Sous vide – what to buy or ask for, for Christmas?

[Martin Fisher]

No polycarbonate container with the FMM, he said the shipping is too much.

I'm only 160 miles from Niagara Falls. Oh, well.

~Martin

[rotuts]

times change. at least the plates on yours are Stainless Steel !

some people have used those 5 gallon buckets any hardware store has.

[Martin Fisher]

some people have used those 5 gallon buckets any hardware store has.

Yeah, I've got one setting right here.

Allegedly safe at a continuous 80C, some say 110C, we'll see.

~Martin

[rotuts]

we'd like to see pics of your attempts!

either get the Baldwin book or study the threads here and the ref to the info on line.

get a nice notebook at Staples or elsewhere. engineer lined and keep notes in there on all your SV attempts. This will be your personal bible of SV. no kidding!

why make the same mistake twice?

[Martin Fisher]

we'd like to see pics of your attempts!

either get the Baldwin book or study the threads here and the ref to the info on line.

get a nice notebook at Staples or elsewhere. engineer lined and keep notes in there on all your SV attempts. This will be your personal bible of SV. no kidding!

why make the same mistake twice?

I've been waiting for over a month for the Baldwin book to again be available on Amazon.

The notebook is a great tip, I keep one for all of my projects, general cooking, baking, charcuterie, cheese making, wine making, vinegar making, lacto-fermenting, etc.

I'm currently working my way through all of the 2100+ posts in the 2011 and 2012 sous vide threads.

~Martin

[rotuts]

most of Baldwin has ref to the web here.

so do a search for that and save them in a place you might remember

[rotuts]

look here as a starter:

for some reason I cant paste a search result:

go to the main SV thread and search for Baldwin.

then look at those a find a cozy bookmark for them.

Edited January 15, 2013 by rotuts (log)

[Martin Fisher]

Thanks!

~Martin

[nickrey]

Nickrey, how did you go with Vac Star replacement? I got mine last week and it is a different animal! I can see that it circulates the water much better than the old one. WIth old one, eggs were sitting on the bottom, the new one moves them around my box.

I did not have to send the defect one for repair any more. Do you think there is way to fix it? The thermometer and the electronics work, it is probably this bent motor axis that is causing trouble...

Still waiting for a reply. Have written again (this time to service rather than to sales rep). Will let you know.

I have an update. They were very prompt when I sent the email to the correct person.

They are going to do the same as they did for you, send me a new unit under warranty. I'm very impressed with their after-care service.

[Blues_Cookin]

Has anyone looked at or used the Polyscience Sous Vide Professional Creative Series?

In addition to the PolyScience Creative, there are a few other circulators on the horizon:

http://shop.nomiku.com (Nomiku)

http://www.waterbath...e_products.html (Anova)

http://www.swid.eu/en/ (110V Swid)

Great intel and commentary - thanks!

[PedroG]

No polycarbonate container with the FMM, he said the shipping is too much.

I'm only 160 miles from Niagara Falls. Oh, well.

~Martin

They shipped the old heavy FMM in a polycarbonate container, and if memory serves me, international shipping costs almost doubled the price of the FMM. The new FMM goes into a box the size of a SVM, and shipping costs are more reasonable.

we'd like to see pics of your attempts!

either get the Baldwin book or study the threads here and the ref to the info on line.

get a nice notebook at Staples or elsewhere. engineer lined and keep notes in there on all your SV attempts. This will be your personal bible of SV. no kidding!

why make the same mistake twice?

Even better, write it all into an Excel sheet, makes searching easier.

[Joe Blowe]

And then, out of nowhere, appeared Joe Blowe with his new sous vide rig

Acting on Mr Jueneman's suggestion, I paid 35 bucks for a coffee urn from Amazon. The Hamilton Beach 40515 has a 7-liter capacity with two inches of headroom. I've got three chicken breasts in there at the moment, with room for maybe a fourth. There appears to be a problem with the temp overshooting, but I haven't put the SVM through the Auto Tune procedure yet. When everything is dialed in, this will most likely become my counter-top-short-cook rig.

And, I still plan on putting together an ice chest/heater/circulator rig at some point in the near future, which will be used for the long-term cooks (will be sure to post pics!). Until then, this should keep me occupied for a while...

[Martin Fisher]

I'm going to use an Igloo 48-Quart cooler for the vessel. The insulated vessel will allow me to setup the outfit on my unheated enclosed porch.

I've ordered two SS sandwiched circulation plates from FMS to ensure good circulation.

