Anova Sous Vide Circulator (Part 2)

[celphs]

So I may have a problem with one of my new Anovas. Ordered two. One unit starts off fine but then the screen goes white and you cant see whats going on. Touching the screen, it just beeps and doesn't change. If you touch the area where the stop button is it does stop but still nothing visible on the screen. Restarting it the screen works but then goes off again after its started.

Have just switched over to the other unit and it doesn't seem to do this

Not very happy as I live in Australia and it did take some time to come as it did apparently go through a longer 'Quality Control' procedure. Have emailed them will see how we go.

[porpoise_oil]

I had exactly the same issue (and I'm also in Australia). They got back to me pretty quickly - within a week they had a new unit on its way (it would have been sooner except it was Thanksgiving apparently). The replacement doesn't have the same problem but it does seem to be a bit off in the touchscreen - sometimes (often) it misrecognises where I tapped. I told them about this but never heard back.

[dcarch]

I have not been reading this thread, but did come across the topic about what to do if you drop the unit in water:

I have not tried these two methods, in theory it should work:

If you dropped your unit in water:

Method #1

1. Shake off the water as much as possible.

2. Put the unit in a big pressure cooker.

3. Duct tape the pressure safety valve.

4. Connect a tube from your vacuum machine to draw a vacuum in the pressure cooker.

In vacuum, water boils and evaporates at room temperature or lower, and will dry out.

Method #2

1. Wrap the unit in heavy towel.

2. Put in your clothes washer.

3. Balance the load in the washer.

4. use the spin cycle.

5. Spin the unit in various positions to avoid dead pockets.

Good luck.

Perhaps Anova should verify if they recommend these two methods.

dcarch

[Tallen234]

I got my Anova as a Christmas present to myself a few weeks ago. I just purchased a 12 qt square cambro and am getting ready to cut a hole in the lid. I was wondering what would be a better location to place the Anova, the corner or the middle of one of the sides?

[gfweb]

Not the middle...nothing to clamp to.

I suspect that the corner would be more stable.

[Kerry Beal]

I like mine in the corner

[michoutim]

Hi !

I made 3 recipes with my Anova,:

> Salmon steaks, perfectly cooked.

> Next acid test with a dry piece of poultry, namely a 470 g turkey breast (I mention I do not like turkey because it is so dry !). Well, I put it in a bath at 63.9 C for 90 minutes, it was MOIST and juicy, incredible ! So from now on I'll happily eat turker beast and chicken breast !

> 2 sirloin steaks, total weight 375 g, 55 C for 2 hours. Far too done for us, next I'll try at 50oC. Being French, we do do like our red meat too done...

So we are on the learning curve.

But I can already say : I LOVE THIS MACHINE and so does my husband.

[lesliec]

Glad you're enjoying the Anova, Michoutim (as am I).

50 might be too much of a drop. Try 53 and see how you enjoy it. 55 will certainly give you a rather more medium/well-done result.

[michoutim]

Thank you Lesliec !

Glad you also enjoy the Anova ! It is really fun !

I'll let you know about my next experiments with beef... Yes, what they call medium rare is what the French would call almost well done. :-)

[michoutim]

Hi !

We went for a ride, so to speak... We followed our nose.... We love to take risks !

I rubbed the rib with good celtic salt and cracked black pepper, and we vacuumed it.

Rib of beef, 600g, bone on, thickness 4 to 5 cm. I removed a bit of the fat on the edge.

Bath at 51o Celsius, for 2 hours and a half.

Then we browned it in a frying pan. and this is the result, and we think it is gREAT for us. Some may like it more done.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320x240q90/534/rnu9.jpg

We are so HAPPY !

Thank you ANOVA!

You know, I read recipes where they said 48 h or so... The other day, my sirloin which was thin was overdone at 55oC....

Have a great evening or morning, since we are all over the place

[johnelle]

We cooked Turkey Breast at 144F for approximately 10 hours (we were both at work). Not a big turkey fan but this was quite good. We're even using the leftovers.

https://plus.google.com/photos/yourphotos?banner=pwa&pid=5969826567612998466&oid=114630146239718249012

Edited January 17, 2014 by johnelle (log)

[johnelle]

I occasionally make cheese (not very good at it yet). Since this requires holding ingredients at a fixed temp for long periods of time I naturally decided to try the Anova. Worked fairly well but probably only for small batches (1 gallon). The biggest issue is finding a pot that can accommodate the width of the circulator plus the pot that holds the curds.

https://plus.google.com/photos/yourphotos?banner=pwa&pid=5969825382086309138&oid=114630146239718249012

[gfweb]

I think that turkey breast is the meat that best exposes how useful SV is. Try smoking it first...even better.

