Others with more experience will tell you more, but I've found it the easiest technique.

My son bought me the Anova stick. You can use basically any container. You have the sous vide machine so that's not a question.

Yes, the meat is tender and juicy. Beautiful! Other advantages is that it's very forgiving. It's not stressful time-wise.

Look at this website for really good help and information.

https://www.chefsteps.com/sous-vide

Meat gets tough overcooked, yet normal low temperature cooking can be unsafe.

Sous vide's ability in precision temperature control to within one degree allows you to cook meat safely at very low safe temperature, and allows you to long cook to tenderize the meat without overcooking the meat.

Yes, many high end restaurants have been using this tool for many years.

dcarch

I also have the Anova. And like Islay, it's best feature is tender proteins and forgiving as you have a window of time to tend to other things and not stress over the most expensive part of your meal being over/undercooked or just horribly tough.

If you google search 'sous vide 101' or 'what is sous vide' you will find plenty to read to gain some understanding of the cooking process. And Islay's link.

No need to buy the big unit as the newer stick version does the same thing. I can use any size cooking container i already own. Usually my stainless pasta pot that i sit next to the sink where i have an outlet. Well out of the way of my prep area i use for veg.

For quite small quantities, I use a small plastic dustbin that I wrap in towel and put in a cool box. For bigger quantities I have a big box with a lid - DH cut a hole out for the stick and I wrap it up to keep it warm.

Another reason I like it is that I cook a lot of meat at one time - for example pork chops in bags two at a time and then freeze so I have a quick meal when I don't have so much time to cook.

I don't think this has been said explicitly yet: When restaurants (and caterers who i think were the first adopters on a large scale) use sous vide for steaks, they're not necessarily after that edge to edge rare that people rave about. That's a consequence, rather than a goal. Sous vide greatly reduces the skill and attention required. Instead of having a grill master watching over a bunch of steaks to go out at different temperatures magically aligned with the delivery of delicate fish, and another dish that requires 25 minutes from receipt of order to plating, they prep and seal all the steaks early in the day, and put them in the circulator with enough lead time for them to be at temperature at a moments notice. If they have several circulators, one might be at "regular" and one at medium, or they may have them all at the right temperature for medium rare, and then do higher temperatures by taking one out and cooking it more. All steaks will be finished on the heat to give a nice sear/color.

Similarly, when a caterer has to serve 100 chicken breast dishes all at once, it's much less labor intensive to prep and seal them a day or two ahead, put them in the circulators well ahead of time, and have them holding there at the perfect temperature while the speeches go long. Depending on the dish, they might be taken out and put in the ovens in pans for a few minutes to add color, but they're already at a safe, cooked temperature, so that can be done on the fly without worries.

I have the Anova stick. It has worked great for me, even when I may not have been doing it in the most optimal way. Since I have great ovens, I mostly use it for "home catering", that is, for when I'm feeding the mobs. Frees up at least one oven. :) There are many other things I could do sous vide, but can do with less fuss and bother with my regular equipment, but that's well beyond what most other kitchens have.

Frankly, I think the stick regulator and a bucket would be a great car camping oven. Often there's an electric supply at a campground space. I've always had an electric water boiler in my camping supplies. Bring pre-prepped and sealed proteins in an ice chest, rather than pre-cooked and frozen, and one can elevate one's outdoors (but electrified) meals. And that's when all those glass jar cooking techniques might be interesting too.