Because the air pump isn't adjustable, I'll install a vent valve in the air line so I can fine tune the bubble action.

I'd rather not alter the lid, so, instead of making a hole in the lid, I'm going to drill a hole up high in the back of the cooler well above the water level and install a bulkhead fitting to seal and finish it off nicely.

~Martin

Edited January 18, 2013 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[seabream]

I apologize in advance for the basic question... but those of you with a large capacity sous vide setup, how do you keep the bags separate from eachother? I understand that the Sous Vide Supreme comes with a rack that keeps the bags separate and vertical. But how do you do that when using a regular pot, coffee urn, large rice cooker, cooler, etc?

Or is it not necessary to keep the bags separate from eachother?

[Martin Fisher]

I ordered two of the SousVide Supreme pouch racks.

~Martin

[PedroG]

I apologize in advance for the basic question... but those of you with a large capacity sous vide setup, how do you keep the bags separate from eachother? I understand that the Sous Vide Supreme comes with a rack that keeps the bags separate and vertical. But how do you do that when using a regular pot, coffee urn, large rice cooker, cooler, etc?

Or is it not necessary to keep the bags separate from eachother?

The bags must be kept separated to allow water circulation between them. I suspend them on a skewer, see pictures somewhere upthread (maybe in the old SV topic).

[EnriqueB]

I ordered two of the SousVide Supreme pouch racks.

~Martin

Me too, and a baking rack also. All very useful.

[seabream]

PedroG - I couldn't find the pictures with the skewer. Would be great if you could post them again or point us to your previous post, if it's not too much trouble.

Good idea to get the SousVide Supreme rack. I assume the baking rack would be useful for anything that we would traditionally cook in a water bath in the oven?

I'm planning to get an FMM and try to find some food-grade plastic bucket to place it in. I already own a SVM, which I've been using with my small rice cooker for over a year. I can fit one small ziploc in the rice cooker, no more without overcrowding or coming up with a solution to suspend them vertically.

I can see the skewer solution working for my current rice cooker setup, and a SVS rack for my second larger setup with the FMM.

A couple more questions:

* Can the SVS rack be placed directly over the FMM, without anything in between? I noticed that the SVS has a perforated metal base that allows for water circulation at the bottom.

* How many pouches can you hold with the SVS rack? They say 5 in the site, but I only see space for 3, so I assume the two extra go on the sides. Is it OK for them to be in contact with the sides of the bucket?

[rotuts]

I have the older FMM. the newer one is true stainless steel.

get a Cooler for that, it needs to fit the bottom of the FMM

this one does: (( as far as I can tell: the deals on mine are long gone )) you will save a lot of energy

http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-28-Quart-Cooler-with-Molded-Handle/dp/B000W4TFX2/ref=sr_1_20?ie=UTF8&qid=1359490348&sr=8-20&keywords=coleman+coolers

best of luck!

with the FMM in this and the bubbler on High Ive never needed a rack. it does two 20 lbs turkey breasts boned and baged with no problem.

[seabream]

rotuts - I knew that my husband had a cooler from before we got married, which we never used together and I had only a vague idea of where it was located. Well, I found out, and it turns out that it's the exact same brand and size as the one you link to. Pretty amazing! It's great to know that the FMM fits well there. So thanks

With this, I have yet another question for those of you with SVS racks: could you please measure the rack and post the measurements here? Their site only contains measurements for the baking rack, not for the regular one.

Also, I would like to hear other people's opinion: is a rack not necessary for those of us with nice bubblers (like the one that comes with the FMM)?

[Martin Fisher]

I haven't received the racks yet, but here are the measurements relayed by a friend.

12"L x 9"W x 6 1/2"H

I assume that they're correct.

~Martin

[rotuts]

if the FMM fits in there and you have the 'fish' bubbler on high, you do not need any racks. Ive never use one in this sit.

[Martin Fisher]

I plan on SVing multiple bags much of the time and like the idea of keeping everything vertical, separated and in place (no floating).

~Martin

[rotuts]

I hope you enjoy this method

however its not needed.

[PedroG]

PedroG - I couldn't find the pictures with the skewer. Would be great if you could post them again or point us to your previous post, if it's not too much trouble.

. . . .

See http://egullet.org/p1838487 and http://egullet.org/p1744874.

Edit: sometimes it's faster to search Google e.g. "eGullet, PedroG, skewer" than to use eGullet's search function.

Edited January 29, 2013 by PedroG (log)