For some reason the links to your photos don't work.

[rotuts]

Turkey, you bet .... and Corned Beef.

[Tallen234]

Has anyone tried making a "traditional" BBQ brisket with the Anova? My goal is to have a true medium rare bbq brisket, as opposed to a traditional well done (after the connective tissues melt at 200+F) I'm thinking about smoking a whole brisket on my Komado with wood (probably Oak) as low as it can go (probably 200F) for two hours, then vacuum sealing it and water bath it for 48 hours at 134ish. I may finish the exterior with sear from a hot grill or a blow torch.

Any insight?

Thanks!

[gfweb]

Turkey, you bet .... and Corned Beef.

Yup. Indispensable for both. Lots of meat I'll do either traditionally or SV and see benefits to each eg short ribs or pork tenderloin; but turkey and corned beef are just so much better every time with SV.

[TAsunder]

Hi folks. New member who registered to discuss SV and circulators.

I received my Anova circulator last night and made a somewhat successful steak dinner using a large stock pot. I made the minor mistakes of cutting the steak in half (from 30mm to 15mm thickness) so it would cook more quickly (thus making the sear after increase beyond the desired temp a bit) and used a pan with elevated grill slots instead of a flat pan. Nonetheless we enjoyed it.

Two questions, however:

1. My thermapen seemed to register about 0.4 F higher than the circulator read. I checked the thermapen in a crushed ice water bowl and it was consistently 32F. Do I need to contact Anova, should I calibrate the Anova to be 0.4F higher, or is it possible the thermapen is off by a bit? Seems unlikely but it's also weird that it would be off right out of the box. The good news is that it held very consistently at the temperature. This isn't a huge deal unless I try to cook a perfect egg, but I'm still unsure what the best approach is. Given how much I anticipated getting the unit, I am hesitant to do anything that involves sending it back but will do so if that's the best approach!

2. My stockpot got a bit crowded. Looking into polycarb contianers. Is there any reason I need to worry about the various models/brands of plastic? I know that foodsaver bags have been determined to be safe for SV but I'm not sure if I got a mediocre polycarbonate unit if it might potentially leech weird stuff through the bag into the food somehow? Probably a dumb question.

[michoutim]

Hi Johnelle,

I made a turkey breast also (see above please) and it was moist, so good ! By the way we have been making our cheeses also for several years (espeically Camembert, goat/chèvre, and smelly cheeses like Munster, washed rind, it is fun. You should be able to find a hude wide pot, I have one but you live too far !:-))))

Hi Gfweb,

Smoking, good idea, I'll try cold smoking a turker breast... I'll let you know.

Otherwise, I have to fiddle a proper lid for my stock pot, and also something to hold the bag in place.

[gfweb]

A kitchen towel atop foil is the top that I use.

[michoutim]

Yes, I do that for the time bein, but it is clumsy. I'll mesure the diameter of the Anova with my calliper, and I'll fiddle a lid with a plastified car, I think. I'll let you know...

[michoutim]

For those interested, here is where you can find a cheap cold smoker :

http://www.macsbbq.com/cold-smokers/product/proq-cold-smoke-generator

[Ryan Imgrund]

Just an update on my unit.

I've done chicken breast and salmon so far. They both tasted excellent. The chicken breast was a thin cutlet and looked processed when it came out. A quick meeting with my MAP-Pro torch fixed that.

I have compared the temperature of the unit, while at 63.3 C, to two other digital thermometers. One read 63.3 and the other was 63.4. I also tried the infamous 63.3 C egg . The yolk was incredible. Resembled custard. Exactly what I expected.

As for my setup, I am using a Rubbermaid polycarbonate bin (style 3304) that is 18x12x9 inches tall. I've cut-out the top to fit the Anova, and placed an upside down storage shelf in the bottom to keep my bags in place.

Trying turkey breast, steak and chicken wings shortly.

[michoutim]

Thank you for the input. I think we will all have terrific fun with the Anova.

If you ask me, it is the best deal right now for a sous-vide, which is possible because they sell directly, so it lowers the cost with no middle man.

I am truely grateful to the Anova company. I recommend them....

[SleeperService]

I'm sure others have done this, but I used my anova last night to defrost frozen turkey breasts. I just set the temp very low and turned it on, and dropped the packages with the breasts in...

as Alton Brown said, the best way to defrost things is in slowly running cold water, well, a room temp circulator bath works even better!

[michoutim]

Good idea, I'll keep that in mind ! :-)