a way to cover enough with the circulator in the way. :)

As to your terminology question, it seems like a natural that pan juices would be altered to "bag" for the vacuum sealed version. I also get how that could conjure less direct, and unlovely, inferences. :) OTOH, I don't think jus de sac sous vide sounds appealing either! How about just plain "jus"? That would be descriptive and appropriate. Or "juice" if you prefer to defrenchify.

Mother of Gravy?

Liquids?

Meat sweat?

I mean, this could go terribly wrong!