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

Robert Jueneman

By Robert Jueneman
in Kitchen Consumer

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Robert Jueneman

Robert Jueneman

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Posted

I routinely use the SVS racks in my PolyScience Classic circulators. Most of the time, I put the meat or whatever in them vertically, but sometimes, if the food was frozen some time ago and has accumulated some dead air from out-gassing, I will put the racks in horizontally, in order to keep the bags from floating.

With my big 20 qt rice cooker, I never had a problem with just passive circulation.

I'm in the process of going through a bunch of photographic stuff I haven't used in 20 years. Hopefully I will find some of those nice weighted SS clips that we used to use when drying 35mm film.

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

I've ordered some SS badge clips that are allegedly rust-proof.

~Martin

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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rotuts

rotuts

Posted
Posted (edited)

So DDF: we look forward to your SV studies and some ( a lot of ) pics!

moving water is as important if not more so than clips or racks. More water, indeed a lot of moving water, is what you are after. if your SV system is small, then indeed look into a way to separate the bags.

Edited by rotuts (log)
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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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I assume the rule-of-thumb, 5:1 water to food ratio applies regardless of the water volume, and as I said, I'll be working with a lot of large batches.

I also assume that circulation will be adequate, even in a large cooler, I ordered two extra bubblers.

Maybe it's overkill, but I like the piece of mind.

I'd much rather go overboard than worry, I have too many other things to worry about, I don't need to be adding any new worries.

~Martin

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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PedroG

PedroG

Posted
Posted

. . . .

With my big 20 qt rice cooker, I never had a problem with just passive circulation.

. . . .

The myth of passive circulation during steady state has been debunked, see http://egullet.org/p1823461 !

Natural convection occurs only during ramping up at full power, in steady state with a power consumption of some 30-100W, there is no noticeable convection current.

And without circulation, surface heat transfer coefficient is significantly lower, see http://egullet.org/p1799312 .

Regarding bag position, see my article "Impact Of Bag Position On Temperature Uniformity".

Peter F. Gruber aka Pedro

eG Ethics Signatory

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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The myth of passive circulation during steady state has been debunked, see http://egullet.org/p1823461 !

Natural convection occurs only during ramping up at full power, in steady state with a power consumption of some 30-100W, there is no noticeable convection current.

And without circulation, surface heat transfer coefficient is significantly lower, see http://egullet.org/p1799312 .

Regarding bag position, see my article "Impact Of Bag Position On Temperature Uniformity".

Very compelling videos and info!

Thanks, Pedro!

~Martin

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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seabream

seabream

Posted
Posted (edited)

. . . .

With my big 20 qt rice cooker, I never had a problem with just passive circulation.

. . . .

The myth of passive circulation during steady state has been debunked, see http://egullet.org/p1823461 !

Natural convection occurs only during ramping up at full power, in steady state with a power consumption of some 30-100W, there is no noticeable convection current.

And without circulation, surface heat transfer coefficient is significantly lower, see http://egullet.org/p1799312 .

Regarding bag position, see my article "Impact Of Bag Position On Temperature Uniformity".

Pedro - This is precious information - thanks!

My setup right now is a small rice cooker with no forced circulation, where I place one single small bag on a horizontal rack, with a SVM controller. Pretty basic, but I'm guessing also pretty common among home sous vide users.

Based on your experiments, in this setup, it seems that differences of temperature in the water are not significant (I always close the lid of the rice cooker). However, heat transfer is delayed because of lack of circulation.

I was wondering if I should start using an aquarium bubbler in my setup. However, it seems that simply cooking the ingredients at the higher time recommended would achieve results equivalent to a setup with circulation. Is this correct?

I was also wondering if it's worth making a rack to keep bags vertical in the rice cooker. My conclusion from looking at your tests is that it's not. If a covered bath with no circulation using bags in horizontal position only varies 0.1 - 0.2 C in temperature, I see no point in going through the trouble. The water temperature difference is not significant. Unless there are other implications of keeping bags horizontal that I'm not taking into account.

Would love for people to comment on this.

Edited by seabream (log)
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nickrey

nickrey

Posted
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I notice Pedro hasn't mentioned his additional trick of sealing some marbles in one side of the bag, which becomes the lower side of the bag in the container and helps to keep the bags both submersed and vertical.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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nickrey

nickrey

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I notice Pedro hasn't mentioned his additional trick of sealing some marbles in one side of the bag, which becomes the lower side of the bag in the container and helps to keep the bags both submersed and vertical.

I did mention yesterday: http://egullet.org/p1907400 (post #175)

The second link in that post was dead for me.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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PedroG

PedroG

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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.

I notice Pedro hasn't mentioned his additional trick of sealing some marbles in one side of the bag, which becomes the lower side of the bag in the container and helps to keep the bags both submersed and vertical.

I did mention yesterday: http://egullet.org/p1907400 (post #175)

The second link in that post was dead for me.

DOH! A dot at the end mutilated the URL. Now it works.

Peter F. Gruber aka Pedro

eG Ethics Signatory

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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I received the two SVS pouch racks today.

The measurements are ~ 6-1/4" X 6-1/2" X 6-1/2"

Slot width is ~1-7/8".

Much smaller than I expected.

I don't know where the above measurements came from.

I'm a little upset at SVS.

I asked for the measurements before ordering but rather than give me the measurements, they just sent a link to machine specs, and of course, it was every spec except the pouch rack measurements!

The cooler I plan to use would easily hold 4 more racks.

It's always good to set expectations real low, that way you won't be disappointed!!! LOL

~Martin

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

Posted
Posted

What do you want to see?

~Martin

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Martin Fisher

Martin Fisher

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I haven't got a lot of extra time this time of year, but I'll try to take some pics and post them.

~Martin

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Syzygies

Syzygies

Posted
Posted

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)

Nomiku hasn't changed its target date of March 2013. Anova's page now announces "(Coming March 2013)". The year is a nice touch, as SWID's site FAQ offers the hope that a 110V version will be available at "the end of the year." I have to wonder what year that was.

Per la strada incontro un passero che disse "Fratello cane, perche sei cosi triste?"

Ripose il cane: "Ho fame e non ho nulla da mangiare."

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nickrey

nickrey

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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.

Update on this, I've received the replacement unit and it works extremely well. The circulation on this machine is very powerful.

Nick Reynolds, aka "nickrey"

"The Internet is full of false information." Plato
My eG Foodblog

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  • 2 years later...
kayb

kayb

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Posted
54 minutes ago, babymarnz said:

I am new to SV myself so I have been looking into different reviews online about different SV equipment. I like this site >>> http://www.thesousvidekitchen.com/category/reviews/ as it gives insights on what they like and they don't which kind of gives me a lot of ideas. I hope this can help you guys who are also just starting with SV like myself.

I started in sous vide with a Side Kic circulator, which, I believe, is no longer available. It bit the dust after a year or two, and I replaced it with an Anova, which appears to be much more sturdily made and is at close to the same price point. It serves for everything I want to do as a (still) novice SV home cook. I love it dearly. Mine has bluetooth, which I have never used, but does not have WiFi, which I see no use for. The temp settings are easy, and the readout is clear and easy to read.

 

My vacuum sealer is a FoodSaver, I forget the exact model, but one of the lower-end ones. I periodically have to take the foam seals out, rinse and squeeze them in clear water, clean out the channels, and then put them back in. It doesn't always pull a hard vacuum, especially with irregularly shaped things, but it serves my purposes. I think I paid around $80 for it, new.

 

Hope that helps.

Don't ask. Eat it.

www.kayatthekeyboard.wordpress.com

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