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Sous Vide IC and Vacuum Sealer


sbard28

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I would like to purchase a Sous Vide Immersion Circulator and Vacuum Sealer for our small restaurant (78 seats) but not sure what to buy. I have several dishes that I think can be improved by the use of sous vide so anticipate that it will be in constant use but cost is a huge concern.

I have looked at the PolyScience Professional and like this the most thus far but the SV Supreme is much less and for the price could be running two machines simultaneously (of course counter space might become an issue and I'm not sure it is large enough for our needs).

I would love your suggestions as to which machine you recommend as well as which Vacuum Sealer would be appropriate in a professional setting (unfortunately the chamber sealer is out of my price range). I will be sealing/cooking bone-in chicken so it needs to be able to seal the product and offer thicker bag options.

Thanks in advance for your help.

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Get the polyscience professional.

The only advantage to the SV supreme is having two different temps going at the same time. I dont really think the supreme is large enough for professional cooking.

Capacity wise you can have a lot more things cooking with the PS professional. I have one and really love it.

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Both the Sous Vide Professional and the Sous Vide Supreme are excellent choices. Obviously, the SVP is about 1/3 to twice as much, so your budget may guide you best. Further, you can get the SVS Demi for a lower investment. I guess it may boil (if you pardon the phrase) down to how much product you are producing each evening.

With the SVP, it hooks on to the side of most any pot or Cambro-type container. As of today, Williams-Sonoma continues to be selling the SVP at a good price and including a 20 Qt. stockpot (induction capable) and a 27 Qt. Camwear container, both of which are said to add up to a $200 value. The Sous Vide Supreme has a 10 liter/2.6 gallon cooking capacity and the Demi is under 9 liters/2.4 gallons (they talk about the Demi total water capacity, not the cooking capacity). As you already know, the SVP is circulation based and the SVP is more a passive thermal conduction. I have both and both are terrific.

As you research, the other consideration is whether you will be doing only one item sous vide or even a couple items so long as you use the same water temperature. Having two (or more) sous vide machines allows you to do proteins in the lower temperature ranges and use the other for vegetables at 185 F to get the best results. If you need multiple finish temps, then you will need more than one machine. Also, you worried about counter real estate with the larger footprint for the SVS. Either choice requires a container, pot or the machine as is the SVS case, so this will probably end up a trade-off.

Personally, I recommend you seriously consider a chamber vacuum. I owned mine for a year before I bought a sous vide machine. It may be the best investment I have made for my kitchen. Yes they are expensive, but they can be put to more uses that merely bagging product for sous vide. You can store dry ingredients, keep leftovers fresher, store liquids, keep meat and poultry longer, play with compressed fruits and vegetables ahd the list goes on. Yes, many of these can be done with a home machine, but if you are investing for the long run and the future the chamber machines are likely a good way to go. Maybe using the chamber vacuum to seal 'doggie bag' contents for guests would work-I don't know if anyone has thought to implement that?

"A cloud o' dust! Could be most anything. Even a whirling dervish.

That, gentlemen, is the whirlingest dervish of them all." - The Professionals by Richard Brooks

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One thing to note that is you can do a lot of sous vide applications with heavy duty ziplock bags.

Just fill your (clean) sink with water put the food in the bag, add a little appropriate liquid, push the meat under the water until the water level matches up with the ziplock seal. Securely seal the bag and off you go.

Credit to Dave Arnold of Cooking issues for the technique.

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On the potential counter space issue, what about running a couple of units using a shelved arrangement with one higher and one lower or some such arrangement like on a cart? Beyond time keeping they should need very little tending other than possibly making sure bags don't stick together and make for uneven heating, so usage of horizontal work space could possibly be lessened.

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The Weston Pro 2100 and 2300 vacuum sealers are good external sealers. The only difference between the two that I know of is the 2300 is chrome and has blue plexiglass over the chamber. The 2100 is whiteish and has a smoked plexi lid. I had one for home use and it worked well. I've seen one used on Iron Chef America. I just replaced it with a MVS31 chamber sealer.

The only real drawback to the 2100 is sealing bags with liquids. It can be done with the manual seal feature however. The big advantage to the 2100 is the 16 inch sealing bar. You can seal 2 8 inch bags at once with it. If you're doing a lot of vacuum sealing the cost of bags will be a major consideration for you. I think bags for my external sealer cost approximately 30 to 35 cents each. Depending on size, the bags for the chamber sealer run 2-1/2 to 8 cents each. Depending on the chamber sealer you buy bag cost can pay the difference after only 1500 to 5000 bags.

I have a Sous Vide Supreme and think it's a very nice unit. As mentioned above, it might be a bit small for restaurant use. I can get about 5 boneless ribeye steaks into mine. For restaurant use I'd probably get the PolyScience Professional.

Larry

Larry Lofthouse

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Hi sbard,

welcome to eG forums!

Sous Vide Supreme is a nice streamlined home kitchen appliance, but I think for restaurant use it is too small. With the Sous Vide Professional you are much more versatile to use pots of any size. If price matters, you can have the same versatility and temperature stability with a SousVideMagic PID-controller and a FreshMealsMagic immersion heater/bubbler. SVP has 1100W heating power, FMM has 1500W (in the 110V-world; in 220V it's 2000W). When adding cold food while other items are being cooked, the higher wattage may allow faster disturbance recovery; also for very large pots the higher wattage may be an advantage. With the money left in case you go for the lower price tag, you might buy a NIST-calibrated precision thermometer to make sure you are not in the danger zone for long-time cooking.

For a clamp type vacuum sealer you might consider the T-43 PRO or La.va V.300. BTW sealing liquids with a clamp type machine is possible.

Peter F. Gruber aka Pedro

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Thanks for all of the great advice. I opted to purchase the SV Professional and love it. I've used ziploc bags for test runs at home but have quickly found that I will need to purchase a vacuum/chamber sealer for items with long cook times.

Thanks Again!

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